June 12, 2020
by Kimberly Lucey
In-person learning has been canceled for most students for more than two months now, and for students most in need of emotional support, missing the classroom may be taking a big toll. "Even before the pandemic there were a lot of students at risk", says Dr. Glenn Albright, Ph.D. "Anxiety, depression, and substance abuse disorders can grow when a child is in a home where they don't feel safe."
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April 24, 2020
by Tina Arnoldi
During the 2003 SARS outbreak, health care workers had concerns about infecting others and experienced stigma because they were in close contact with sick patients. A new study in JAMA looked at the mental health of 1,257 health care workers attending to COVID-19 patients in China since COVID-19 is our current concern. A large percentage reported depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress. Findings suggest that these health care workers are at a significant risk of developing mental illness.
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April 24, 2020
by Kimberly Lucey
Going to work every day to help save other people's lives, while putting their own on the line, is something first responders are faced with every day. But in the era of COVID-19 that daily risk is even higher, and now doctors and nurses are finding themselves on the front lines. The fear and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 is taking a toll on everyone, but may hit these first responders especially hard.
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April 23, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
Experts around the world are racing to develop a vaccine for COVID19.
But there is a group of people who are unlikely to sign up: vaccine skeptics.
Vaccine skepticsm has become increasingly widespread, and researchers from Texas Tech University may have found the reason why.
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Across cultures it is accepted that it is a terrible thing to die alone. During the present covid-19 epidemic the televised vision of refrigerated trucks filled with the dead has been especially disturbing. Why is that? Of course it is tragic when large numbers of people die. It is also frightening. Part of what appears to be at play here is that the fear of being unknown and alone is projected on to what an individual,who is a witness, has conjured up in his/her mind as a picture of lives uncelebrated and discarded.
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April 7, 2020
by Patricia Tomasi
A public opinion poll found that 44 per cent of Americans believe most poor people who receive welfare would prefer to stay on welfare rather than earn their own living. A new study published in the Journal of Nursing Education looked at the relationship between past experience, empathy, and attitudes toward poverty among nursing students. The results were surprising.
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As a society, many have lost sight of what is just right or adequate, or enough. Now that retailers are closing stores and the citizenry has been asked to gather in groups of no more than ten at one time (more on that later), the time has arrived to focus on the strengths within.
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March 5, 2020
by Amy Rollo
While the COVID-19 virus will not have the same impact as the plague, there are things we can learn from the nursery rhyme. Many children are listening to the news, they are hearing people talk about the “scary Corona virus” and maybe even hearing that we can die from it. These things can increase anxiety for children (and adults). Parents need to initiate the conversation with their children and be direct in order to reduce the anxiety and fear.
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February 26, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
A study by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles had found it is possible to determine a person’s ability to feel empathy by studying their brain activity whilst resting rather than when engaged in activity.
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February 25, 2020
by Patricia Tomasi
Alzheimer’s is one of the United States’ top ten causes of death but the only one on that list with no known cure. Alzheimer’s is actually the third leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease. About 5.7 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s disease and the rate is expected to triple to 16 million by 2050. A new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders looked at the conversion rates of from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer disease in monolingual and bilingual patients.
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