COVID 19: The Psychology of Social Distancing

Segment Description: Vickie Mays, PhD, uses her training in clinical psychology to provide insight on the long-term cognitive impact of the coronavirus pandemic and outbreak response.

Related Coverage:

Taking Care of Mental Health While Treating COVID-19

These are trying times for health care workers. That’s been well documented.

However, as stressful as the past few weeks have been, with surges in the numbers of critically ill patients in hospitals and clinics because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic—and the inexcusable shortages in supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and intensive care unit capacity that have put these patients and their caregivers at risk—one overlooked aspect of the crisis has been the surrogate role played by clinicians.

Care of those severely ill with COVID-19 requires more than just a pleasant and professional bedside manner. Because the virus is highly contagious, those who have progressed to severe disease are, by necessity, isolated: family and loved ones can’t be at their bedside offering comfort or, in the direst circumstances, to say goodbye.

Read the full article.

Study: COVID-19 Health Care Workers Face Higher Risk of Insomnia

Health care workers helping to fight coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are well aware they face a heightened risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2, as well as high levels of added stress.

Now, a new study shows another way the COVID-19 workload is affecting health care workers: insomnia.

A team of Chinese investigators found more than one-third of frontline health care workers responding to the coronavirus outbreak reported symptoms of insomnia. The findings were published in Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Read the full article.