Beyond the Standard Podcast - Episode 3 - The Age of Anxiety

The Age of Anxiety - Erica Schneider, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care and Operations, Soin Medical Center and Kettering Health Greene Memorial; Ken Goodman, LCSW and Board Member, Anxiety and Depression Association of America

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports that 20.6% of US adults experienced mental illness in 2019. In August 2020 – so about 5 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of individuals reporting symptoms associated with anxiety or depression was 36.4% and in February 2021, it had climbed to 41.5%.

This episode of Beyond the Standard looks at the emotional toll of COVID-19 on healthcare workers at two hospitals and shares the perspective of a licensed clinical social worker specializing in anxiety and depression.

0:00 Introduction
2:50 Awaiting COVID
4:30 Surge impact on nurses
5:30 “I’ll accept this calling.”
7:00 Self-care vs. family care
9:20 The double squeeze: short-staffing meets time off to be whole.
11:40 “I came to work to do my best.”
13:58 Time needed to heal
19:00 What makes anxiety or depression a clinical concern?
21:09 Anxiety and uncertainty
23:00 “Opportunity to engage with dark and scary thoughts”
23:54 Expectations for therapy
26:16 “We’re all in this together.”

Referenced in the podcast:

A podcast about ideas in healthcare—the underestimated, the overhyped, and the valuable basics— that drive Accreditation Commission for Health Care’s (ACHC) approach to accreditation across the continuum of care.