In the News
For many young people, sheltering at home means missing milestones and public recognition of their achievements. This is especially true for seniors graduating from high school and college.
Kendall Smith, a high school senior who lives in Tallahassee, Fla., says her school has many traditions leading up to graduation. But this year things are very different.
The new pressures on working parents to be full-time employees and full-time homeschool teachers while protecting their families from the pandemic are leading to exhaustion — with no end in sight.
Why it matters: Working parents make up roughly one-third of the U.S. workforce. The longer the stay-at-home orders continue, the higher the risk that these workers will be on the verge of emotional and cognitive burnout before they can return to their offices.
Locked-down America has become a country desperately in need of virtual therapy, but the health care system has been left scrambling to use telemedicine to help connect people with mental health professionals.
Years of restrictive federal and state policies kept America's therapists from embracing telemedicine, and now behavioral health providers are rushing to move online — often with little guidance on best practices or assurances that the care will continue after the coronavirus fades.
In the best of times, it can be hard to get mental health treatment. But these definitely aren't the best of times, and even for people who have established relationships with mental health professionals, the coronavirus pandemic is making it harder to find the right care.
The good news is that insurance companies are often reimbursing for telehealth behavioral health services now (even if they weren't before), and regulations on how mental health professionals can practice are relaxing.
The national hotline providing emergency help to people suffering from emotional distress has received nearly nine times more calls than it did this time last year, with tens of thousands of Americans reaching out for assistance amid the coronavirus crisis, according to U.S. officials.
Before the coronavirus became a pandemic, Emma went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting every week in the Boston area and to another support group at her methadone clinic. She said she felt safe, secure and never judged.
"No one is thinking, ‘Oh, my God. She did that?'" said Emma, "'cause they've been there."
The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe has not only left many anxious about life-and-death issues, but it also has left people struggling with a host of less obvious, existential losses as they heed stay-home warnings and wonder how bad all this will get.
To weather these uncertain times, it's important to acknowledge and grieve lost routines, social connections, family structures and our sense of security — and then create new ways to move forward — said interfaith chaplain and trauma counselor Terri Daniel.
Seeking to end a practice that one senator called a "profound betrayal of trust," legislation was introduced Wednesday in the Senate and House of Representatives to stop the Trump administration from using confidential therapy notes against immigrant children in detention and deportation proceedings.