This opinion piece by Benjamin Herbstman, MD, MHS and Holly Blatman, MD was first published on April 7, 2020 in The Boston Globe. The potential consequences of noncompliance are being outweighed by the human desire to find comfort from loneliness and feelings of helplessness by gathering in groups. Given the current wartime reality in health care facilities battling COVID-19, it can be difficult to understand why all of us are not taking...

The following piece was originally published on Alexandra Harrison’s blog entitled Supporting Child Caregivers in April 2020, which can be found here. We have talked about infants and young children in the time of COVID. It is important now to talk about the experience of school children and adolescents. These kids have some of the same problems we have discussed in relation to younger children, and they have some different problems. The...

The following piece was originally published on Alexandra Harrison’s blog entitled Supporting Child Caregivers in April 2020, which can be found here. Talking to parents the past couple of weeks has impressed upon me in full force the stress we are all under. It is clear that it is not “business as usual” on the home front. The stresses are mounting. Parents are worried about poor work performance or even losing their jobs. They are stuck...

The following piece was originally published on Alexandra Harrison’s blog entitled Supporting Child Caregivers in March 2020, which can be found here. The World is a Different Place I just received an email from a colleague notifying me of the cancelation of a professional meeting that we had been scheduled to participate in. He said, “The world is a different place,” and I was struck by how true that was. As all of you, I have been...

Sarah Birss, MD, Ann Epstein, MD, and Judith Arons, LICSW (1947-2014), received the Arthur R. Kravitz Award for Community Action and Humanitarian Contributions in 2011 for their creative and committed work applying psychoanalytic and developmental principles in training therapists to do psychotherapy with parents and infants at the Infant Parent Training Institute at JF&CS of Greater Boston. Drs. Epstein’s and Birss’s...

The following piece was originally published on Alexandra Harrison’s blog entitled Supporting Child Caregivers in March 2020, which can be found here. Many parents may worry about how to talk to their children about the corona epidemic. I would advise following the guidelines for any important conversation with your children. (1) The first is to be truthful. (2) The second is to be brief. (3) The third is to use language your child can...