The mosaic of Covid-consciousness

I studied Psychology at the University of South Florida, as I have always been interested in helping others (including myself!) to overcome difficult situations. As I attended classes, I was happy to find work at a voluntary inpatient treatment centre for mental health and substance abuse that combined alternative therapies with traditional psychology and psychiatry. I liked that the clinical staff inspired clients to work from a place of internal motivation, helped them to solidify their therapeutic insights into actionable and long lasting behavioural changes, and provided a realistic setting and schedule for them to practice using healthy behaviours that they could translate into their regular lives afterwards.

While working at this treatment centre as a behavioural health technician supervisor, I would often sit in on sessions run by our art therapist. My favourite was when she would cut up an artwork into small squares, shuffle them up, and pass them out to our clients, adults – many of them professionals – who were suffering from a variety of mental health and/or substance use disorders. None of them had seen the original artwork, and often their small square would look like a few abstract lines and colours, without context or meaning in itself. Some squares, however, had defining features in them – like an eye, or a part of an object that held meaning in the work. 

They weren't allowed to show others their squares. Instead, it was each of their assignments to (without tracing) redraw their square piece the best they could on a larger square, and bring it to the session the next day. It was then that they were informed that each of their squares was in fact all part of one cohesive artwork. They could now share their renditions with each other, with the aim to arrange them back into the original whole.

Oftentimes, there was a mix of results. There were some clients who did not do the assignment and had a blank square, some who were jokers and drew something silly, some who drew theirs really quickly and sloppily, without much attention to, or care for, accuracy. And some who made near perfect replicas. 

For those with the key feature pieces, it was especially important that they have their pieces correctly displayed, as it really helped give context to the work, and made arranging it all the quicker and more accurate. After they arranged it to what they thought it should look like, the art therapist showed them the original complete picture. 

Sometimes theirs was close. Sometimes not. But, regardless, everyone learned important things in the process: 

• We can get a more accurate idea of the big picture if we share our individual pieces honestly, and to the best of our ability, with others.
• Even if our piece seems to have no form or meaning, every piece is important, and sharing it helps us make sense of it.
• Some of us may have received pieces with essential features that can provide a lot of help to the group when arranging the abstract parts into a meaningful, coherent whole. 
• Even if we are missing pieces, have some false information, or some pieces that don't exactly connect due to translation errors, we can often figure out enough to understand what the big picture is and account for those errors when we have enough pieces. 

I continued working there after I graduated with my Bachelor's in Psychology from the University of South Florida. During my time at University, I had read plenty on coping mechanisms, cognitive-behavioural individual therapies, and DSM diagnoses. I had an understanding of psychological dynamics underpinning many mental health and substance abuse disorders. However, it was in my four years of hands-on experience working as a behavioural health technician supervisor, witnessing the power of alternative group therapies, that left the biggest imprint on me. 

Life under new terms

Unfortunately, I had to leave my work in the field of psychology in 2011 when I was blind-sided by a heart attack at the age of 26, and diagnosed with a rare small blood vessel vasculitis called Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with PolyAngiitis (EGPA), also known as Churg-Strauss Syndrome. The disease is a chronic autoimmune condition which is triggered by exposure to allergens (for me this includes even small amounts of cat and dog dander). Exposure can cause an inflammatory cascade of events leading to blood vessel inflammation and can result in serious organ damage. It requires being on immunosuppressants, strict avoidance of allergens, and dealing with regular bouts of asthma, fatigue, and joint pain.

It was a difficult process learning to navigate life under new terms, and with new limitations. I also was a new mother, and sole caretaker, to a beautiful son. This gave me much strength and determination to find a way to live to my best health ability. He also has life threatening food allergies, and environmental allergies. So, allergy awareness and connecting with others who are supportive was tantamount for us, and has allowed us to maintain a good quality of life despite our respective health issues. These personal experiences solidified the power that support networks can have in navigating complex situations that a person facing alone could be very overwhelmed by. 

In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic happened, we were already homeschooling and had been living a lifestyle for ten years that involved choosing activities mindfully, being fully prepared, self advocating, finding alternatives that fit with our health conditions, and using tools to reduce serious risks to health and wellbeing. Although Covid-19 was different, and posed new challenges, it felt very familiar to us. We had a head start. 

The combination of lived experience, along with a psychology education, and a working background at a mental health and substance abuse treatment centre, really provided me with hands-on experience in certain niche areas very pertinent to the Covid-19 crisis, such as: 

• overcoming denial, 
• providing insight into current behaviours, 
• educating oneself on a complex illness
• discovering ways to disengage with harmful practices, and 
• developing ways to connect with supportive communities that honour health, values, and lifestyle.

Even though I had limited abilities to work, I felt I held one of those important pieces, and that I needed to share my piece of the Mosaic with others. The pandemic drew me back into psychology work, now as a volunteer.

Pieces of a complex picture 

My advocacy efforts started off very much as a lone masker in my community, just making hand drawn comics with my son to help us implement the latest Covid-19 research and tools into our routine in a way that we could understand and playfully show to others.

Originally I thought it might just be us higher risk families who had to be extra careful. And even if so, I knew we needed others to be aware of the risks and preventions in order to be safe. Sequential art is often used as a therapeutic practice, providing a way to identify and work through problems, role-play situations, and find solutions. We created a website with strategies of staying safe in a variety of styles from comics to writings to sharing others' works.

However, when it comes to something with wide-ranging impacts, like the Covid-19 pandemic, we all hold different pieces of a complex picture, and none of us can determine with our piece alone what the whole picture looks like. We need to not just examine our pieces, but also to communicate with others, and start arranging them into a bigger picture. When there was little interest in my physical community with gathering together masked and in places with improved ventilation and filtration, or talking about Covid-19 at all, I began looking online, and developed skills to connect virtually.

It was online, in 2022, that I discovered and joined the World Health Network (WHN), a network of people from around the world and across a variety of fields, volunteering time and talents to find ways to end the pandemic. I joined virtual daily calls, further developed my skills with online and virtual platforms, and worked with teams on focused projects, as well as connected with people outside of the network at virtual symposiums and expos. It felt very much like bringing my little square rendition together with others: trying to match it up with their pieces, seeing where it fit in, and mapping out a bigger picture solution.

I joined social media groups as well, where we shared research, experiences, and support, and even found people in my area who are Covid-conscious – that is, living while keeping Covid-19 risks in mind and regularly using preventions. The power of groups to create accessible spaces, whether it be renting out a dental office, group eye tests, or trips to museums, has made what would be near impossible to the individual, now possible with a coordinated group.

I also volunteer with a group called Air Support Project that is developing an open-source, affordable commercialized fan-and-filter air purifier based on the popular DIY CR-Box concept. One barrier to getting air cleaners into places like schools where people gather in high numbers is the lack of affordable, quiet, and efficient technology. However, because masking and air quality go hand in hand as infection prevention methods, this is but another important piece in creating a big picture strategy for mitigating spread.

When enough research on long COVID emerged and it became apparent that Covid-19 can affect not just the vulnerable or elderly during the acute infection, but people of any age or health status (including those with asymptomatic or mild initial infections) in the long-term, there became an even more urgent imperative to spread awareness and information on how to prevent Covid-19. 

Millions have now developed long Covid, including children and working aged adults, regardless of vaccination status. Like my disease, long Covid can involve blood vessel inflammation, leading to organ damage and serious heart and brain effects that affect quality and length of life. Despite the high number of people developing long Covid and federal government and congressional awareness, widespread public awareness and matching action is lacking. 

Time is of the essence

In my past experience as a behavioural health supervisor, I have witnessed people trying to escape big problems by abusing substances, and/or developing unhealthy coping mechanisms like denial, rationalisation, and procrastination. Although these things provide temporary relief, they can end up extending and multiplying the damage caused by the initial problem. We face similar tactics on a much larger community scale with the Covid and long Covid crises. And time is of the essence.

Our aim as workers in the field of psychology is to provide insight and teach tools that help people disengage with harmful coping mechanisms and discover and use effective ones. One way to do this in regards to Covid-19 is by developing a Mosaic of Covid-consciousness – bringing our individual pieces together and re-opening communication on the topic of Covid-19 to develop a big picture plan for preventing infections. The field of psychology is a perfect place to do this.

One of my current and favourite ways of Mosaic-building is within WHN's children's psychosocial team, a volunteer group with a variety of backgrounds including psychology, teaching, and children's magazine editing. Together we have created Kids' Zone COVID-Conscious magazine, a monthly publication that highlights the science, art, writings, and lifestyle of Covid-conscious families, while keeping a light-hearted tone and modelling Covid prevention tools in today's world. We just published our third issue, a Halloween Edition, available to view and download for free. 

I was also happy to read Aspa Paltoglou's recent article on The Psychologist website, "The Lone Ranger in Covid Town", with her experiences of masking and her emphasis that the pandemic is an ongoing threat to our health and wellbeing that can and should be met with mitigating actions. Masking is one of the most effective individual mitigations a person can take to prevent Covid-19, and can significantly reduce the amount of spread in community settings. By providing space for articles like these, and bringing discussion on Covid-19 to the forefront, The Psychologist is providing exactly the kind of mosaic-building that we need right now to make headway on both the prevention of serious Covid-related health conditions, as well as development of support and accessibility needed for Covid-conscious individuals, families, and communities. 

I hope other psychologists will follow this example. Psychology is a science, and science can protect us from Covid-19 in more than one way. Through psychology, we can begin to understand behavioural motives, and help people change their behaviour in ways that will help them protect their health, their ability to work, their family's health, and our greater community. One of my mentors once said, 'Knowing and doing are two separate things'. It is in the 'doing' that psychology, and psychologists, have a unique position to help – first and foremost, by fostering open and honest communication on the topic of Covid-19 with their colleagues and clients. Second, by consciously engaging in continued education on Covid-19 risks and preventions. And third, by identifying common psychological barriers and ways of overcoming them. No other field can do this as well as this one. 

Covid-19 is not an easy topic to talk about, but by sharing stories and opening dialogue, we can put together a more complete picture of the problems we face, and make them manageable by facing them together. If there is anything I have learned through my education in the study of human thoughts, motivations, and behaviours, as well as my experiences watching hundreds of clients overcome mental health and substance abuse issues, and of my personal experiences transforming my life after serious health diagnoses, it is that change is possible, and often once we know better, we do better – especially when we have others with us supporting us to establish and maintain the connection between knowing and doing.   

• Learn more on the latest science, research, and information on Covid-19 through the World Health Network. Find more about the Maskers Comic here.