With restrictions brought on by COVID-19, many people are working from home and unable to gather in-person with friends and family. This isolation can lead to mental health issues as people struggle to create new routines in the absence of normal human interactions.
Brenda Protz, a Lincoln Land Community College communications professor, took a medical leave due to mental health around the middle of the fall semester last year after switching to teaching online. Protz chose to move her classes online out of caution due to the pandemic.
"I wanted to be in class in-person, but given the situation, it didn't seem safe to. It was really hard for me mentally to think that I had the lives of all of these other people in my hands when I'm still grieving the loss of my own daughter that I couldn't save," Protz said.