scholarly journals Counseling clients during New York City’s COVID-19 pandemic: observations on fundamental elements of emotions management

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-213
Author(s):  
M. Sweeney

New York City is in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care centers are stretched beyond capacity. Daily death rates are staggering. The city’s population is hunkered down in fear. Our anxiety treatment center is treating patients via video appointments. We are helping anxious individuals adapt to tumultuous changes that we ourselves are experiencing. Our work in this time has reinforced our core beliefs about managing one’s emotions; that difficult times require more active coping and that we all draw heavily from social support and familiarity to create a feeling of well-being. These principles and the experiences of our patients are discussed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-126
Author(s):  
Qiang Xia ◽  
Ying Sun ◽  
Chitra Ramaswamy ◽  
Lucia V. Torian ◽  
Wenhui Li

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health jurisdictions have been using HIV surveillance data to monitor mortality among people with HIV in the United States with age-standardized death rates, but the principles of age standardization have not been consistently followed, making age standardization lose its purpose—comparison over time, across jurisdictions, or by other characteristics. We review the current practices of age standardization in calculating death rates among people with HIV in the United States, discuss the principles of age standardization including those specific to the HIV population whose age distribution differs markedly from that of the US 2000 standard population, make recommendations, and report age-standardized death rates among people with HIV in New York City. When we restricted the analysis population to adults aged between 18 and 84 years in New York City, the age-standardized death rate among people with HIV decreased from 20.8 per 1000 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 19.2, 22.3) in 2013 to 17.1 per 1000 (95% CI = 15.8, 18.3) in 2017, and the age-standardized death rate among people without HIV decreased from 5.8 per 1000 in 2013 to 5.5 per 1000 in 2017.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 799-818
Author(s):  
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez ◽  
Keng-Yen Huang ◽  
Sharmin Hoque ◽  
Farzana Karim ◽  
Abushale Shakir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  

2019 ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
Leo Huberman

This reprise of "The Debs Way"—the text of an address Huberman delivered at the Debs Centennial Meeting held at the Fraternal Clubhouse in New York City on November 28, 1955—not only reminds us of the importance of Eugene Debs to the history of socialism in the United States, but also brings out some of the core beliefs of Huberman's own approach to socialism. Today's conditions are of course vastly different from when Huberman wrote this, more than sixty years ago. There is now a resurgence of the left in the United States, but the basic principles that Huberman derived from Debs remain relevant.


2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-169
Author(s):  
WILLIAM BREITBART

At a recent scientific conference in New York City, a student asked one of the scientists participating in a panel discussion on science and religion a provocative question. “Can you be a good scientist and also believe in God?” The scientist, a Nobel laureate, quickly responded: “Belief in the supernatural, especially belief in God, is not only incompatible with good science, this kind of belief is damaging to the well-being of the human race!” But disdain for religion is far from universal among scientists. Francis Collins, who directs the U.S. National Genome Research Institute and was head of the first team to map the entire human genome, is an example of a highly visible and respected scientist who also openly embraces a religious Christian faith. As palliative care clinicians and researchers, we, as well as our patients, are constantly confronted with this very dilemma: the age-old tension between faith and reason, God and science.


1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherri Grasmuck ◽  
Ramón Grosfoguel

This article examines the different socio-economic consequences of migration for Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, Jamaicans and Haitians in the context of New York City. Migration outcomes are structured by a range of influences, including geopolitics, class selectivity, de-industrialization, ethnic niches and the timing of settlement. Emphasis is placed on the importance of variations in the household structures and gender strategies of these groups for understanding their different socioeconomic situations in the 1990s. Differences in the labor force participation patterns of the women in these communities and the employment traditions upon which they draw have significant consequences for the well-being of the five groups. These cases also question the common assumption that high rates of female headed-households inevitably lead to high rates of poverty, a pattern found among Dominicans and Puerto Ricans but not among Jamaicans and Haitians.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen A. Lynch ◽  
Angela Green ◽  
Leonard Saltz ◽  
Andrew S. Epstein ◽  
Danielle R. Romano ◽  
...  

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic surge in New York City in Spring 2020 resulted in an unprecedented constraint on health care resources. This study aimed to explore the experiences of doctors providing care to oncology patients during this time. METHODS: Hospitalists and medical oncologists from two large inpatient services at a dedicated cancer center participated in virtual in-depth interviews exploring how the pandemic affected their practice and to what extent it may have affected decisions for urgent evaluation or hospital admission, interventions, or goals-of-care discussions. Interviews also explored how the pandemic affected each individual physician's psychologic well-being. Transcripts were analyzed by three independent coders in Atlas.ti v. 7.5, using a thematic analysis approach. RESULTS: Eighteen physicians were interviewed (n = 6 GI medical oncologists, n = 6 gynecologic medical oncologists, and n = 6 hospitalists). Analysis identified five major themes related to fear and distress: (1) perceived patient fears of the hospital during COVID-19, leading to avoidance and delay of acute care needs before admission, (2) physicians' fear and distress delivering oncology care during COVID-19, (3) physician distress resulting from ambiguity in decision making, (4) distress and anxiety balancing the need for patient contact with the need to minimize infection risk, and (5) distress regarding impact of uncertainty and acuity of COVID-19 on goals-of-care discussions. CONCLUSION: Insight into the experiences of physicians providing cancer care during a COVID-19 surge underscores the need for strategies mitigate short-term distress and long-term psychologic impacts. Findings can also inform practitioner training and preparedness for future pandemics in the oncology setting.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 133-146
Author(s):  
Robyn R. Gershon, MHS, DrPH ◽  
Alexis A. Merdjanoff, PhD ◽  
Gabriella Y. Meltzer, BA ◽  
Rachael Piltch-Loeb, MSPH, PhD ◽  
Jonathan Rosen, MS, CIH, FAIHA ◽  
...  

Background and purpose: Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City (NYC) vowed to “keep the subways running” despite the lack of plans in place for protecting the health and well-being of transit workers. This study was designed to assess the impact of employment during the early phase of the pandemic on this essential frontline workforce. Methods, settings, and study participants: A convenience sample of members (stratified by job title) of the NYC Transport Workers Union, Local 100, was recruited in August 2020 to participate in an anonymous, cross-sectional, internet-based survey. Results: The demographics of the sample participants (N = 645) reflected union membership, ie, 82 percent male, 29 percent Black; 27 percent Hispanic, and 59 percent ≥age 50 years. At the time of the “NYC Pause” (March 22, 2020) when mandatory stay-at-home orders were issued, transit workers had limited worksite protections. Many reported a lack of such basics as face masks (43 percent), hand sanitizer (40 percent), and disposable gloves (34 percent). A high proportion (87 percent) were concerned about getting infected at work. Lack of certain protections was significantly associated with both fear of contagion at work and mental health symptoms. Nearly 24 per­cent of participants reported a history of COVID-19 infection. Self-reported infection was significantly correlated with lack of certain protections, including respiratory masks (p 0.001), disposable gloves (p 0.001), and hand sanitizer (p 0.001). Infection was also significantly associated with mental health symptoms (p 0.001). By August 2020, despite participants reporting that many worksite protections were then in place, 72 percent of workers were still fearful for their safety at work, eg, because of potential exposure due to passengers not wearing masks, and risk of verbal abuse and physical assault by passengers angered when asked to wear face masks. Workers who were fearful for their safety at work were more than six times more likely to report mental health symptoms (p 0.001). Conclusions: Lack of worksite protections before “NYC Pause” (March 22, 2020) was significantly associated with self-reported infection, fear, and mental health symptoms in TWU, Local 100 members. To reduce the risk of adverse impacts associated with bioevents in all essential work groups, and across all essential occupational settings, infection control preparedness, early recognition of risk, and implementation of tailored risk reduction strategies are imperative. Pandemic preparedness is fundamental to protecting the health and well-being of essential workers and crucial in controlling the spread of disease in the community. Bioevent preparedness for all essential frontline workgroups will also help reduce occupational health inequities. Workers at risk, regardless of setting, deserve and have the right to equal protections under federal and state law.


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