COVID-19 death tolls recently surpassed the 200,000 mark in the United States alone, which has triggered a visceral mental health crisis nationwide. Vulnerable New Yorkers are no exception to the pandemic’s adverse cognitive effects, and many have turned to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism.

Ellen MacDonald, a clinical social worker and therapist with over 13 years of experience and independent practice says the pandemic can affect your mental health. Photo courtesy of Ellen MacDonald.

Ellen MacDonald, a clinical social worker and therapist with over 13 years of experience and independent practice, said that the pandemic had worsened her clients’ mental illness level.

“I would say that some of my clients who struggled with mental illness and drug and alcohol dependency before the pandemic, struggled even more during the pandemic,” said MacDonald. “At the beginning of the pandemic, there were videos online of some New Yorkers who were struggling with issues of dependency having drug and alcohol Zoom parties.”

MacDonald also said she noticed a higher rate of loneliness, fear, anxiety, and depression since the pandemic hit.

“This may also be related to social unrest, loss of jobs, and the overall economic situation. People are more stressed about those things,” said MacDonald.

The New York City Health Commissioner, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi (@NYCHealthCommr), in a recently tweeted response to the new data report released by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene also addressed the issue. The comprehensive report included data indicating that 44% of NYC adults reported anxiety related to COVID19 while many others reported symptoms of depression in the past two weeks. The report also highlighted resources available to New Yorkers who were struggling mentally.

People in this city have been through so much stress and trauma, and what they’re sharing reflects the difficulty of these recent months. Today @nycHealthy released new data on #COVID19 and New York City: https://t.co/LXPdutmJfL
More data 👇 📈📊📉

— Commissioner Dave A. Chokshi (@NYCHealthCommr) September 22, 2020

In a remote hearing hosted by the New York City Council, Executive Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Hillary Kunins, said that racial disparities had a lot to do with the health issues that New Yorkers faced during the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, Black, LatinX, and Asian New Yorkers have experienced disproportionate health and social burdens from the pandemic,” said Kunins. The reason for adverse mental health also varies across race and ethnicity.” 

Racial and demographical disparities also play a significant role in New Yorkers’ health issues during the pandemic. Generational lines blur as vulnerable New Yorkers face mental health struggles amid the pandemic, and ethnically diverse New York-based Gen-Zers are also experiencing the brunt of the pandemic. 

Dr. Angela Diaz, Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, said that the adolescents that she works with reported feeling more overwhelming anxiety and depression than they have ever experienced before. She also said that they tended to be Black and Latino.

“We surveyed young people from ages 13-25, and we noticed that most of them are smoking more marijuana than ever before,” said Diaz. “Also, over 35% of them said that they didn’t have enough food to eat, and about 21% percent of them needed to go to food pantries and churches to get the resources that they needed.”

Diaz also urged people to have more empathy for adolescents during these unusual times.

“We need to understand that the pandemic has had a tremendous effect on young people in terms of their mental health, education, financial status, and sexual health,” said Diaz. “There aren’t enough resources for young people at this time, and we need to do more.”

According to reports from the Kaiser Family Foundation, before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in five of U.S. adults (47 million) reported having a mental illness, which eventually resulted in functional impairment and limited life activities.

Rabbi Anchelle Perl the Chabad Leader of Mineola, New York, believes that despite the pandemic’s toll on the mental health of New Yorker’s, there is hope. Photo Courtesy of Rabbi Perl

Rabbi Anchelle Perl, Chabad Leader of Mineola, New York, said that he observed that people with pre-existing mental health conditions experienced worse symptoms during the pandemic.

“I think the pandemic has created a sense of confusion for people who were already struggling,” he said.“Their base issues were accentuated by it, and when you have more issues to deal with on top of that, it becomes confusing. “As a community leader, I have made a concerted effort to address the situation by creating a sense of community as much as I can to address the problem of loneliness.”

Rabbi Perl also had a sense of hope regarding the mental health epidemic in New Yorkers.

“We just have to take the basic primary guidelines and go with the faith that we will overcome in the end,” he said. “The fact that we are standing strong and moving forward is the greatest form of comfort that we can give ourselves. We are all in this together, and we are all in the same boat.”

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As the sky began to drizzle today, the late afternoon on the 17th anniversary of September 11th, New York native Timothy Ross closed his umbrella, wiped some lint off his doorman jacket and checked into work at 150 Nassau Street as if it were any other day of the year. But for Ross, this day will always carry more meaning than any other.

At the time of the attacks, Ross and his then wife were living on Gold Street just a mere half mile from where the Twin Towers stood. The Friday before 9/11, he left a job he had for almost 24 years and was looking forward to a nice relaxing week at home.

“When the first plane hit, my wife woke me up, talking about a big explosion and so we turned on the TV,” Ross said as he wiped away a tear. He remained watching the broadcast until the second plane crashed into the second tower.

Ross then immediately took to the streets around City Hall, as he wanted to see the devastation firsthand, and he dove into what he called a mass hysteria. That’s when the first tower collapsed.

“Looking up I saw the first building come down and I sprinted down Beekman Street,” Ross said, “As I looked back I saw a cloud coming at me. I just thought the top of the tower went down, I didn’t realize it was the whole building.”

Although he managed to make it back to his apartment before the wall of debris could get to him, he said looking out of his apartment window the whole building was covered in dust and the sky was as black as night.

He remembered other tenants of the building walking around the halls in a daze, questioning whether to stay in the building or leave and face the unknown. Ross and his wife decided to leave, going to stay with his mother who lived on the north side of the Brooklyn Bridge.

With no power in their building and the National Guard blocking off entrance to the downtown area, Ross remained at his mother’s until a week after the events. When he returned, the atmosphere was somber, with citizens telling each other their stories and everybody asking, “What the hell are we going to do?”

“I’ll always remember the smell of burning electric wire and cement, hazing over the whole area for months,” Ross said as he shook his head. “Even in early 2002 the smells were still there and it was like a lockdown state.”

More than a decade and a half later, Ross described the recovered area around One World Trade Center as a paradise. And fellow New York native Alberto “Al” Pacheco, 40, Ross’s coworker, completely agreed.

“It’s been rebuilt, you know, and it shows how much you have to cherish everything because you never know when it’ll be gone,” Pacheco said. He had been on the J train the morning of 9/11 and was on his way to his first day at a messenger job. He never made into work that day, but stuck around the city to see what was happening.

“I just remember the people helping each other out. Little things like volunteers helping give out water on the Brooklyn Bridge,” he said.

Pacheco said that even after the towers had collapsed, one of his most vivid memories was the New York spirit that arose from the tragedy.

Ross shared that notion of resilience, saying many of his childhood friends who he knew from first grade are still living near the World Trade Center even after the horrific events.

“I was born and raised here, I ain’t going nowhere,” he said. “Where the hell else am I going? If we came through this, we can come through almost anything.”

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by Joanna Bouras

Students, teachers, residents, and counselors from Harlem, Yorkville, and the New York City Housing Authority, marched through drizzle on the Upper East Side yesterday afternoon. They protested and chanted about the construction of the East 91st St. Marine Transfer Station, a garbage dump they worry will destroy their neighborhood and their health.

“We want safe streets, we don’t want cancer, we don’t want asthma, hey ho de Blasio,” the protestors chanted.

They held signs that read, “I am not invisible #dump the dump.” Some children wore face masks to represent the facility’s risks to their lungs.

“We need to protect our community from air pollution, vermin, and danger from garbage trucks,” said Joy Tutiven, of the Upper East Side. “We already have one of the highest air pollution rates in the city.”

Residents hope that the station can be built farther away so they won’t get sick. They worry the pollution will cause asthma and other health problems.

Frank Baraff, 68, a publicist for the organization Pledge 2 Protect, the organizers of the march, doesn’t think the facility should be built at all.

“It’s an obsolete technology,” said Baraff. “We need something better for going forward, such as a better solution for recycling.

Pledge 2 Protect was originally founded to raise awareness about the dangers of the facility. They have since expanded to protect all New Yorkers from the potential health dangers of waste dumps in residential areas.

The Marine Transfer Station, which is scheduled to open in 2016, is a direct response to the 10,000 tons of trash New Yorkers make everyday. The facility is part of then Mayor Bloomberg’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which proposed cutting back on the use of trucks for transporting garbage and instead have the boroughs deal with their own waste. The facility on East 91st Street would be the only one of its kind in a residential neighborhood.

“Trucks six days a week, 24 hours a day and night,” said Tutiven. “People won’t be able to sleep with these huge dirty commercial trucks.”

There are many schools and after school programs in the area, residents said. Parents said they are worried about their children’s safety as well as elderly residents.

“Trucks go fast someone will get hit,” said Nelma Elsayed, 34, a local resident and mother of 3-year-old.

Baraff said that people assume the Upper East Side is a bunch of “rich white people,” when in reality those who are being directly affected are mostly the minorities who live in public housing.

“We are a very diverse neighborhood,” said Barbara Heyman, 80, of the Upper East Side.

Heyman said she is worried that the station would hurt real estate values.

“Those who are renting real estate are going to leave and brownstone properties aren’t going to sell, she said. “Everyone’s taxes will go up and there will be nothing for us to do.”

But the project is already half constructed and has gone far over budget. The costs ballooned from $44 million to $215 million.

Baraff is unsure of what the outcome of the protests will be. He hopes that money, time and energy will be redirected towards recycling advances that will better benefit the state as a whole.

“If we mandate a higher standard of recycling we can reduce the amount of garbage we have, and the need for a facility like this becomes obsolete,” he said.

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