Mental Illness - The Post-Infection Phase of the Pandemic: Effects and Implications

Mental Illness - The Post-Infection Phase of the Pandemic: Effects and Implications

Mental Illness - The Post-Infection Phase of the Pandemic: Effects and Implications

In a matter of just six hours on Saturday, June 12, four mass shootings took place, one each in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah, leaving 38 injured and six dead. The same week, three masked men opened fire on a crowd at a concert venue in Miami. Also in the same seven days in June, a freeway shootout in Orange County (CA) left one six-year-old boy dead, and officials in Atlanta reported that the thirtieth freeway shooting inthat city this year had happened, bringing the total killed to 13. Early in the same week, a fan at an NBA playoff game spat on a player, and another fan in a different game dumped popcorn on a player’s head while yelling obscenities. Within a few days, a driver headed his SUV into a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis, killing one and injuring three others. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that from January through that same week in June, it had handled more than 3,000 officially filed cases of passenger disruptions, a figure more than twenty times the FAA’s normal investigations for such incidents. These are just a few of the news stories reported in that 10-day period in June. What do all of these actions have in common? An event that happened the week after the FAA’s announcement hinted at a common theme. A Delta flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta was diverted to Oklahoma City because of an unruly passenger who had attacked flight attendants and had threatened to bring down the plane. After police arrested the man and escorted him off the plane, they reported that he exhibited “signs of mental health issues.” All of this frustration, anger, irritability, inability to concentrate and general disruption of personality and perspective will show up in the office when employees return to their corporate desks. The first need for businesses is to understand the severity and extent of the problem in their employee base, and the second need for businesses is to put together an effective response to the situation. 

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