Mental health providers cope through the pandemic while helping others – Buffalo News

Covid-19 has been the lot for several of those workers, too, including Cummings, 48, and in good health.

He got sick in November. He had to quarantine for three weeks, spent six days hospitalized at ECMC, and needed supplemental oxygen for a month after his stay.

The majority of people will have a relatively benign duration of illness, so I was relatively unconcerned about getting Covid, Cummings said. I hoped I wouldn't get it, but it ended up as a potentially life-threatening event for me.

Medicare reports that 46% of recipients said theyve felt more stressed and anxious during the pandemic. That includes 51% of women respondents and 39% of men.

The pandemic expanded the number of people dealing with the kind of situational anxiety and depression that can trigger a mental health crisis without meaningful preventative support.

Uncertainty and loss of control comes with a lost job and lost income, the illness or death of a loved one, of limited contact with others, or being forced to shelter at home in the worst cases with an abusive family member or roommate.

All can cascade into feelings of unease, despair, hopelessness.

Fear comes from the lack of certainty, Cummings said. That's what also leads to some of this level of anxiety both in our staff and the patients we treat.

The loss of control can be internalized, Voelker said. Warning signs include unsettling changes in sleep or eating habits, trouble concentrating, and frequent headaches or gastrointestinal distress.

See the original post:
Mental health providers cope through the pandemic while helping others - Buffalo News