Mercy Family Center continues ‘compassionate care’

That question about the “five essentials” of life was asked of victims of a May 2011 tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri, and it is a question just as appropriate during today’s COVID-19 crisis.
    

“It’s important to get past, ‘I’m fine,’” as a response to how you’re doing,” said Dr. Doug Walker, a clinical psychologist who is Mercy Family Center’s director of programs. 
    

He created a tool to determine how people were achieving the five essentials for a balanced and healthy lifestyle: work – employment/school; love – relationships/social support; play – self-care/joyful activities; sleep – sleep habits; and eat – food and drink.
    

Mercy Health System just rolled out “How’s Your Five” for self-care of all 45,000 employees of the Mercy Health System nationwide, and it’s available for anyone needing a mental health check during this pandemic, said Rex Menasco, executive director of Mercy Family Center.
 

Mercy continues to help
    

All three of Mercy’s locations continue to help clients mostly through tele-health online and by phone. 
    

“We are doing vast majority of visits via video,” Menasco said. 
    

A month before the coronavirus hit our area, Mercy had instituted “Mercy’s Work Remote Program” for its employees and, coupled with most having laptops, the transition to work from home was not difficult once the stay-at-home order was issued. Once the order came, Mercy transitioned patients to telephone and video visits.
 

Mercy Family Center has long supported the mental health of school children through its Project Fleur de Lis, collaborating with 100 schools each year. When schools closed, mental health professionals in schools reached out for help with a myriad of stresses they were witnessing. Mercy responded with conferencing and resources: 
    

To support families needing assistance with food, housing and/or unemployment; 
    

To help parents support their kids at home with activities and websites that promote connectedness within families ( https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/fact-sheet/simple_activities_for_children_and_adolescents_4.pdf)
    

To help people cope with the death of a staff member and students cope with the death of a parent or grandparent, with consultations available for school administrators. Mercy also provides resources for coping with loss/death without the normal rituals ( https://www.dougy.org/docs/Grief_during_COVID-19.pdf).
    

To support teachers feeling stressed by having to provide online learning while attending to students' emotional needs as well as their own children in homeschooling, Laura Danna, who heads Project Fleur de Lis, emphasized that, considering this situation, it is normal to feel anxiety, uncertainty, sadness or even grief. She said everyone is experiencing loss in some way right now: the loss of “normal,” the loss of routine, the loss of being able to gather together, the loss of routines and the loss of rituals (celebrations and funerals).
    

Danna said no matter the type of loss, it is important to honor your feelings. She said parents should try to reassure and be positive with their children ( CSTS_FS_Finding_Right_Words_Talk_Children_Teens_Coronavirus) and ( https://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/Docs/latest_news/2020/Coronavirus_COVID19__Children.pdf). 
    

She also mentioned the importance of “gratitude time,” talking and connecting with others, creating new rituals and routines in order to gain control and recognizing the triggers for negative feelings. 
    

“It's important to understand what anxiety is and how it feels in your body so that you can identify and talk about it with your family (younger kids) and friends (teens),” Danna said. 
    

To reduce anxiety, she recommends practicing deep breathing and mindfulness, exercising, spending time outside, identifying unhelpful thoughts and creating more realistic ones.
 

Stress, uncertainty
    

Menasco said clients are experiencing “an increased level of anxiety.” Walker added that pre-existing conditions such as anxiety, depression and OCD are being exacerbated.
    

“This was the same after Katrina,” Walker said. “I expected a rush of new patients with anxiety. We helped our existing cases first but had kids with behavioral or academic problems” especially in poor and underserved communities.
    

Along with “How’s Your Five,” Mercy is heavily recommending “self-care” – don’t eat or drink too much; stay on a routine since we’ve lost that with no set school or work times; stay connected with friends and family; find ways to celebrate milestones  such as birthdays and graduations, even though they may be different than before; be OK with Plan B; find closure, whether it’s the Class of 2020 not having the end of the year they expected or dealing with the death of a loved one and not being able to be by their side or have the cultural rituals that go with it.
    

“Without closure, you can’t have new beginnings,” Walker said. With the uncertainty now, that could be “months and years. … The idea of closure and routines. That’s where we’re going to struggle.”
    

Additional recommended resources include https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-climate-safety-and-crisis/health-crisis-resources/helping-children-cope-with-changes-resulting-from-covid-19.
    

Mercy Family Center’s psychiatrists and counselors are accepting new child and adult clients. Walker said adult intakes are currently outweighing children. Call (504) 323-9573, 376-2590,  (985) 727-7993, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or visit https://www.mercy.net/practice/mercy-family-center-metairie/.
    

Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].