Mental health awareness and pandemic impact

EASTON, Md. –  With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, 47 ABC spoke with Morgan Foster, a family law Attorney at MDSW of Easton.

In her experience with working with families and handling disputes, she noted that the pandemic created heightened mental health issues among those who aren’t normally predisposed to chronic mental health issues.

She points to the increased isolation and alone time as well as the immense stress put on essential workers, especially those in health care.

With that, she also pointed to the mental health care system being overwhelmed during this time, limiting people’s access to valuable resources.

“There’s a lot of sources of data that all point to the same thing, which is a dramatic uptick in the need to access mental healthcare.”

She also mentioned the disparities she noticed in how different generations handle mental health issues, saying older generations tend to be more dismissive of apparent mental health problems and less likely to address them as opposed to younger ones.

That is one of the reasons why Foster says this month is so important to bring attention to the fact everyone struggles and all deserve proper care.