WASHINGTON — Dr. James Griffith is trying his best. As the head of psychiatry and behavioral science at George Washington University, he bears the brunt of responsibility in helping keep patients and his medical staff well adjusted, cared for and alive.“I’ll be 70 years old on my next birthday, and I kind of got chased out of the hospital,” Griffith said during a phone call. “The hospital said I’m too high risk to be there, so I’m not.
Clinical psychologist Dr. Krystal Lewis said she has received an increase in calls specific to coronavirus-inspired anxiety and panic. Lewis, who specializes in children and teens, said most of her young clients worry about the potential of passing on the coronavirus to their older family members and are struggling to rebuild their now disrupted routines. Story continues“For people who do have depression, they have limited options ...
Griffith stressed that he and his department have been working “every waking hour” for the last week to meet needs and move their outpatient services, such as therapy and medication prescriptions, entirely online. He said he’s been able to conduct “business as usual” for his tele-therapy, a service that more and more people will need as mandatory quarantine and isolation orders continue through most parts of the country.
“Everything is slowed down, and a lot of psychiatrists are feeling, well, you know, just like everybody else,” added Nestadt. “Many of us have kids we have to take care of. So it's hard to maintain your normal hours even if telehealth is super-easy to set up. So how do you see many patients? You just can't.”
At GWU, Griffith is scheduled to give three grand rounds to different departments around the hospital to help equip the doctors in “building resilience to pandemic-related stressors.” Just one individual contracting COVID-19 can disrupt the entire system of patients who are already grappling with horrifying trauma.
Many factors can cause an individual to need immediate psychiatric inpatient help, including thoughts of suicide. In Hong Kong during the SARS epidemic, suicide rates hit a “historical high,” according to data from the National Institutes of Health.