The last 10 months have been extraordinarily challenging, both personally and professionally. Many have lost colleagues, friends and family, and even more have gone through significant emotional and financial difficulties due to the pandemic. We’ve seen our country endure divisive politics and social turmoil and thought hard on what we truly need to move forward as a society. Most importantly, we’ve learned how to support each other, and to listen.

the monthly celebration of the birthdays of staff. In retrospect, I’m thinking that most everyone understands why that happened. We were all so busy in 2020…it just never occurred to us. And, when I say us, I mean myself.

We’ve felt a myriad of feelings throughout this pandemic as we’ve seen the numbers change over time. From March’s “stay in your home all the time and stock up on toilet paper,” to “how can we live life now and minimize our risk.” Now in December, the coronavirus is still here and surging, and we are all exhausted and looking forward to the end of the year.

It’s been a rough year, and yet there are things to be thankful for, despite the obvious and very challenging circumstances. As the pandemic drags deeper into the fall, and even with the promise of vaccines in the next year, the fact remains that the virus has upended our way of life. Thousands of lives have been lost, global economies and jobs have been crushed, and it will even disrupt the time-honored tradition of family and friends gathering together for the holidays. But we can – and should – continue to be grateful. Here’s why.

Random or intentional, every act of kindness counts. Today, on World Kindness Day, the clinical psychology team at Executive Mental Health reflects on three stories of kindness they’ve encountered at home, in their communities, and at work, each one of them an expression of simple ways to make others’ and our own lives better. From delivering boxes of blessings, offering a simple and unexpected word of thanks, or via the warmth of freshly baked blueberry muffins, these three mental health practitioners show how one considerate act can turn into a team-wide pact for kindness.

November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month – and for many just getting the diagnosis triggers emotions which can cloud the path towards managing the disease. So, what can be done – and especially in the first week after a diagnosis?

In September 2020, the mental healthcare community will focus on the troubling issue of suicide. The importance of this issue is underscored by a recent study published by the CDC. Specifically, in a sample of over 5,400 adults in the United States, approximately 25.5% of study participants aged 18-24 had “seriously considered” suicide in the month of June 2020. This spike was attributed in great part to the pandemic.

August 21 is National Senior Citizen Day, the day designated to let seniors know how much we care and to recognize their accomplishments. Started in 1988, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed this holiday to raise awareness about issues that affect senior citizens and their quality of life.

EMH prides itself in the quality of our relationships with seniors, and for a deep understanding of the merits of the greatest generation. We asked our team to share some inspiring stories about EMH team’s relationships with seniors – here are their beautiful testimonies to a simple question:

At this juncture in the history of our nation, we are witness to a crisis, COVID-19, that is unparalleled in most of our lifetimes with regard to the devastation that it has wrought. In the United States, over 4,500,000 individuals have been diagnosed with the disease and 154,000 have died. While the number of new cases reported in the United States on a day-to-day basis is lower than the peak levels reported on 07/17/2020 and 07/24/2020, the epidemiological data do not reflect a clear diminution of the incidence of new cases. These staggering numbers are deeply concerning, but those data fail to capture an important cohort of individuals who are adversely impacted as a result of coronavirus.

To say that the past few weeks have been a whirlwind for me would be an understatement. The last time I can recall having such a high intensity, wide range, and unpredictability of emotions was during my first year of college in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the 2nd oldest college in the nation, where racial and class divides were glaringly and gut-wrenchingly obvious – to me at least, and especially in hindsight.

Back in March, Executive Mental Health’s partner facilities started closing off access to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Our psychologists and neuropsychologists couldn’t visit their patients, and neither could the patient’s families. Unable to offer mental health care when most needed, EMH worked fast to devise a new system, and TeleHealth was born.

When the stay-at-home order was implemented in California in mid-March, Executive Mental Health (EMH) was faced with the challenge of how best to manage the unexpected changes associated with the pandemic so that we could continue to provide mental health care for our inpatients and outpatients. EMH chose to adapt to and overcome these obstacles, which were formidable, with the assistance of its partners, i.e., the staff members at acute and long-term care facilities. Some ten weeks later, we are pleased to report good news – the changes we have made together are working!

Even before COVID-19, staff at long-term care facilities managed stress and hardship on a daily basis. Every day they care for people facing serious and life-threatening health problems, putting residents’ needs ahead of their own. The nurses and caregivers, rehabilitation therapists, social workers and administrators, and kitchen and housekeeping staff are all essential workers. But what happens when that team needs help to carry on? When is it ok to say you can’t handle the new normal?

In a Forbes article entitled, America After COVID-19, author Soulaima Gourani opined, “For businesses and industries to recover and thrive in these uncharted waters, they must not freeze and hunker down. Instead, they must move forward and develop new models to be ready for what's to come.”

Thinking about your aging parents in this crisis can be stressful. They may know to wash their hands and stay at home. But, can you help them feel connected in this time of social distancing, without letting your worry interfere? Is there a better way to say, “Mom, I just called to say… wait, you went where yesterday?”

Last Saturday, I purchased two iPads at BestBuy. The process of ordering them online was cumbersome, and the wait to collect them from curbside delivery was equally slow. While waiting in the parking lot to collect the equipment, I could hear other customers grumbling, voicing their frustrations regarding the time needed to fulfill their orders, and, in some cases, berating customer service representatives for the slow process.

Over the past month, we have learned about the effects of a devastating illness, COVID-19, the consequences of which remain unknown. Moreover, and on each subsequent day, we receive new information regarding the transmission of COVID-19 and how we can work together as a community to “flatten the curve” and limit disease transmission.

At Executive Mental Health, the safety of our patients, partners, and team is the highest priority. Thus, we are closely following the guidance from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and educating our clinicians and field staff regarding best practices regarding the coronavirus.