In March, it will have been three years since the spread of COVID-19 prompted lockdowns across the United States and the world. At different points throughout the past three years, hospitals have overflowed with patients, nursing homes have been overwhelmed and understaffed, school years interrupted and businesses shuttered. The anniversary of those initial lockdowns marks a time of dramatic change, grief, and anxiety that has impacted personal and professional lives. Today, three years later, life looks very different: masks and social distancing are no longer mandated, schools have largely resumed in-person classes, restaurants and other shops are open for business.
While some elements of pre-pandemic life have resumed, COVID-19 has left us reeling in more ways than one. The impacts of COVID-19 were not felt equally across the United States, and the cascading influences of the pandemic magnified the harmful structural inequities throughout the country. As we begin to look towards the future, many are eager to leave the difficult years of the pandemic behind. But we know that the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health, education, health care, and trust in our institutions will be felt for years to come. How we conceptualize and understand these impacts today will inform how we respond to and prepare for future challenges. In order to truly appreciate and learn from all that the pandemic has impacted, reflection and recognition are some of the most important steps along the path of moving forward.
As a producer of Health Outreach Partners’ recent podcast series, “The COVID-19 Pandemic and What it Taught Us”, I had the opportunity to reflect on the profound and varied ways the pandemic has taken a toll on our collective mental health and wellbeing. HOP staff prepared background research and connected with guest speakers over shared challenges felt throughout the pandemic response efforts. Ultimately, the podcast created space for community members, therapists, and community health workers to share their perspectives on the lessons learned over the past three years.
While we may be eager to leave the pandemic behind us, recovery is not possible without reflection. Disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic bring underlying structural inequities to the surface, magnifying the biases and barriers that have taken root in our systems and institutions. On the podcast, health center leaders and mental health counselors spoke in detail about the ways in which COVID-19 exacerbated the systemic inequalities influencing the health and wellbeing of their patients, community members, providers, and their own families.
As podcast guests and HOP staff shared their experiences, we also shared strategies that have been adopted to better serve communities, improve quality of care, and provide mental health services throughout the pandemic response. Learning from the challenges of the past helps us prepare for the future, and provides an opportunity to examine and change the structures governing health resources to better serve our communities moving forward. Reflecting on, learning from, and documenting the experiences of service providers and community members is the first step in collective recovery from COVID-19.
By Margaret Anderson, Project Manager, for HOP’s series of monthly staff blogs.