Showing results for "Life Lines" in Mental Health

Ali was dubbed Supercop for the number of arrests he made: more than 1,000 over one 18-month period, when the average arrest rate for officers in England and Wales is just nine a year. In his work as a police officer, he dealt with life-and-death situations on an almost daily basis: saving lives as a hostage negotiator; rescuing the occupant of a house fire; providing tactical advice during some of the most violent incidents; clinging onto a suicidal man hanging from the roof of a multi-storey car park; and entering a flat that had been blown up in an explosion just moments before.

With over 30 years of experience as a nurse, Anthea thought she had seen it all. But with Covid came the greatest trial, personally and professionally, of her life. Thrust into hourly challenges–many a matter of life and death–while on the Critical Care units of St George’s in south London, Anthea processed her shocking experiences through writing. It started with an email to request biscuits. But her appeal to help boost the morale of her fellow nurses soon turned into a series of astonishingly moving stories detailing the realities of being a front line worker.

For readers of Atul Gawande and Siddhartha Mukherjee--a timely, vital exploration of the burnout, grief, depression, and trauma that America’s healthcare system engenders among doctors, nurses, and medical workers. Practicing medicine is traumatic: coping with the death of a patient, sharing a...