Page 11 - Mobility Management, January/February 2022

anybody else outside their immediate family or PCAs [personal care assistants], and they just want somebody to talk to,” Dickerson said. “We sometimes spend a good portion of clinic helping somebody to work through their fears or their issues of now they developed overeating or they’re drinking too much.”
Mullen suggested that mental health could also impact how people respond to perceived setbacks, such as now needing to use mobility equipment.
“I don’t have any evidence to that effect,” he said, when asked if he’s seen clients who caught COVID and now need more complex equipment. “But yes, it would only stand to reason when we have people whose conditions are being exacerbated. The effects of their condition would normally present with minor symptoms, and now that has changed to more significant [due to COVID].
“If I were selling insurance that covers this type of equipment, I would be concerned about my risk and my payables because
I think it is going to have an overall impact on the percentage
of people that are going to require this type of equipment that wouldn’t have normally otherwise. Especially if they were on the cusp: It’s going to tip a certain percentage toward needing it where they wouldn’t have otherwise needed it.
“I think another contributing factor is the mental health of that person. If you’re experiencing physical challenges, if that person
is feeling upbeat and positive, they may be a little more apt to get up and do that therapy; their glass is half full. Versus there’s so much going on, and depression sets in — people can give up. I think that’s a factor as well: ‘I need this chair now, so I give up.’ I think COVID in so many ways has impacted mental health.”
“Fear is enormous,” Dickerson said, of the factors that can prevent clients from getting to clinic on time. “It’s transportation issues, and then fear, or an inability to get a physician’s scrip to get into clinic. The prescription expired; now they need a new one. And the cycle continues.
“The mental health implications of this have yet to make themselves as evident as they should be. People are damaged from this.”
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE
The pandemic has created no shortage of problems, but there is at least one significant upside for CRT.
“The beauty of telehealth,” Dickerson said. “It burst onto the scene, and it still is in its infancy; it hasn’t seen its complete evolution yet, but the advent of telehealth is just spectacular.
“We’ve all done [telehealth appointments] here and there; I’ve done it for years with a couple of snowbird consumers between the Northeast and Florida. The number of times we were able
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