Health

HE A LTH • Summer 2021 17 around seeking help. Finding the right support Like senior centers, peer support groups have had to pause their activi- ties due to COVID. Catherine Gaudet, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in North Central Massachusetts, said the support There is a place where knowledge is created through daily discoveries, breakthroughs and innovation. Where questions are posed and answers are found. Where the boundaries of medicine are advanced and people are healed. Welcome to relentless. ummhealth.org 855-UMASS-MD ALWAYS FIGHT. NEVER QUIT. THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF HEALING to visit, and public gathering places were closed. Tufts said that eliminated many of the usual options for fighting isolation and declining mental health. "I used to be able to say 'Why not try the senior center or volunteering at the hospital?'" Tufts said. "We didn't have those strategies. They were limited to what they could do at their house." Unlike younger people, she said, her clients don't use the internet to socialize. Now that people, particularly a majority of those over 65, have been vaccinated, Tufts said things are looking up for her clients, but some are still fearful. Others express worries about the way they see the country changing. It doesn't help, she said, for those who rely on tele- vision news channels to keep them company. "I try to tell them, 'Sometimes the news, they make it worse than it is,'" she said. "I really try to encourage them to limit their news watching, like we encourage children to limit social media." On the other hand, she said one bright spot during the pandemic has been more media attention to mental health, which may reduce the stigma groups are still using Zoom. "A lot of people don't want to go because it's not face to face, she said. "It's just not the same on Zoom." She said the groups normally meet at local hospitals, which are not yet allowed to have indoor gatherings. "And when they are, we have to fig- ure out how to do the six-foot distanc- ing, and mask-wearing," she said. Gaudet said being firm about social distancing makes good sense, since people who make use of the groups have comorbid conditions making them vulnerable to illness. "I understand, but at the same time, like everyone else, I am frustrated because I see the need," she said. Elizabeth Louder, Community Healthlink vice president for acute care, who oversees the substance use division, said isolation and high unemploy- ment contribut- ed to increased levels of sub- stance use disor- ders during the pandemic, while making it harder for people to seek help. With pressures related to the pandemic easing, Louder said she feels hopeful about the future. The pandemic has helped Healthlink find new ways to reach clients, includ- ing innovative uses of telemedicine, which will remain part of its toolkit. However, she said the effects of the pandemic won't disappear overnight. "What we're seeing now is a real fatigue," she said. "It's not just that they were isolated. It's that they're exhausted from this, 15, 16 months later." Catherine Gaudet, regional president of National Alliance on Mental Illness Teenagers' mental health In a national survey in 2021, C.S. Mott Children's Hospital asked parents if they saw an increase in mental health issues in their children. Source: CS Mott Children's Hospital, in Michigan Anxiety 36% 19% Withdrawing from family 14% 13% Depression 31% 18% Sleep issues 24% 21% Aggressive behavior 9% 8% GIRLS BOYS Elizabeth Louder, vice president for acute care, Community Healthlink Inc. H

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