When employees at Premiere Medical Associates started doing drive-thru testing two weeks ago, they expected a lot of calls but they said out of the 2,000 calls they receive each week, a huge portion are from people needing help coping with things like anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder. “We are social beings, we are not meant to isolate,” said Susan Roy a licensed clinical social worker for PMA.
Roy is working to get a Care Chatline up and running to help those struggling with all the life changes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. “Eighty percent of those calls were related to mental-health issues,” Roy said. “People who are alone, people saying they can’t be with their loved one.