Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – The Clallam County Board of Health had their monthly meeting this afternoon. Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank opened the meeting and talked about her office’s shift in messaging to emphasize the mental health implications of the pandemic on our community.

She compared people’s reactions to the pandemic with those of other kinds of disasters such as earthquakes.

“But after any disaster, whether it be covid-19, a hurricane, earthquake, you will always enter a period of disillusionment when you’ll see an increase in poor behavioral health outcomes. So…overdoses, unfortunately suicides, violence, that’s really kind of where we are right now. So we are in that disillusionment part of the behavioral health response to a disaster.”

The good news, she says, is that we’re nearing the end of that phase as a community. On the other hand, Dr. Unthank believes that if we have another major spike in cases that takes us off the course of opening schools and businesses and leads to more shutdowns, we’d likely prolong what she called ”this period of disillusionment”.

The latest messaging from Dr. Unthank’s office is about we can take care of ourselves during this time and the resources that are available for folks who are struggling and could use some help.

“We really encourage folks actually to not just isolate at home, but to decide on kind of a “quarantine buddy” household that you will interact with as we move into the fall and winter months. You do need people in your life. It just needs to be a small group of people and there are many activities that you can do safely. So going for a walk with a friend or a bike ride or run, things that you can do outside. But even if you need to have a friend over to your house, that is certainly much safer than having multiple different friends over the week.”

If you’re really struggling and you need someone to talk to about getting help, Dr. Unthank urges you to call the Crisis Hotline at 888-910-0416.