The holiday season can be joyous, filled with family gatherings, good will and exchanges of gifts.
It also can also be a time fraught with stress and anxiety. Finding ways to cope could be as importan.
Buffalo Grove s Yash Hatkar is using standup comedy to address his mental health issues and, he hopes, inspire others to open up about their struggles.
Updated 5/24/2021 7:31 PM
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi met with health care professionals in Hoffman Estates Monday to discuss the pandemic s impact on the mental health of front-line medical workers, and how $140 million in federal funding might help address their needs.
Concerns about family, an inability to switch off from their jobs, and added responsibilities such as being present for patients last rites in place of loved ones are among the unrelenting demands COVID-19 has brought, they told Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Schaumburg.
All of it has caused an unusually high percentage of physicians to consider or take early retirement, while nurses have borne the brunt of the pandemic s toll on the health care system, they said.
A battle that doesn t end: The pandemic s effect on health care workers Nurse Samantha Mull, who works in the intensive care unit at Elmhurst Hospital, says the last 10 months have been emotionally and mentally draining. I feel like there s still no end in sight, she says. Courtesy of Samantha Mull
Rachel Henry, who works in the physician treatment center at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, greets therapy dog Shelby on her way into the hospital. Shelby, 9, is occasionally stationed at Northwestern Medicine facilities to ease stress and put a smile on employees faces during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.