This begs the question: how will we care for those who have so selflessly cared for us?
Last week, the Ontario government announced expanded virtual mental health supports during COVID-19, including supports specifically for frontline workers. This is a great step forward, but it’s critical that we recognize those on the frontlines will be processing this nightmare for many months and years to come.
Nurses will be particularly vulnerable to mental health challenges. By the very nature of their job, nurses tend to spend the most time with patients and residents—getting to know them, their life and their stories. For many, they become like family. As such, it is mainly our nurses who have seen the human toll of this pandemic. For them, the devastation will not be easily forgotten. We need robust, long-term solutions to help our frontline workers cope and even overcome the unthinkable emotional, psychological and moral injury they’ve experienced.
When the dust settles and we all go about our “new normal” lives, we must not forget that it is precisely then, in the stillness of post-crisis life, that those who have cared for and protected us will be most vulnerable. That is when we need to care for them.