A few weeks into the new year, the situation with COVID-19 seems far from over and communities across the country wonder when will we see an end to the pandemic. As the health care community struggles to contain the spread, there are growing concerns on the impact on mental health among patients. In July, Victor Armstrong, director of the NC Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Substance Abuse Services reported that symptoms of depression and anxiety have tripled during the pandemic and mentioned there has been a 15% increase emergency department visits of opioid overdose. In another study, findings showed that 1 in 5 COVID-19 survivors develop mental illness within 90 days. So how are our patients doing? How are people dealing with and making sense of COVID-19 ten months later and how well are systems responding?
Join a chat around COVID-19 and the impact of mental health on patients. Moderated by Franklin Walker, VP Rural Health Systems Innovation, you will have the opportunity to listen and converse with Jennie Byrne, MD, PhD, Staff VP, Clinical Excellence at CareMore Health; Vinay Saranga, MD, Saranga Comprehensive Psychiatry; Robyn Jordan, MD, PhD, Medical Director at UNC Substance Abuse Treatment & Recovery clinic; and Michele Kim, NP, Nurse Practitioner at Cherry Hospital (Inpatient Psychiatric Facility in Goldsboro).