Frontline Workers Went from COVID Pandemic to Mental Health Pandemic скачать в хорошем качестве

Frontline Workers Went from COVID Pandemic to Mental Health Pandemic

The Return to Normal Never Happened for Many Frontline Workers, Therapist Nidhi Tewari Said. Licensed clinical social worker Nidhi Tewari urges journalists to amplify the ongoing mental health challenges of healthcare and other frontline workers as a severe shortage looms. by Rachel Jones, National Press Foundation In early 2020, Nidhi Tewari had high hopes for launching her first private practice, after years of working as a licensed clinical social worker for a hospital system and community health agencies. There was no way to predict that two months later, she would be thrust back onto the front lines when the global COVID-19 epidemic was confirmed, hospitals were overwhelmed, and anxiety and stress ruled the day. “Our caseloads had never been higher and the acuity of the people coming to see us was beyond anything I’d ever seen before,” Tewari told Covering Workplace Mental Health fellows on May 22. “But I never imagined that I would also be simultaneously going through the same trauma that my clients were going through.” As analysts continue to assess the profound disruption caused by COVID-19, Tewari advised fellows to acknowledge that, five years later, there has been no “return to normal” for frontline workers, including EMTs, police officers, grocery store staffers, health care workers and mental health counselors. “While society moved on from this trauma and did anything that we could to forget it, frontliners carried the burden,” Tewari said. “They carried the wounds, the invisible wounds from having to care for millions of people across the globe.” The Great Repression Journalists hoping to produce stories about the consequences for these workers and their communities should remember that for many, there’s still a silent crisis. Tewari calls it “the great repression.” “This is when society decided to forget about all of the turmoil that we had experienced,” she said. “Even worse, some people claimed that this was all a hoax, that it wasn’t as bad as we had imagined, that maybe the frontliners actually didn’t have to care for these thousands of people witnessing people dying on a regular basis. And so here they were being gaslit for their experiences, society completely forgot them.” Tewari noted that frontline workers are still experiencing high rates of burnout and PTSD, yet their struggles are often overlooked: Systemic issues, such as hierarchical work cultures, lack of leadership support, and inadequate pay are contributing to an exodus of frontline workers, including a predicted shortage of 100,000 healthcare workers by 2028. 55% of healthcare workers reported experiencing PTSD-like symptoms in 2023. 93% of mental healthcare workers have experienced burnout, and 48% have considered other employment options. One in five Gen Z healthcare workers may leave the industry, with 83% reporting burnout. Healthcare ranked last out of 27 industries for employee satisfaction with pay and work culture. Tewari also highlighted the concept of “moral injury” – when frontline workers have to make difficult decisions that conflict with their values – and how this leads to PTSD, anxiety and depression. Tewari urged the journalists to explore these issues and report on them with context. “[Healthcare workers] cannot speak about it for fear of censure, for fear of being reprimanded, for fear of losing the way that they make a living. I hope that today some of the articles that you’ll write, don’t forget these frontliners – and speak to the moral injury, speak to the trauma, speak to the systemic issues, the work culture challenges that continue to plague them every day.” Speaker: Nidhi Tewari, LCSW, EMDR Therapist and Trainer Summary and transcript: https://nationalpress.org/topic/front... The Covering Workplace Mental Health journalism fellowship was sponsored by the Luv U Project, with associate sponsor the American Psychological Association. NPF is solely responsible for its content. This video was produced within the Evelyn Y. Davis studios.