Self-Care for Essential Workers on the Frontlines of COVID-19

Mental Health First Aid teaches that trauma affects people differently, and a mass traumatic event, such as a pandemic, can have lasting effects. Trauma can be direct (your own experience) or vicarious (something you’ve witnessed others experience). COVID-19 checks all those boxes.

There are ways to protect yourself from the mental and emotional impact of COVID-19 trauma. Here are a few tips from the MHFA Curriculum and National Council for Behavioral Health member Jefferson Center for Mental Health (Wheat Ridge, Colorado):

1. Give yourself credit.
2. Go back to basics: Eat, sleep, move.
3. Tackle stressors one at a time.
4. Ask for help.
5. Be kind to yourself.