Dr. Tiffaney Parkman
lecturer, director of the B.A. in Human Services Administration program
While the COVID-19 pandemic is objectively “bad,” some “good” has come out of these trying times when it comes to mental health awareness. Can you speak to this idea as it pertains to self-advocacy and individuals prioritizing their own mental health and well-being?
People often experience bad things. And either they get the help they need, or they put a band-aid over it and never deal with it, or they deal with it and recover and have a new way of thinking. For some people, those events are traumatic, for others they are life altering, and for some people they’re nothing at all. With a pandemic we all collectively experienced the bad thing. We were trying to wrap our heads around quarantining, washing, groceries, everything that came with the pandemic. So when we think about mental health awareness, the good part about it is that we have this one singular event that we can all relate to, in terms of what are you doing, how did you manage, and we’re talking with one another about how we coped, and how we got through it, and also thinking about self-advocacy, and how we can help people prioritize their own mental health.
The pandemic forced people to sit with their thoughts—literally quarantine with them—some for the first time, and some right alongside their families. Maybe before, their normal way of coping was to ignore their issues or problems, but now, they couldn’t access their usual distractions. People began to realize they didn’t have an actual plan for their mental health care. They didn’t have anything solid they could put in place to make sure they’re doing okay. I would say that’s the good of the pandemic: that people were able to self-actualize and think about their ability to access their resources.
How do you support and encourage those under your care? (Students, employees, family members)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs says that we must take care of lower-level needs before we can perform higher level functions like thinking, taking in material, and thinking about equations or how we’re going to help others. If we’re hungry and thirsty, or we’re worried about housing, we’re not going to be able to think about problem solving or theories. One of my biggest pieces of advice for students if, for example, they’re leaving school for a semester, because something happened, is that education will always be here, you can always learn on a different day, you can always learn in a different semester. But if you aren’t well, you’re not going to do well. The residual effects of you not being well won’t be helpful to your future if you want good grades. Even before the pandemic, I would tell students not to come to class sick. Take care of yourself. You can always do whatever is necessary on another day. And even in terms of being a clinician, or if you are working and have deadlines, if something happens you must always consider if you’re not showing up in the way that you want, because you are not well, what does that mean for you job? So always put yourself first, you can come back to learn or finish a report on a different day.
Where do I start if I’m considering professional care? (e.g. Insurance company? Doctor referral? Websites like Psychology Today?)
Depending on where you are, securing an appointment with a mental health care professional can take months. If you’re unsure about what you need, start by talking with your primary care physician. They can run tests, do lab work, and potentially even start you on medication to steer you in the right direction to buy some time before you can talk to someone. Don’t forget—if you have access to them, employee and student assistance programs are great resources to help you get started.
How should patients approach accommodations? (Work, school, public spaces)
I’d start with the question what is your mental health plan in case something happens to you? What do you have available? There are services on campus for students. On the first day of class, we talk about what’s available. And if those don’t work for you, or if you are unsure of where to go, then they can reach out to me. As a professor, I can help tailor accommodations in terms of support or help in the community if those accommodations are not available at school. Same way with work, what resources are available to you based on where you are and what’s happening. You should always have your plan and think about those resources and what you need. So, whether you’re a student, and it’s Student Resources, or you’re an employee and go to employee resources.
And then you can look for resources in your community – counselors or family therapists, there are some social workers who do this work. You want someone who’s licensed, who has been through training and who’s tested, and who can assist you. If you are working, there are employee assistance programs. I would always start with your primary care physician, who may have a social worker in their office. And that person can talk with you and give you some options.
What are some recommendations for self-care to help the journey along?
I think that all people should be unapologetic about taking their own mental health days, and doing whatever they think is right for that mental health day. I have started incorporating mental health days in the semester. I started during the pandemic, because it was so much sitting at a computer, it was just too much. That is now a staple part of my calendar, where there are mental health days that I give students to take a minute, rest, reset, get yourself going. You can take a mental health day that’s a half-day or once every two weeks or once every month. And on that day you do whatever is comforting for you, whatever helps to reset you back to normal or back to baseline, then do it and don’t apologize for it.
What if the need is urgent? Are there resources for immediate help? (e.g. social services, help lines, hospitals, etc.)
Part of your plan for your self-care is to identify one or two people who know you, get you and can get you back to baseline when difficult times come. So yes, not everything is 911. Not everything requires an emergency room visit or texting 988. Sometimes it’s calling your sister in Texas, and talking to her about what happened, and you know that she’s going to listen and not judge you. Identify one or two people who you can just lay it all out and not have the sort of feedback that can exacerbate whatever issue you are feeling. And those people can help to steer you to an ER visit or a call to 988, if they feel like this isn’t you, you are not talking like yourself, and perhaps a greater intervention needs to be made.
Anything we didn’t ask that would be valuable for our readers to know?
Everyone should devise a mental health care plan to prepare them for the next pandemic, or the next trauma or the next whatever. What we know is that the more resources you have – friends, community, family, money, access to services – the better off you’re going to be. The people who fared the best during the pandemic were the ones who had access to resources and could manage. Those who did poorly, did not have access to those resources. We all need to take personal accounting. What if something happens tomorrow, what is my capacity to bounce back? And if you cannot answer those questions, then get to work answering them.
