In September 2022, Theiss Center Director Dr. Kimberly Blair joined podcast host Dr. Ellen Beckjord and fellow guest Dr. Lyndra Bills, senior medical director at Community Care Behavioral Health Organization, to discuss ways that trauma and anxiety have affected people as our lives shifted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The podcast was part of the Good Health, Better World series.
As noted by Dr. Blair: "In trauma-informed systems, when we’re talking about children and families, one of the primary systems that they deal with throughout childhood is the school system.... With COVID, you have this awareness that most kids right now have had exposure to some sort of trauma. And it has affected them in individual ways. Some kids have had family members pass away, and some kids it’s just a matter of that constant exposure to death and sickness staying with them. And I think a lot of those issues for kids, we’re going to see in the short term. But also, [even] if we were able to eradicate that illness and no one got sick anymore, we still have all of this time with all of this exposure that’s really going to stick with us."