Saturday, April 18, 2020

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken on April 4, 2009. It was during Mattie's 7th birthday party at the hospital. I am so glad a friend of ours snapped this photo. As you can see, Mattie was very happy to be in the child life playroom, surrounded by friends, and having the opportunity to play, eat cupcakes, and to forget for an hour or two that he was dealing with cancer. 


Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people who have been diagnosed with the virus: 726,645
• number of people who died from the virus: 37,938

I came across the Kaiser Family Foundation poll today while reading about the mental health impact of the coronavirus. I realize the poll was conducted in March, and therefore, I imagine the numbers would be even higher today than they were a few weeks ago. As more and more time is spent in social isolation and living with fear about finances, employment, and the state of our future existence, people are faced with overwhelming stressors. Stressors which impact how we eat, drink, sleep, and how we take care of ourselves. Check out the poll for yourself. I included a link to it below as well as highlighted two of the graphs which caught my attention. As I do think mental health impacts are acerbated by social distancing and isolation, and at some point when things stabilize, we are going to find out the true long term consequences of a nationwide shut down. 

KFF Health Tracking Poll - Early April 2020: The Impact Of Coronavirus On Life In America:
https://www.kff.org/health-reform/report/kff-health-tracking-poll-early-april-2020/

The poll makes one thing clear: If you’re scared, anxious, depressed, struggling to sleep through the night, or just on edge, you’re not alone. The tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, conducted March 25 to 30, found that 45% of adults say the pandemic has affected their mental health, and 19% say it has had a “major impact.”

Overall, nearly all Americans report that they have either been taking social distancing measures such as deciding not to travel, cancelling plans, or staying home instead of going to work, school, or other activities (92%), or say they have been sheltering-in-place and not leaving home except for essential services such as food, medicine, or health care (82%).