Our Healthcare Heroes Deserve Better

By Evan Low, Assemblymember

Evan Low, D-Silicon Valley, represents District 28 in the California Assembly.

I don’t know if words can adequately express just how much of a debt this country, the state of California, and my community in Santa Clara County owe to health care and frontline workers. We hear the stories of healthcare heroes being the last person to hold a COVID-19 patient’s hand as they take their last breath. We read about frontline staff risking their health and the wellbeing of their families back home to support the mission of saving lives. And we see the pictures of pure fatigue, a level of exhaustion that can be traced by N95 mask-induced scars but all too often runs deeper, resulting in burnout, mental health crises, drug addiction, and other hazardous outcomes.

I was proud to introduce Assembly Bill 562 this legislative session to help alleviate some of the burdens so many of these people have been facing — and continue to face. The bill would establish a temporary mental health resiliency program to provide additional services to frontline COVID-19 providers.

The pandemic placed our physicians, nurses, and other frontline health care workers under enormous stress, and they’ve been carrying this unbelievable weight for more than a year and a half. The trauma these heroes are experiencing didn't evaporate when vaccines became ubiquitous. The hard work is far from over, as the Delta Variant and vaccine hesitancy has tragically ensured. We need urgent action to support these workers by expanding access to mental and behavioral health services.

Last year, a survey of more than 32,000 health care professionals and nurses in California found that more than 10% reported a lack of mental health resources needed to cope during the pandemic. This poll was conducted before the deadliest surge in COVID-19 cases began in December 2020.

In January, the California Health Care Foundation conducted a survey that found 59% of respondents said they were “burned out” from their work, while 83% of those surveyed said that not enough was being done to address the problems facing health care workers.

If a society is best judged by how it treats its most vulnerable people, we should be equally concerned with how we support those who have worked nonstop during a generation-defining crisis.

AB 562 aims to provide free mental and behavioral health services to qualifying frontline healthcare workers. This would include in-person and telehealth services to support mental and behavioral health needs stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Other services would range from counseling and wellness coaching to providing online psychological distress self-assessments and other mental and behavioral health services and tools.

The pandemic shows no signs of abating in the months to come, but President Biden’s order this month to get 100 million Americans vaccinated is a positive step. I hope we can be equally dogged in making sure we give the proper attention to supporting the very people who kept this tragedy from spiraling further out of control.

If you have any ideas on what the Legislature can do to assist yourself, a colleague, or someone you love, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office at (408) 446-2810 or evan.low@asm. ca.gov. Thank you for your sacrifice and stay safe.