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COVID anniversary shines new light on effort to support doctors’ mental health

COVID anniversary shines new light on effort to support doctors’ mental health

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). As the fifth anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns approaches, bipartisan lawmakers and medical professionals across the country are rallying behind a bill that would address a growing crisis in the healthcare field. Dr. Lorna Breen was chief of the ER department at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Known by colleagues as a tireless worker who cared about patients and protocol, Breen committed suicide while on a short break in Virginia in the midst of the pandemic to get a break from the high-pressure world of emergency medical care. A New York Times story quoted Breen’s father as calling her death a “casualty” of the pandemic and said she had no history of mental illness, but had seemed “detached” as of late. Proponents of the Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act told Fox News Digital that the mental strain, burnout, and stress of working in a high-pressure, life-saving field demand stronger support systems. A recent study from a North Carolina healthcare group showed that more than half of doctor-respondents said they wouldn’t go into the primary care field if they could “do it all over again.” According to its proponents, the Lorna Breen Act provides billions of dollars in resources to help prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among healthcare professionals. Two longtime ER physicians who are leading the charge on the nongovernmental side of things spoke with Fox News Digital this week. Dr. Randy Pilgrim – chief medical officer for SCP Health – and Dr. Bentley Tate, the emergency room company’s chief wellness officer – both have decades of experience working in the high-pressure field and said that now, as the U.S. looks back at the COVID-19 pandemic, is the time to bring this issue to the fore. SCP Health works across 35 states and is a leading voice on mental healthcare for physicians, they jointly said. Doctor wellness must be a major priority, and is often overlooked, Pilgrim said, noting that patients come to doctors to better their own health, and that it is, rightly for the patient, a one-way street in that regard. “Patients can’t be faulted for the fact that when they come to their clinician, their physician or other clinician, they really are thinking mostly about their own health and how they can improve that,” he said. AMERICANS SPLIT ON COVID 5 YEARS AFTER THE PANDEMIC “For many, many centuries there has been this phrase ‘Physician, heal thyself’, which is variably interpreted. But in the context of this, it means the healthier the doctor is, the more available they are for the patients themselves.” “So, as mental health issues became more and more prevalent, more and more transparent, and more and more acknowledged that the stresses of the healthcare workforce are significant. It became very clear that destigmatizing that as well as providing resources to help, that was a very real phenomenon,” Pilgrim added. “Patients don’t come to us saying, ‘Doctor, are you OK?’ But at the end of the day, they want to know that we are [well] and it’s our responsibility to be that way.” Mental health strains on physicians were largely an “underground phenomenon” until COVID-19 put physicians’ well-being into the forefront of the news. During the pandemic, gurneys were rolled out in front of overburdened urban hospitals, and physicians, both rural and otherwise, were working long shifts, resulting in burnout and strain. “Physician suicide is the far end and very unfortunate far end of that spectrum,” Tate said. LINGERING LUNG DISORDERS 5 YEARS AFTER COVID “But there are so many people who are frustrated, who are weary. And the reality is, we all lose when a physician retires ten years before they thought they were – or 10 years into their career, with so many years of training [goes and] transitions into where they’re not seeing patients directly, but some other aspect of health care because they just got so frustrated or worn down or frankly, in a bad mental state.” When doctors step away from patients for such personal reasons, the entire healthcare system loses, Tate said. When physicians are well and in the right frame of mind, patients benefit. Pilgrim, who has also worked directly to push for Lorna Breen Act legislation, added that there is bipartisan acknowledgment that U.S. doctors need Congress’ full support. “At the end of the day, people realize this is about helping clinicians, but mainly so that they can help patients – But this is a patient-centered act. So, that’s really easy to unify around,” he said. With the advent of DOGE scrutinizing every dollar the feds spend, there is also a new focus on how to pay for things like this act, Pilgrim added. “People are looking for relatively small amounts of dollars that will have a relatively large and outsized impact,” he said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “And this actually is another thing that unifies congressmen and women is that this is a relatively small money in the grand scheme of things. And if you can impact just a single physician and make them him or her better, the hundreds to thousands of patients that benefit from that becomes an exponential impact.” Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va. and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. – a doctor himself – are leading the Senate version of the bill, but did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.  Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who is joined by Reps. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., on the House version said Thursday that the act is truly bipartisan and that she will work hard to pass it so that “doctors, nurses, physicians, and all healthcare providers can take care of themselves as they care for their patients.” “Healthcare professionals dedicate their lives to serving their patients, often at the expense of their

Using LMS to improve store performance metrics in retail

Using LMS to improve store performance metrics in retail

A retail LMS enhances performance by improving sales, customer service, inventory management, loss prevention, and employee productivity. It enables role-based training, interactive modules, & progress tracking to refine skills, boost efficiency, & ensure seamless operations, driving business growth

Military chiefs to thrash out Ukraine peacekeeping proposal amid Russia war

Military chiefs to thrash out Ukraine peacekeeping proposal amid Russia war

Military personnel from more than 30 countries convening in the United Kingdom this week plan to thrash out the scope and scale of a ceasefire enforcement mission to Ukraine, military sources have told Al Jazeera. The meeting comes two weeks after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that a “coalition of the willing” would work on a peace plan to present to United States President Donald Trump, who has put Washington’s support of the war-torn country into doubt. “They’re looking very seriously… at what is required, what countries can contribute,” said a senior military source with knowledge of the discussion, insisting on anonymity to speak freely. “It needs to be a maximalist approach, so then we can see whether the US can provide any enablers,” the source said. “This is an opportunity for the Europeans to step up. This is quite exciting… We can still do this quite quickly.” Enablers include air, land and sea transport, long-range fires, drones, counter-drones and air missile defence, where the US excels and Europe still lags behind. Advertisement A Ukraine peacekeeping implementation force would require many “tens of thousands” of troops, military analysts told Al Jazeera, if it is to sit between Ukraine’s standing army, about a million-strong, and Russia’s invading armies, now believed to number about 650,000, backed by a government in Moscow hostile to the idea of multinational peacekeepers. In addition, the US may be there only in a supporting capacity. Trump told reporters last month he expected Europe to take the lead on securing Ukraine. “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” he said on February 26. “We’re going to have Europe do that.” That onerous burden seems well beyond the requirements of the so-called “Ceasefire Toolkit” drafted in secret by US, Russian and Ukrainian military experts and published this month. It suggested that 5,000 police and 10,000 supporting military personnel would be enough to monitor a 5km-wide (3-mile) buffer zone along the entire front. However, this was based on Russia consenting to a pullback of heavy military equipment, the creation of humanitarian corridors and joint military coordination. The majority of countries volunteering forces are from the European Union, but non-EU countries, such as Norway and Turkey, as well as countries in the Asia Pacific, have also expressed an interest. “If you fail to get a peace in Europe, elsewhere in the world you could have implications, and there could be repercussions in the Pacific,” said the military source, explaining the interest of non-Europeans. Advertisement One idea does seem to be agreed upon – that a ceasefire has to come first. “I can’t see any circumstances under which a European country would put forces in Ukraine while there’s still a war going on,” said the source. European casualties could trigger NATO’s Article 5 mutual defence clause without Russia having attacked a NATO member, said the source. “Article 5 is sacrosanct. It is the one thing that Putin respects. It is the one thing that deters him from attacking a NATO country. We need to safeguard that.” What would the force do? General Ben Hodges, a former commander of US forces in Europe, said, “With peacekeeping, you think of blue helmets, a UN mandate… which the Russians never respect and will not have a prayer of being successful in this case,” adding that the force has to have “real deterrent capabilities”. Apart from armour, firepower and enablers, the force must have “the authority to use them immediately”, Hodges told Al Jazeera. “If a Russian drone comes flying overhead, then they need to be able to shoot it down immediately, not have to call Brussels or some capital to ask permission,” he said. “The Russians will of course test all this in the first few hours.” Contributing countries have not yet agreed on this authority. “I don’t think there is any consensus yet,” said the military source. Russia has made clear it is hostile to the idea of a multinational force in Ukraine. In an interview last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the initiative an “audacious stance”, amounting to “a continuation of provoking the Kyiv regime into war with us”. Advertisement The positioning of the force is also a key decision. “If it is a force that is intended to be in the zone of separation between the Russians and Ukrainians, that could be a substantially large number,” said Hodges, because the line of contact is currently 1,000km (621 miles) long, and because troops would have to be rotated in and out over a long period – perhaps years. The other possibility would be to install a reaction force stationed behind Ukrainians, “where if Russia did something, these guys would be deployed forward to deal with it”, said Hodges. This would be safer for the troops, he said, but “probably initially less effective, because the Russians would be testing how long it takes them to react”. Can Europe do it? The UK and France are leading the effort to glue this multinational force together. They are old hands at this, having led the formation of victorious coalitions in two world wars. Their more recent history has been patchy. France’s last major overseas operations to push armed groups out of Mali and the Sahel ended in failure. The last time the UK mobilised was for the second Gulf War in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2009. Today, their standing armies are 140,000 (UK) and 202,000 (France) according to the Military Balance published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. French President Emmanuel Macron first raised the possibility of French troops in Ukraine in February last year, but his lieutenants quickly spun that into a peacekeeping force, not a combat force aligned with Ukraine. Advertisement Starmer announced that the UK was willing to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force ahead of a Paris summit on February 17. European purse strings were loosened when Europe’s leaders agreed earlier this month to keep defence spending increases

What’s happening in Yemen? A breakdown of the Houthi-US violence

What’s happening in Yemen? A breakdown of the Houthi-US violence

A new crisis is brewing near one of the world’s most crucial shipping lanes as Yemen’s Houthis and the United States square off. The US injured and killed more than 100 people in strikes in Yemen on Saturday night, according to Yemeni media and sources. The Houthis claimed a response on a US warship on Sunday evening, and the US bombed Yemen again after that. What led to this tit-for-tat? Who started it? And what’s the purpose? Here’s what we know. What happened in Yemen? The US has bombed Yemen for two nights in a row now, claiming to be targeting Houthi leaders. The result on the ground has been the death of 53 people so far, including children. Nearly 100 other people have been injured in the attacks. Where were the attacks? US attacks have hit Sanaa – the capital city controlled by the Houthis – and its surrounds, as well as the northern governorate of Saada and the port of Hodeidah. (Al Jazeera) Who’s being targeted? US officials say they are targeting Houthi leaders. The Houthis, however, say children were among the killed and circulated photos of the alleged victims. Advertisement “[Trump’s] strikes were very clearly going after Houthi leadership, and didn’t seem to care if any civilians got in the way,” Nick Brumfield, an independent Yemen analyst, told Al Jazeera. “The strikes in Sanaa targeted a residential neighbourhood known to house a lot of Houthi leaders.” A man gestures as he searches in the rubble of a house hit by a US attack in Saada, Yemen, March 16, 2025 [Naif Rahma/Reuters] What does the US want? The US says it will bomb Yemen until the Houthis stop, with President Donald Trump claiming that the Houthis had “targeted our Troops and Allies”. Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have also claimed that Iran is behind the Houthis’ actions and that it was now “on notice”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he had coordinated the attacks on Yemen with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Did the Houthis hit back? The Houthis claimed two attacks on the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman and its warships. The US has not commented. The Houthis denounced the attacks by the US and the United Kingdom, which did not partake in the actual bombing but helped with refuelling, according to the BBC. Houthi spokespeople pledged retaliation for the US attacks. Trump administration officials coordinate with Russia and put Iran ‘on notice’ [File: White House/Handout via Reuters] Why is Iran catching heat? US officials claim Iran is heavily backing the Houthi activities in the Red Sea. Some claim the group is an Iranian proxy, though many analysts and think tanks such as Brookings and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) instead consider them a willing partner. Advertisement Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US government “has no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy”. “End support for Israeli genocide and terrorism,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. “Stop killing of Yemeni people.” What started this? On March 2, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza, renewing the starvation of an enclave in desperate need of food and medicine. Five days later, Houthi chief Abdelmalak al-Houthi set a four-day deadline – if Israel did not reopen the crossings and allow aid in, the Houthis would resume attacking Israel-linked ships passing through Bab al-Mandeb Strait on their way to the Suez Canal. On March 11, spokesperson Yahya Saree announced the resumption of the Houthis’ Red Sea operations against Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, as well as Bab al-Mandeb. The Houthis have been attacking ships connected to Israel since November 2023 to pressure Israel to end its war on Gaza. The attacks stopped when a ceasefire was declared in Gaza on January 19, and the Houthis complied. “They did shoot at an F-16 a few weeks back after the FTO [designation] and downed an MQ-9 saying it was in Hodeidah airspace; but in terms of shipping, they’ve abided by what they said they were going to do,” Brumfield said. On March 4, the Trump administration reapplied the “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO) designation to the Houthis about four years after his predecessor, Joe Biden, removed it. What effect have the Houthi attacks had to date? The Red Sea receives almost 15 percent of global sea trade. Advertisement The Houthi attacks have forced much of that trade to take a much longer, more expensive route around the southern coast of Africa, raising insurance costs and affecting inflation rates globally. The Houthis’ attacks have reportedly killed eight people and wounded others. Most of their attacks have not resulted in casualties. Will the Houthis be deterred by the US attacks? If their spokesmen are to be believed, probably not. The Houthis’ Supreme Political Council said they would not be deterred but would “escalate the situation to a more severe and dire level”. “Targeting civilians demonstrates America’s inability to confront the situation,” the statement added. In the past, the Houthis’ Red Sea attacks and the subsequent US attacks on Yemen only helped the group’s ability to recruit fighters. While these attacks may be bigger than what the Houthis previously experienced, there is little sign they are willing to give in. Nassrudin Amer, a Houthi spokesman, wrote on X: “Our position is clear and our demand is simple: lifting the siege on Gaza and saving the people of Gaza from starvation.” Adblock test (Why?)