Mercy Expert Discusses Pandemic's Mental Health Toll

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May 07, 2020, 08:00 ET

ST. LOUIS, May 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Doug Walker has spent years helping communities heal after manmade and natural disasters, but he has never witnessed a situation quite like the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In other natural disasters, the areas impacted are surrounded by intact areas," said Walker, PhD, chief programs director and clinical psychologist at Mercy Family Center in New Orleans, a Mercy outreach ministry. "There is extra stress and anxiety with COVID-19 because there's no way to escape from it and no cavalry coming to provide relief."

Like Joplin's 2011 tornado that destroyed Mercy Hospital Joplin, COVID-19 is creating a great deal of anxiety. "There is extra stress and anxiety associated with COVID-19 because there's no way to escape from it and no cavalry coming to provide relief," said Dr. Doug Walker, a Mercy national trauma expert.

Every disaster has its own signature that can impact some more than others and is often hard to predict, said Walker, a national trauma expert who has designed and implemented large-scale mental health programs after disasters throughout the world. These include the EF-5 tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri, in 2011, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill along the Gulf Coast in 2010.

In 2016, he visited Japan as a Fulbright Scholar, where he glimpsed mass trauma in the communities still recovering from the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear meltdown and explosion. While there, he saw how people lived in fear their food may be contaminated by radiation.

This eye-opening experience made him see the COVID-19 pandemic through a different lens.

"What's unique now is that you cannot see the danger," said Walker.

The pandemic is also causing traumatic grief, which he predicts will be on the rise in coming months. It occurs when someone experiences an untimely death and is unable to process it. With COVID-19, there is another layer — a lack of closure.

"We don't have control over saying our goodbyes," he said, noting that many people have been unable to be at the bedside of their loved ones or have traditional funerals. "Traumatic grief will be fairly common and difficult to address without that sense of closure."

As this pandemic brings more uncertainties, Walker believes recovery from a mental health perspective involves understanding its impact, finding ways to manage stress and anxiety and having empathy for the unique experiences of others. Learn about the resiliency skills that may help with recovery.

As everyone determines their new normal in coming months, Walker likes to think that there is light through the storm.

"We talk about our economies readjusting, but I think our humanness is being readjusted and I hope it sticks," he said.

SOURCE Mercy