Hi there I'm Virginia Prescott joining you today for a segment that we're
calling, 'Combatting Coronavirus,' our goal is to provide you with facts and
information about this pandemic. With metoday via skype is Dr. Nadine Kaslow.
She's psychologist and professor at the Emory University School of Medicine and
Chief Psychologist for Grady Health Systems here in Atlanta. Welcome Dr.
Kaslow. Good Afternoon, thank you so much for
being with us. First off Americans have had just an
overwhelming amount of change and information over the past couple weeks.
This week in particular, schools closing, orders for people to work from home,
cancellations of events, it's a lot of disruption and give us a big picture.
First, your thoughts on how people take that in and cope, people are extremely
stressed out right now it's virtually all anybody can talk about in every
situation. Everybody's trying to juggle to figure out how they're gonna handle
everything, people feel stretched and caught between
one demand over here, for example taking care of the children and be the
requirement to be at work. People are concerned about finances people are
worried about taking care of other people and, everybody's worried about
getting sick. So it's a lot going on I'm sure you're hearing from some of your
clients and other psychologists across the country are as well. What are some
practical steps you know for the day-to-day besides the big picture that
you can advise people for just dealing with day-to-day. Yes, so I think one of
the things is that people keep saying don't panic and I think that that's true
but they think you can't just tell somebody to stop panicking I think some
people are more hard-wired to panic than others some people's life situations
there was more challenging than others so I think maybe it's more realistic to
say it's gonna balance your anxiety to the extent you can manage it to the
extent that you can try to take care of yourself try to take care of other
people I think to say to people stay calm it's not realistic right now don't
panic not realistic but the other hand try to keep some
perspective make sure you do things to take care of yourself and other people
well maybe some calming tactics that you would recommend for people so I think
the extent to which you have people that you can talk to and get support from
problem-solve with share for example caregivers or you know babysitter's or
people to take care of your children or other people that you're worried about
taking responsibility when you're when somebody in your family sick and how
you're going to handle that reaching out to social support another thing is
really spending time even if it's just a few minutes each day grounding yourself
I know everybody's saying I don't have time to do that right now I'm trying to
figure everything out but the truth is if we can settle ourselves down whether
that's with some exercise or meditation or a hot bath or whatever it is that
that actually helps us be better able to go for it
I think we need to manage how much we're getting information we are just being
bombarded right now with information that continuously is changing
there's updates there's new news and I think we need to find ways to get enough
information so you know what's going on you're informed and not so much that all
you do is sort of focus on this situation and the latest specific
details taking in information ourselves and limiting that is one thing how about
dealing with children like limits of how much information you should share with
your children I'm sure it changes as the ange rage does but what are some
recommendations for talking with kids about this who are taking it in and
really freaked out in some cases absolutely so I think one thing that's
really important is that we need to serve as role models for our children
the more they see that we're overwhelmed panic stressed out the more difficulty
they're going to have except for the really really young children all
children know what's going on right now and even young children their daycares
are closed they're not seeing their friends so I think it's really important
to put time aside to sit down to talk to our children every day to answer their
question they are as you can see as you said it's
different for children of different ages but I answer their questions talk to
them in a way that they can understand try to allay their fears to the extent
that's realistic and and again help them monitor how much exposure they have I
think it's really critically important to let them know you're gonna keep the
routines as regular as you can you're not going to spend everybody's not going
to sleep all the time or just spend their lives in their bedroom the
importance of getting out even if it's other places in the home even if you
can't get out too much but doing routines having your bedtime routines
this is actually time when social media can be a good thing staying connect
their friends it's so important right now and doing their schoolwork but also
doing fun activities having as much pleasure as they can even it's a
quarantine and in the home and of course if somebody that they care about is sick
or dies we need to be there for them to support them to comfort them to love
them and and obviously if they get sick just be there with them for them well as
we know working from home is an option for some people not for a lot of people
there's a lot of economic insecurity for people here in Atlanta certainly around
the airline industry the service industry people have to go and show up
or maybe their delivery people in helping to get food to people who are
staying at home any advice for those people who do have to be out in the
world yeah so I think that it's really important guidelines that emerge that
have come out and I think we all know what they are at this time and I think
we really need to take them seriously be very mindful about them without you know
driving ourselves crazy I think we're all washing our hands every time we move
right now so I think that we also need to realize that it's so important that
we do serve our communities right now that those of us who are at work helping
people and serving people in various ways that that's so important to keep
everyone's lives going but of course if you're at work and your
children are at home I think that can be so stressful and so I see more and more
now people are pooling resources sending out lists of low-cost child care or
maybe I'll take care of kids on Monday and somebody else takes care of them on
Tuesday I know that people are worried about their children being with lots of
other children but I think in smaller ways people really helping each other
out we're going to need to have to come together as a community right now as the
city as cities and towns as a state to really help each other through this
incredibly difficult time when things are so unpredictable and so scary I
think it's the unpredictability and the thought of relentlessness you know
people don't know when this is going to end you mentioned earlier that some of
us have trouble turning our heads off when there's a thought of something that
makes us anxious and certainly those who tend towards anxiety but one source of
anxiety for a lot of people is financial insecurity and as we're seeing talk
stocks tumbling and maybe the potential of 401 k's sinking how do people deal
with that kind of long-term distress or how do you keep them in the present or
advise them to okay so I actually think for most people most helpful thing
although I understand it's not always realistic is to try to stay as present
focused as we can and to take care of the things we can control right now I
think for people who are older and they say well I don't have time for example
for the market to come back you know we have to just think the house that is
really really difficult but I think for most of us the more we can stay present
focused and not look at our number every day or multiple times a day but I try to
keep a broader perspective on this and and knowing that for all of us this is
very tough Financial Times I also think that we're going to all have to be
making difficult decisions about how we spend our money what's realistic for us
to do right now I know taxes are coming up right now and that's something that
also has people worried like I'm going to have to pay taxes but I'm
making money and and so I think that systems need to be as flexible as they
can I know that for example restaurants or any business is if they're taking in
less money then they're concerned about giving out money but right now we have
everybody's financially worried that we have to support each other I think
systems have to be as flexible as they can to me as accommodating as they can
and as supportive as they can any closing thoughts dr. caso
I think my main closing thoughts are we need to all find a balance in multiple
ways with this taking care of ourselves taking care of other people being
appropriately concerned but not overly obsessed and recognizing that this is
just such a difficult and unprecedented time and that we're all learning
together how to do this and that the more we find ways and strategies that
are helpful to ourselves and to other people and share those and other people
can try them the better off we're going to be Dr. Kaslow
thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Dr. Nadine Kaslow,
she is Psychologist and Professor at Emory University School of Medicine
former president of the American Psychological Association. And you can
keep up to date with news and resources we're at gpb.org/virus on Virginia
Prescott thanks so much for joining us.