SAN DIEGO — Barbara Bry, San Diego City Council’s President Pro Tem and candidate for mayor, hosted a one-hour webinar on Monday that included the following panelists:
- Physician Coach, and Assistant Clinical Professor at University of California, San Diego Dr. Helane Fronek
- Associate Professor in Family Medicine, Public Health, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Diego Dr. Suzi Hong
- Emeritus Professor in Psychiatry at University of California, San Diego Dr.David Janowsky
- Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, and Health Mentor Marc Rosenberg
Each of these professionals offered broad-spectrum insights into the mental and psychiatric challenges that many are facing, and offered a number of general proposals on how to best mitigate acute stress this current crisis has created.
Dr. Fronek has witnessed “tremendous mental health issues, and a lot of anxiety,” particularly among “young physicians who are facing a disease they know nothing about and are seeing many patients dying without their being able to help, dying alone without family members at their side.” She urged society to spend more time focusing on mental health issues, “especially since we don’t have our normal de-stressing mechanisms in place.”
Dr. Hong emphasized that she believed there “will be weeks to years following this pandemic of neuropsychiatric symptoms given the universal trauma on everyone, the impact on every aspect of our lives, especially for under-served populations.” The physician also noted, “Brain health and physical health are one and are closely connected. Once the brain perceives a hard stressor it cascades chemicals that can have a lot of different impacts on the brain, heart, and the immune system.” She also pointed out how lack of sleep, chronic trauma and stress impacts the way people fight off infectious agents. She urged the medical societies to pay attention to “linking mental and physical health together.”
Dr. Janowski expressed concern about growing substance abuse, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression that is happening, and will continue to expand. He expressed his belief that social isolation is a key cause. He also described a client with a growing alcohol concern who turned to her rabbi for support and assistance. He believes that religious organizations can provide a great deal of such help. He also touched on the massive impact on mental health that the current financial and employment situation is having on people’s fear and stress levels.
Marc Rosenberg spoke about helping children understand the current pandemic, “by meeting them where they are at, being empathetic to their level of understanding, and creating safety and space for them to ask questions.” He also spoke about the “new work-life balance” issue, and suggested “creating boundaries, workspace and letting children know this is mommy’s workspace and daddy’s workspace.” He suggested establishing a morning routine and, although he humorously admitted to wearing unseen shorts at the time of the webinar, nevertheless he urged “getting dressed for work, not wearing sweats or pj’s every day.”
The panelists collectively suggested other general tips including a) adding more positivity, b) resilience, c) presence, d) mindfulness, e) empathy, and f) self-compassion to each day. They also recommended that g) people find new ways to give back to the community, h) add love and support to others, i) recognize that the mind and body work together, j) focus on what you are good at and enjoy doing those things, and k) focus on strengths to regain a sense of control.
I submitted a question/suggestion that was not addressed: “Is there any thought being given to offering San Diegans preventive emotional educational services through a) daily columns in our local newspapers, b) in television and radio news broadcasts, c) through schools offering online and email information to parents and children, d) through social media, and e) creating a city-wide easily accessible podcast with expert guests.”
Barbara Bry’s office will make available to anyone requesting it, a list of mental health resources that are available in San Diego. Every day for the past 40 days, I’ve written a column on “Emotional Education During COVID-19,” published and available here on the San Diego Jewish World website. Topics covering each of the areas discussed by the panelists, and more, in greater detail, are all available.
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Michael Mantell earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and is a sought-after speaker on behavior science. He also writes a weekly D’var Torah column. More of his stories may be accessed by clicking his byline at the top of this page. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com