The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on our collective mental health. We’ve adjusted how we live life in many ways — from small habits like never leaving the house without hand sanitizer, to more significant changes, like missing out on lifetime celebrations. These changes have indeed impacted how we think and feel about ourselves and our world.

Most of us understand the idea of mental health, but this year for World Mental Health Day we asked Alexis Lyon-Claus, LMFT, behavioral health manager at Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group, to help explain behavioral health and share advice on what you and your loved ones can do to continue to navigate your mental health journeys through the pandemic.

This flu season, it is important as ever to protect ourselves and our loved ones against both the flu and COVID-19. We spoke to two Dignity Health Medical Group physicians who shared what you should know this flu season.

Mercy Medical Group, a service of Dignity Health Medical Foundation, announces that Folsom OB/GYN is joining their group. The office will remain at the same location at 1735 Creekside Dr., Folsom and specializes in prenatal care, offering a full range of obstetrical and gynecological services on September 2, 2021.

This next school year will be different for students and parents alike. While school systems are finalizing details for the 2021-2022 school year, you and your family should also prepare a plan-of-action to stay healthy in and out of class. Mercy Medical Group pediatrician Kimberly Hart, DO has some advice that can ease any concerns you may have about sending your kids back to school in this phase of the pandemic.

Aside from nonmelanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the United States and is one of the leading causes of cancer death among men of all races. To give more insight on this disease, Serena Yang-Loudin, MD, a urologist at Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group in Sacramento, shared key information and advice around prostate cancer prevention and treatment.