HMH B14 - Pandemic Anxiety

Course Description

The pandemic has brought with it not just fear of infection, but a significant negative impact on mental health throughout the population, from children through the elderly. Its impact on society and how therapists interact with clients will reverberate for some time to come. Anxiety has risen in all age groups because of changes in how we conduct school, work, and social life and the limitations on being in community to celebrate or mourn life's passages. Depression has increased as most have dealt with the losses of important milestones and loved ones' deaths. To add to the difficulty, therapists have had to work through these same kinds of personal issues.

Explore how the pandemic has brought new stressors and how to reduce their impact on mental health. The speaker describes how to deal directly with disappointment to minimize the risk of depression and create new rituals to process grief and loss while restricted from the kinds of community gatherings we formerly had.