Key points from today’s guests:

Morning Rounds – Summary of Current News

Dr. Greg Nawalanic, PsyD., clinical psychologist, The University of Kansas Health System

• COVID’s mental health impacts are going to look a little different for different people.
• For workers, the immediate experience of seeing the reality unfold in front of them. For the people at home, it was a different battle with school, work, and seeing family.
• I think it's also important to recognize that there was a little bit of complex trauma as well in terms of multifaceted impacts that kept occurring such as the changes in mental preparedness -- initially it was hunkering down for a couple of weeks, then it turns in a month, and it turns out it was more.
• For many people, COVID brought mental health conversations to the forefront, whereas in the past, many would not address it.
• When you ask people how they're doing, they're conditioned to say they are fine, when they actually are not fine. When you start asking specific questions, it is more likely to uncover layers of mental health that need addressed.
• I think that being four years out from COVID, I just want to emphasize that if you're still with us, whether you've had losses or stresses or changed your life or made it more difficult, take some stock in that the fact that you are still here and that YOU are the reason that you're still here. Give yourself that credit. This has been a hard road, but that you've made it here, and there's still hope to continue to progress from there.

Dr. Danielle Johnson, Ph.D., pediatric psychologist, The University of Kansas Health System

• The longer kids were out of school for COVID, the more difficult those kids transitioned back to in-school learning and some kids have not transitioned at all. The rates of absenteeism, truancy and dropouts has increased since COVID happened.
• We know that the impact of online learning while for some kids was a blessing because some of those kids struggled in person due to other pre-existing mental health conditions. Some of those kids did well online, but the vast majority of kids did not transition very nicely to the online platform.
• Many kids faced challenging factors at home with access to wi-fi, equipment, and a quiet place to learn.
• We know for older kids, there were some social losses as well. Without access to wi-fi, they had some social losses as they weren’t as socially connected.
• Kids in better financial situations had more financial resources to buffer some of the impacts of COVID such as parents losing jobs or being sick and having health insurance. Kids with less social means really struggled.
• We know that stress is there and stress is real for both adults and kids. So I really encourage everyone to have open communication. When I ask someone how they are doing, tell me you actually aren't doing well so we can help.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System

• The hospital COVID count for this week is at 12 inpatients, down from 15 inpatients last week.
• When we look back at COVID, it's like that blip from the Marvel movies and the Avengers movies when it's almost like three or four years out of people's history were affected.
• For some that seems like it went by really fast but, for others, it didn't go that fast.
• COVID did certainly increase and make more blatant and obvious the health disparities of groups.
• We saw our co-workers who were dealing with patients on a day to day basis, and while they tried to keep it professional, it took a mental health toll.
• It was a job that people were going to every day or they felt a purpose to be going to everyday to treat these people that were coming in that were ill that we had no good treatments, no good preventive measures to help with.
• When they got home and once they're able to decompress, it allowed those thoughts and those feelings to set in, somewhat of hopelessness and depression, but still working through every day to show up to the job to help those people that needed it most.
• What we saw in our community and in communities around the country and around the world, health care workers and frontline workers going to work every day understanding they're at risk of getting this disease but still putting their health, their safety, and their lives on the line to treat those people that really needed it most.

Tuesday, Mar. 12 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Until now, there was no real treatment for a constant thumping in the ears from a type of tinnitus. Learn more about the new surgical option that can cure the condition.

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