CLEVELAND — Back in September, 3News Senior Health Correspondent Monica Robins moderated a COVID-19 mental health town hall, featuring panelists from Cleveland Clinic who provided guidance and coping strategies to help ease the tension. Monica was also joined on the panel by 3News digital producer Dave 'Dino' DeNatale, who spoke about his battle with depression and thoughts of suicide.
Based on your overwhelming reaction to September's town hall and with the holiday season is upon us, Monica and Dino decided they wanted to do another forum dealing with COVID-19 and mental health.
However, we've also had a huge development in the fight against coronavirus, as a vaccine is now being distributed locally. Many of you undoubtedly had questions about how the process of getting a vaccine for your family will work, is it safe, and much more. So we decided to expand our forum.
3News was proud to present "COVID-19 and Mental Health: A 3News Conversation" on Thursday evening that was shown on WKYC.com, the WKYC app, Facebook Live, and YouTube.
Joining Monica and Dino on the panel were representatives from all three of Cleveland's hospital systems:
- From University Hospitals: Dr. Robert Salata, program director of the Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health, Chair of Department of Medicine, an infectious disease expert, and he is principal investigator of the Pfizer vaccine trial at UH.
- From Cleveland Clinic: Dr. Abhijit Duggal, Pulmonologist, treating Covid patients. Dr. Duggal answered questions about treating COVID, symptoms, what people should watch for, and more.
- From MetroHealth: Dr. Sheerli Ratner, psychologist. Dr. Ratner answered questions about mental health and the impacts that this pandemic has on children and adults.
We thank all of you who sent questions for our panel to answer and apologize to those who we did not get to during the show. As Monica and Dino said at the end, there will indeed be future forums like this to get your questions answered as we progress in the battle against coronavirus.
You can watch COVID-19 and Mental Health: A 3News Conversation in the player below:
Related stories:
- What's next now that COVID-19 vaccinations have begun?
- How to handle loneliness and get what you need from relationships while living through a pandemic, with Cleveland Clinic psychologist Dr. Adam Borland
- MetroHealth employees begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines
- The Head, the Heart, & the Holidays: Letting go of holiday stress
- Ohio healthcare workers receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine this week
