Dear MDECOE and greater community,
“COVID Has Put the World at Risk of Prolonged Grief Disorder” according to Katherine Harmon Courage, as indicated in her May, 2021 article in Scientific American. She states, “A March 2021 poll from the Associated Press–NORC (AP-NORC) Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 20 percent of people surveyed in the U.S. had lost a relative or close friend to COVID. That means a potential bereaved population of about 65 million, and it could push numbers of new prolonged grief cases into the millions.” This can lead to a psychiatric state called prolonged grief disorder, which can last for a long time after a loss. “The condition is much worse than normal grieving,” says Katherine Shear, a psychiatrist at the Columbia University School of Social Work and founder of the Center for Complicated Grief. “The isolation surrounding so many pandemic deaths likely makes people more vulnerable to it. Because COVID deaths have disproportionately occurred among low-income communities and people of color, prolonged grief will likely have an outsized effect on those populations.”
There are effective, science-backed treatments for prolonged grief, but they involve months of therapy. “Offering such intensive interventions in historically marginalized communities, with fewer financial and health resources and yet more risk, is challenging,” Shear notes. Her team found its treatment program was equally effective among white and Black Americans, but the number of people of color who may be suffering from prolonged grief will likely be high because of the disproportionate impact of COVID on their communities. The AP-NORC poll about losses found that while about 15 percent of white respondents had lost someone close to them to COVID, that percentage doubled for Black and Latino individuals. “If we don't find ways to bring attention to the emotional suffering that people are coping with right now, it will turn into more serious problems,” says Vickie Mays, a professor of health policy and management at the University of California, Los Angeles, Fielding School of Public Health. “There are less intensive approaches that can provide some help.” These include “a safe return to rituals, community support, and communal commemoration and conversations around pandemic losses. “
To read more about this, go to https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-has-put-the-world-at-risk-of-prolonged-grief-disorder/
For a list of many self-care options, please see our College of Education self-care website for resources for faculty, staff, students, and the community: https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education/self-care/articles-information-self-care
May we find ways to help ourselves and others heal from the grief of this time.
Warmly,
Shari