Reading Roundup | July 23, 2021

Posted July 23, 2021

Articles this week focus on grief.

• “Racked With Guilt, Some COVID-19 Survivors Are Asking, 'Why Me?'” — Hiba Ahmad, Hadeel Al-Shalchi, and Emma Bowman, NPR (7/17/2021) [article]

  A look at survivor's guilt for those who made it through their experience of having COVID-19. The article touches upon the grief that underlies experiences of survivor's guilt and support groups as a resource to help cope with guilty feelings.

• “Grief-induced anxiety: Calming the fears that follow loss'” — Jessica DuLong, CNN (7/18/2021) [article]

  Throughout the pandemic, we have been dealing with a global level of grief—both for those who were lost and a loss of normalcy. As our society starts to move back into pre-pandemic norms, it's important to remember that the grief may not simply go away with the rollback of restrictions. This article looks at the connection between grief and anxiety: how it can be experienced physically as well as emotionally, and how to cope with grief.

• “Frontline Health Care Workers Aren’t Feeling the ‘Summer of Joy’” — Andrew Jacobs, NY Times (7/1/2021) [article]

  This article looks at the on-going struggles, including grief, faced by healthcare professionals as COVID-19 variants continue to ravage pockets of the country. For those who have already had to experience extreme loss since the start of the pandemic, compounding issues of staff shortages (and thus overwork for current staff), continued lack of supplies, and even difficult personal interactions with patients, have created even more stressful situations for those on the front lines of the pandemic. The piece is a good reminder that healthcare professionals will need ongoing support for the emotional toll that the past year-and-a-half has taken.