Creating More Wellness in this Time of Sickness

After I got home from work last night, I went for a run and I was really impressed with the number of people who were out walking or running in my neighborhood. I started to think that this might be another good thing to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic – a new push towards better overall health.

Behind frail elders, those with chronic diseases are at the second highest risk for death related to COVID-19. Unhealthy habits like smoking, overeating, and not exercising can cause conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), obesity, and diabetes – now, more than ever, it’s critical to reduce these habits. Wouldn’t it be great if people took this as an opportunity to focus on their health as a whole?

Our “Virtual” Walk for a Great Cause
I want to thank everyone who participated in our fifth annual Walk a Mile in Their Shoes event. We had over 300 participants, who walked or ran 2,501.76 miles (three times our goal of 725 miles!), helping us to raise more than $67,500 for our Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) and Domestic Violence program.

In response to the pandemic, we created a VIRTUAL version of this annual event. It is great to see that the support and participation from our community was even stronger than with the previous in-person events. COVID-19 did not deter people from shedding light on the extremely important issues of sexual assault and domestic violence in our community. I am grateful for their commitment to the cause even through this crisis. Walk a Mile in Their Shoes allows GBMC to provide the necessary services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at no cost to our patients.

I want to thank the GBMC Foundation, our Volunteer Auxiliary, and all parties who virtually walked with us to make this year’s event a major success!

Thank you to our social workers
I want to extend my appreciation to our social workers who are doing so much during these challenging times. As COVID-19 continues to impact more individuals and communities, our social workers are working on the frontlines side-by-side with our clinicians to maintain preventative and treatment services for all of our patients. I have always been impressed by the resourcefulness and fortitude of this group and we are truly fortunate to have such a talented and hard-working group of social workers on our team.

Give a much-needed morale boost to your colleagues
Over the last several weeks, many members of the community have shared encouraging messages for our nurses, doctors and other members of our workforce on social media. I’m very appreciative of the community’s efforts to encourage our dedicated healthcare workers.

I want to extend the same opportunity to all the GBMC family who might be interested in sending along positive thoughts to their coworkers.

Remember we are all in this together! I hope you take advantage of this opportunity and click here to offer your words of encouragement to a colleague.

Happy Passover and Easter
As we learn to live with the challenges of sheltering in place and social distancing, I hope that many of you will still be able to maintain a part of your holiday traditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For those staff members working during their spring holiday, a special thank you for taking care of those who are ill during this time. I grateful for all of you. I want to offer my best wishes to everyone celebrating Passover and Easter.