Our
citizens in Bay County Florida were the focus of a category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Michael, that made landfall on
October 10, 2018 near Mexico Beach, Florida. This storm, this natural disaster,
presented us with tornadoes and 161 MPH winds resulting in tremendous damage to
our natural habitat, to our businesses, to our residences, and to our medical
resources. We are now almost 1 ½ years post storm and are still struggling to
reopen businesses and to make repairs to our homes. This disaster has been a
major financial challenge for many families and to many businesses. As I write
this on March 16, 2020 some of our major banks are just beginning to be
rebuilt. This is also true of a number of local businesses. Some of my church
members are still making major repairs to their homes. Hundreds of people have
left the area and are not returning. There is an ongoing challenge to find
responsible, capable and honest construction workers to do all the necessary
work.
So, we
have the residuals of Hurricane Michael to contend with while simultaneously Bay
County Florida, along with the rest of the world is contending with the Corona Virus,
a pandemic (worldwide epidemic) involving a viral illness that can be vicious. Here
are some of the residual governmental, economic, and medical effects from this
virus:
· Part of the result of this virus is that the stock market
has taken a dramatic plunge, challenging people further to cope with financial
trials.
· Some schools are closed and others are transitioning to
online courses.
· Some churches are closed and transitioning to online
sermons and other activities.
· Our medical system is challenged in a serious way to
respond comprehensively to the potential
medical needs. Indications are that we will need to expand the capacity of the
healthcare system; we will need to be innovative in that task and perhaps
utilize novel sources of medical personnel, like the national guard or
military. There is a scarcity of needed medical equipment.
· There is a clear sense of panic with millions of people
buying water, paper products, food items and etc. There are many empty shelves
in supermarkets. According to the news, there have been instances of physical
violence in markets as people compete to buy certain items; thankfully that has
not happened locally.
· There is a clear, mass psycho-emotional stress response
to the considerable uncertainty. What is becoming more and more clear is that
everyone including parents, businesses, children, medical personnel, and first
responders are going to have to make significant changes to their rituals and
routines.
Many
people have taken the position that
all of this is just an overreaction to the media coverage, and that actually
there is only very manageable risk involved here. This is a classic example of
denial that tends to interfere with rational steps toward protecting oneself,
one’s family, and our community. Wishful thinking is a primitive defense that can
interfere with all aspects of our health and can sabotage our efforts to work
cooperatively as a team.
So,
this response to the Virus calls for us to make critical and important changes
in our behaviors and in many instances this involves relearning and countering
automaticity, the automatic, spontaneous impulse to not act appropriately. Here
are some of the protective measures that we are asked to take:
· Wash your hands frequently especially after using the toilet, after
handling animals, after coughing or sneezing, win hands are visibly dirty,
before eating and when caring for the sick.
· Maintain social
distancing: with at least 3 feet between yourself and
anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
· Avoid touching
eyes, nose and mouth. Once contaminated, hands can transfer the
virus to these areas.
· Practice
respiratory hygiene: Cover your mouth and nose with with your
bent elbow or tissue; then dispose of the tissue immediately.
· Disinfect your cell phones and tablets.
· If you have fever,
cough, or difficulty breathing, seek
medical care early.
· Staying informed
and follow the directions of your healthcare provider.
· Greeting others: avoid hugging and shaking hands. Instead, consider an
elbow bump, a foot tap, a wave, a nod, or a bow.
· Restaurants pose
risk.
· Coronavirus.com is one of several good online resources for information.
The
challenge for most of us appears to be, just how we can all remain in good
health, be helpful to others, and work toward resolution of these dual
challenges and to have a positive outcome. Clearly, hysteria is not productive
because of its inherent hyper-emotionality that compromises good judgment and
triggers a whole series of medical symptoms and unproductive behaviors.
Miscellanea
· Interestingly these two major challenges, Hurricane
Michael and the Corona Virus are happening within the context of major
political divisiveness … Will these disasters bring the politicians together
where they can work jointly and effectively?
· Information warfare is the name of one of our chapters in Health, Inertia, and Information: Why Are We
Sick?, our 2018 book about disease prevention, Pages 23 – 62. So, are all
sources of information equally valid and objective and credible? Probably not.
In many situations, more information is not necessarily better; in fact, more
information often confuses people especially if it is presented in an
hysterical way. In many information venues it becomes apparent that people want
100% accurate information, they want it now, and they want a 100% guarantee
that it is correct. The naïveté here is considerable.
We need
to be able to grasp the big picture here. What is at issue is all core factors
like needed resources, healthcare needs, financial/economic issues, and
government support that all contribute to progress and also to perpetuating the
challenges. It is everything taken together, in both of the major challenges,
the hurricane and virus that interact, sometimes in a synergistic way, to
produce a full spectrum of results.
As I
have written about in numerous articles, the overall physical, mental, and
spiritual health of individuals, families. and our work-force is at issue here.
This is a time when many people will be increasingly vulnerable to contracting
stress-related disease and/or the virus. It is a time when we must progress
from understanding what is healthy, to doing what is healthy.
This appears
to be a very important time for our spiritual resources, our churches, as
millions of us count on them for our spiritual health, for encouragement, for
direction. Where possible, it would be quite helpful to have online prayer
ministries; through these anyone could access the website of the church and
submit a prayer request at any time. This would be an example of a doable, low
cost initiative that anyone could use and that could provide us with a sense of
participation, inclusion and optimism. This does not necessarily mean that the
prayer would take place over the phone, but it might. The other option would be
for callers to simply leave their prayer request on the dedicated line, having
assurance that the church ministry would indeed pray for the individual or
situation in question.
Overlapping Crises, Some Dynamics
So, in
our current local culture we have extended
challenges; that is to say that many of us are subject to chronic stress,
at least to some degree. This situation calls for perseverance, the ability to remain resilient over time. As a
result of this it would be expected that some of the population will experience
health issues that may or may not
require treatment. And, as health challenges increase, their needs are compounded. We can look at
extended stress having several phases:
· Initial adaptation
· Physical adjustment
· Fatigue, indicates physical and psychological challenge
· Poor self-care and isolation
· Anomie and alienation
· Depression, perhaps to a clinically significant degree
· As we consider
this process, it is important to note that along the way the more resilient
individuals negotiate a positive pathway
that involves engaging others, accepting help and maintaining a somewhat optimistic,
healthy view of things. On the other hand, there is a significant portion of
the population who remain stuck in their negative
pathway that is quite negativistic, emotionally degrading and tends to
reject the positive interactions with others; this group tends to be more
isolated.
And, it is
important to note that the local culture and environment is always part of
public health emergencies; in the case of Bay County Florida part of their
environment involves residual effects of a category 5 hurricane.
3 John 2
William
A. Zahler, MSW, DipACLM
Web:
lifestyle-interventions.com
Lifestyle
– interventions. blogspot.com
YT
Channel: William Zahler
Email: wazahler@gmail.com
March 19,
2020
No comments:
Post a Comment