Well, they came to grieve, share stories, and remember the lives of lost loved ones.

Hundreds gathered at a candlelight vigil held Saturday marking the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey.

Joining together at a community farm and wall for the ceremony.

It's home to Ramis heart.

That's the first permanent Covid memorial in the U.S., where thousands of smooth, palm sized rocks bearing the names of those who died from COVID are arranged in heart shaped displays.

Five years later, we are still adapting to the significant changes ushered in by the pandemic.

Nowhere is that more true than perhaps our local hospitals and nursing homes, where health care workers were on the front lines witnessing trauma day after day.

Our mental health writer, Bobby Brier looked into what new supports have emerged for those workers since then, and the help that's still needed.

Bobby joins me now.

Bobby.

Wow, what a look back you did at this.

Let's just remind folks what these workers were up against.

What were they seeing and what were they being challenged with?

Absolutely.

You know, day in and day out from, you know, North, central and South Jersey.

We saw, doctors and nurses, confronting sickness and death, and proportions that we had never seen before.

Right.

Right.

Now, if we were to look five years back, we have about close to, nearly 40,000 people who have passed away due to the pandemic.

Doctors and nurses saw a majority of that.

And it's something that they were already facing when it came to burnout, even before the pandemic.

So when they saw all of this happening, it just added to the stress that they're already facing.

In light of that, a lot of hospitals and programs now are offering more wellness packages, to these, doctors and nurses so they're able to kind of confront, some of that lingering trauma that they've experienced.

Yeah, I mean, the burnout was an issue.

Like you said, staffing shortages were felt prior to the pandemic.

Then we know it led to an exodus of people.

Does it seem like these hospital executives have sort of heard the call from their workers and really done what they need to do to to meet them where they're at?

They've certainly done more since the pandemic.

For example, there's been, some support staff in place, wellness directors, they're called to offer kind of, peer to peer support.

That would look like a doctor or a nurse, being trained to walk through a series of questions in order to help, another nurse or doctor within their hospital, to go through, mental health support if they need it.

They're also doing things like stress, first aid training.

This is, personal individual supports that somebody could learn how to cope with the stress or distress that they've been experiencing day in and day out.

They're also offering, in some cases, free mental health support, to doctors and nurses and their families.

So they are definitely approaching this issue with a lot more energy and vigor, experts have said.

And the reason for that really is because they know that they need a workforce that could take care of themselves, while also taking care of other people.

So there have been steps made, but there is still a long way to go, from the experts that I've spoken to.

Yeah.

What do we know about the uptake, about whether or not employees are using these services and in turn, whether they're working?

You know, it's varies by case by case and hospital by hospital.

Certainly.

People are certainly more aware of their own mental health needs.

But other health care professionals that I've spoken to have said that while in some cases working alongside other nurses and doctors in these ICUs during the height of the pandemic was kind of a bonding experience.

There's still a lot of stigma when it comes to seeking mental health support among doctors and nurses.

Some of that is a fear that they don't want employers or licensing boards to know that they have may've, sought out mental health in the past.

They thought it might be a detriment to getting a job, or to, keeping their job currently.

So they're worried that if they go ahead and say, hey, I need some mental health support, that that could actually cause them to lose their job in some cases.

Yeah.

And I think there's even just the fear of that happening.

Maybe if it's not happening day by day, but it's just the fear of, showing that, you know, they might be seen as a weakness if they, if they put this on a resume, or that they have sought this in the past.

You know, there's still issues, when it comes to that.

But experts have said that in order to really take care of people, you need to take care of your own mental health.

So they're encouraging people, doctors, nurses, hospital staff to continue to take care of their own mental health regardless of that.

Yeah.

I mean, certainly we're told that in our in our own day to day, right.

Very quickly, are there health care systems you looked at where it seems like they've really kind of taken the bull by the horns, as you've said, you know, with vigor to do this and other health care systems that are maybe a bit behind.

What did you find?

Yeah.

You know, virtual, health in South Jersey has really done a lot towards employee mental health.

They've offered programs like I had mentioned, the stress first aid trainings, the peer support programs.

They're also offering a program called Care Bridge that essentially allows for, six free mental health sessions, what they call per occurrence.

That's essentially, if somebody goes through a divorce, has work related mental health stress or a grievance, or, excuse me, or grieving the death of a loved one.

So there's there's certainly those supports in place.

Meanwhile, there's other programs statewide that still offer those virtual.

It seems from my reporting, has really gone above and beyond in many situations to address some of those mental health needs by hiring a wellness director in 2022.

So there's certainly those, supports in place.

It still remains to be seen, though, how effective they are, statewide for a lot of, the doctors and nurses here.

So.

Yeah, which is obviously a key measure, right.

Bobby Prior's full reporting on this will be on our website tomorrow and J spotlight news.org with a full look back.

And what supports are in place.

Bobby, thanks so much for coming in.

Thanks, Brianna.