Providing Great Care in Our Post-COVID World

Thanks to your vigilance and the tireless efforts of health care workers across the North Country, we are embarking on the next chapter in the COVID-19 pandemic. This part of the story begins with the New York State Department of Health’s approval for us to resume elective surgeries and the phased reopening of our region. While CVPH remained open for care throughout this health care crisis, our response to COVID-19 required us to pause non-essential services and programs to conserve sup [...]

Energy Conservation and Replenishment

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Today, I'm going to talk to you about energy conservation and energy replenishment. You have to hold some of your energy, and you have to refill some of your energy in order to perform for the long haul. This surge might be longer, and it might be shorter. We don't know. So I wanted to give you a tip to make sure that you know how to check in with yourself and figure out how to replenish yourself and conserve. Society tells us that the best way to boost our energy is to exercise, eat [...]

Resiliency

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Welcome to another Taking a Moment, a time to remind ourselves that we're all in this together and then we need to take care of ourselves and each other. Today, I want to talk to you about resiliency. I know there's a lot thrown around there about being resilient, and I'm going to let you in on a little secret of psychology. We don't actually know what resiliency is. In fact, resilience is probably a lot like art. You know it when you see it. But I know what it's not. R [...]

Using Imagination and Fantasy

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Today, I'm going to talk to you about using imagination and fantasy to get through the moment. Sometimes our brain and bodies need to be able to concentrate on something that is joyful and pleasurable, something that we have gratitude for, but that is not in front of us. Through COVID-19, we're going to see a lot of things that we wish we had not seen, and we're going to have to do a lot of things that we wish we didn't have to do, and that's part of performing well as a t [...]

Sharing Our Feelings With Our Network

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Welcome to another, taking a moment of time to remind ourselves that we're all in this together and we need to take care of ourselves and each other. Today, I want to talk to you about how we share our feelings with our network, either our actual social network online or our social network in real life, and how we do that without scaring people or without violating HIPAA. One of the things that we keep talking about is the power of human connection. But, what do you do when your human con [...]

Asking "Why?"

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Welcome to another Taking a Moment, a time to remind us that we're all in this together, and we need to take care of ourselves and each other. I want to talk to you about a burning question that we all have on our minds, which is "Why? Why did this have to happen? Why did they not have enough PPE stockpiled? Why did this person get it, and that person didn't get it? Why can't people socially distance the way that I know that they should?" So here's the problem: nobod [...]

Taking Breaks and Leave

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Welcome to another Taking a Moment, a time to remind us that we're all in this together and we need to take care of ourselves and each other. Today, I want to talk to you about why it's important to take breaks and to take a leave if necessary. Look, no matter how many tips we provide and how many skills you can put to use, there are times when it can just be too much and your system will go into overload and you just need to step away. You need to rest and you need to rejuvenate and [...]

Getting Sleep

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

Today I'm going to talk to about how to help yourself go to sleep at night. Sleep is so important in all that you're doing, and it's really important in recovering from what you see and feel during the day. If we're not getting enough rest, we don't have the capacity to make good decisions in quick ways and we need to be able to do that in preparation for our surge for COVID-19. So we have to be getting good sleep, and sometimes your body just needs to know that everything [...]

Trouble Sleeping During COVID-19? Advice from an expert

When talk of the coronavirus first started, my 8-year-old daughter was coming downstairs 20 minutes after we had put her to bed, which was unusual for her. At first, she couldn’t explain why she was having trouble sleeping, but as COVID-19 quickly became an inescapable part of our lives, we knew this must be the cause. One night before bed, I sat down and spoke with my daughter about the virus, how it affects people and why we are taking the precautions of staying safe and staying home. Sh [...]

Remembering When

Taking a Moment: Mindful ways to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic

With all of our talk about staying present, and we have talked about that a lot, that's like a psychiatry, psychology thing, there are times when our current present is so surreal and so out of the ordinary that we need to reflect back on a time that's more stable and that's more comfortable to us. And, that's when you can think back to those times and compare them to the current reality. I'll give you an example. Remember when we could feel like we just wasted surgical ma [...]