The invisible public health crisis

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2020

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Health reporter William Wan examines one of the unseen effects of the pandemic on people’s lives — the emotional and psychological toll of all that’s happened.

Almost a year into a pandemic, we’re all aware of what the coronavirus can do to our bodies. More than 250,000 Americans have died. Millions of people around the world are sick.

But there are other, non-physical effects, too — the emotional and psychological toll of isolation, constant fear and loss, especially on young adults. That’s what Ted Robbins wants you to understand:

“What they told me was: ‘You as a parent don’t realize how bad it is for the youth today. You don’t realize how many of Christian’s friends have contemplated suicide. You don’t realize how depressed we are. You don’t realize how hard this is.’ ”

Months after the loss of his son to suicide, Robbins spoke with health reporter William Wan and producer Rennie Svirnovskiy about the conversations we’re still not having about mental health — and about the changes we’ll need to make if we’re going to get through this pandemic.

“I can’t bring Christian back,” Robbins said. “No matter how much I want to or I try, I can’t bring him back. But what I can do is try to save other children.”

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK, or 800-273-8255. You can also text a crisis counselor by messaging the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Martín here. Just wanted to note that today's episode deals with suicide.
0:05.0	It can be difficult to hear, so keep that in mind.
0:10.4	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Martín Powers.
0:16.4	It's Monday, November 23rd.
0:23.6	Almost a year into the pandemic, we all know what the coronavirus can do to our bodies.
0:29.0	More than 250,000 Americans have died, millions of people around the world are sick,
0:35.6	but there are other non-physical effects too, the emotional and psychological tool of the pandemic.
0:43.0	The other subtle ways it's changed the world around us and will continue to do so,
0:48.1	well after there is an effective vaccine.
0:50.7	We're putting like 175 billion into the hospitals during this pandemic,
0:55.9	like less than 1% like a fraction of 1% has been put into mental health, which is kind of shocking.
1:02.7	That's National Health Reporter William I.
1:05.4	He's bringing us the first in a series of stories we're doing this week,
1:08.8	looking at some of the unseen effects of the pandemic on people's lives.
1:20.0	When he was a freshman, I would still take Christian to the bus stop,
1:23.3	and the bus stop is only a couple of football fields away,
1:27.7	and I know that the other parents would look at me like,
1:30.3	why are you taking your kid to the bus stop as a freshman in high school?
1:34.9	And I always told Christian, this is a Christian,
1:37.7	you know the reason why I take you to the bus stop?
1:40.9	Still, he goes, why?
1:42.8	I said Christian, the reason why I still take you to the bus stop is that gives me just five more minutes
	...

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