COVID-19
COVID-19 brings unprecedented mental health challenges. Here’s what I learned from past tragedies.
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The virus and the responses to it are finding the cleavage points in our society, highlighting areas of division and conflict.
COVID-19
Helping doesn’t have to hurt: Managing compassion fatigue in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic
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Social service and healthcare professionals are often called upon to offer hope and healing to those struggling to navigate life’s complexities. On a typical day, the expectations placed upon frontline workers by themselves and others are high. And it puts them at high risk for compassion fatigue.
COVID-19
Allegheny County exploring range of quarantine options for people who can’t just stay home
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Allegheny County is hunting for a location to house homeless and displaced people who contract the new coronavirus but don’t warrant hospitalization, officials confirmed today. Staff at shelters, meanwhile, have begun asking clients whether they are experiencing symptoms and, in some cases, taking temperatures — but don’t yet know what to do when they find a case.
COVID-19
Your mental health will be challenged during this pandemic and that’s okay
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The author urges people to accept the deep feelings of panic, worry and sadness amid this disruption and use this time for strengthening human connections.
COVID-19
What the coronavirus pandemic has meant for me as an Autistic person
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As an Autistic person, change of any magnitude completely devastates me. It prompts a palpable feeling akin to my body free-falling through time and space; a near-immediate fallout of my ability to process words, thoughts, emotions and physical sensations; and the disintegration of all these “easy” tasks into burdensome and draining.
COVID-19
Six expert tips for managing your child’s social distancing during coronavirus
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Social isolation is challenging, especially for children and teens. With schools closed and many typical activities like playdates, museum visits and trips to the movies off-limits, it’s hard for parents to know what to do. We spoke to two local experts on how to manage your child’s social isolation. Here are their tips
FIRST PERSON
Mental Warfare: What I recognized in the eyes of Nipsey Hussle’s alleged killer
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Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom was the man who taught me that when you have a dream or mission, the worst enemy you can have is idle time. That was 2009. Ever since then, I found myself listening to Nipsey Hussle every day. His messages of hope carried me through dark times. He was the voice that inspired for nearly a decade. Not just me, but millions. So when news broke that he was killed in his clothing store in March in Crenshaw, Los Angeles, I was not the only person who cried and mourned for the late great.
HEALTH
‘I’m just me.’ A non-binary second grader in Allegheny County shares her experiences with identity and acceptance.
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R, a second grader at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in the Bethel Park School District, is like her classmates in many ways. She loves cheetahs, jumping in big piles of leaves and watching the Lego Avengers save the world from bad guys. Science is her favorite class, especially learning about weather, as she hopes to become a meteorologist one day.
R, whose first initial is used to protect her privacy, also identifies as non-binary. “I'm not a girl, not a boy,” R said. “I’m just me.”
GLAAD, a national nonprofit that promotes LGBTQ acceptance in media, defines non-binary as a term used by individuals “who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the categories of man and woman.” Non-binary is different from transgender, which GLAAD defines as people “whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.”
Because most research on population does not include non-binary as a gender category, it is hard to say how many Americans overall identify as non-binary.
HEALTH
Are Allegheny County schools adequately supporting the mental health of their LGBTQ students?
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A few dozen students sat at long cafeteria tables, each with a blank paper figure in front of them. They would spend the next hour decorating the figures in a way that represents their identities.
“The word of the day is ‘identity,’” art teacher Lauren Rowe said, giving directions to the West Mifflin Area High School students.
The activity was part of a November joint meeting with the school’s gay-straight alliance [GSA] and the Stand Together Team mental health club. After the meeting, the figures were displayed in the hallways. To protect students’ identities, there were no names attached to them. “We want our school to see how we proudly identify ourselves,” said Rowe, who also serves as the Stand Together Team faculty sponsor.
HEALTH
Kai Roberts faced a mental health crisis in college. Now he advocates against barriers to treatment.
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Kai Roberts was 17 years old when he entered Carnegie Mellon University in 2010 on a full tuition grant. By sophomore year, he began experiencing bizarre symptoms — heart palpitations, sleepless nights, intrusive thoughts and unexplained fears. Now he speaks out to reduce treatment barriers for students.
