As the Covid variant Omicron surged across the United States, people in hard-hit communities were flooding nearby emergency rooms—some because they were sick with the virus, while others were in search of Covid tests. Dr. Benjamin Druss says emergency room use during times of crisis holds up a mirror to
Handcuffed in the back of a police car after being pepper-sprayed, a nine-year-old in Rochester, New York, is sitting hunched over. Between sobs, she says to the nearby officer, “Please don’t do this to me.” The officer replies, “You did it to yourself, hon.” Nine officers are at the scene, responding
Psychologist Stephanie Woodard, senior advisor on behavioral health at Nevada DHHS, says the coronavirus pandemic’s universality has been profound. “Whether that’s directly by the illness or its effects,” says Dr. Woodard, “or indirectly through increased stressors, isolation, job loss, or school closures.” It has forced people to adapt rapidly to
Matthew L. Goldman, M.D., M.S., medical director of Comprehensive Crisis Services at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, says communities need to buckle down now to ensure that 988, the three-digit number the FCC designated to mirror 911 for mental health and suicide crises, fulfills its potential when it
Colleen Carr, MPH, is the director of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention at the Education Development Center. Even at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carr noticed news media coverage quickly began discussing the potential impacts on mental health and suicide. The inclusion of mental health and suicide
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