MARTINSBURG Hoping to address the emotional and mental toll months of isolation and stress have had on the community at large, behavioral health leadership at West Virginia University Medicine East is hosting a Mini Med School program, Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic, to offer tools and advice toward weathering the storm in the coming winter months.

According to a release from the hospital system, WVU Medicine East and the WVU Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center Eastern Campus are sponsoring the virtual community program on mental well-being during a pandemic in hopes of helping curb some of the lesser-talked-about mental effects of the pandemic on both adults and children.

Co-leading the program with Michael Ang-Rabanes, assistant clinical professor and the medical director of psychiatry, Stephanie McGraw, training director for the doctoral internship program and assistant clinical professor through the school of medicine, said the pandemic has created a myriad of issues that are not as easily address with current restrictions.

What I know is that human beings, during times of stress and distress, never outgrow their need to turn to others. We are hard-wired for human connection, McGraw said. So now, we are confronted with a time where those innate evolutionary needs are also what puts us at risk for a life-threatening illness that really threatens our emotional health and well-being. The longer that we continue in this pandemic, individuals mental and emotional resources are being depleted, and that puts that them at an increased risk for developing psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety, suicidal ideation or completed suicides.

According to McGraw, the strategies behavioral health professionals would typically recommend to help individuals cope with kind of stress - like exercise, being outdoors and spending time with loved ones- are not readily available due to the pandemic.

So its important for us to think as a community and a people to best meet everyones physical, psychological and emotional (needs) to weather this storm. And thats what we hope to do in Tuesdays presentation, McGraw said.

According to McGraw, some symptoms behavioral health professionals have noticed in both children and adults as a result of COVID-19 have included people reporting not feeling like themselves; a sense of emptiness; feeling tearful; struggling with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness; further isolation; increased anxiety; increases in impulsive behavior; and an increase in irritability.

We are noticing that some of these symptoms have presented during our initial surge, but there were a lot of protective things going on that time. As COVID lingers and we gear up for winter, we are noticing that people are feeling more depleted, and that puts them at an increased vulnerability for feeling these symptoms and may lead them to respond in a number of ways, such as indulging in risky behaviors; some may choose to decide theyre over COVID and choose to engage in behaviors that puts them, their loved ones and community at increased risks; or some may begin isolating even more.

McGraw said it is their hope to cover not only the basics of self-care during this unprecedented time, such as sleep, diet, exercise and meditation recommendations, but to offer other sources of connection and care to help people withstand the seasonal depression and anxieties seen typically as the winter months kick in, on top of the COVID-19 stresses being experienced already.

The virtual mini-medical school program is being offered free to the public as a community service of WVU Medicine and the WVU Health Sciences Center and will be broadcasted via the WVU Medicine Easts Facebook page on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.

Closed caption will be offered for the hearing impaired.

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'Coping with COVID' Mini Med School to help address pandemic's unseen effects - Martinsburg Journal