The need for mental health resources among COVID-19 contact tracers

The need for mental health resources among COVID-19 contact tracers
In this Aug. 6. 2020, file photo, Joseph Ortiz, a contact tracer with New York City's Health + Hospitals battling the coronavirus pandemic, uses his tablet to gather information as he heads to a potential patient's home, in New York. Coronavirus contact tracing programs across the U.S. scaled back their ambitions as cases surged in winter, but New York City has leaned into its $600 million tracing initiative. John Minchillo, File / AP Photo
The need for mental health resources among COVID-19 contact tracers
In this Aug. 6. 2020, file photo, Joseph Ortiz, a contact tracer with New York City's Health + Hospitals battling the coronavirus pandemic, uses his tablet to gather information as he heads to a potential patient's home, in New York. Coronavirus contact tracing programs across the U.S. scaled back their ambitions as cases surged in winter, but New York City has leaned into its $600 million tracing initiative. John Minchillo, File / AP Photo

The need for mental health resources among COVID-19 contact tracers

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Contact tracers around Illinois have interviewed hundreds of thousands of people who tested positive for the virus and their close contacts. But it’s been a challenge reaching everyone, and the job itself has taken an emotional and psychological toll on workers.

Reset checks in with a contact tracer and an organization that’s providing mental health training to workers.

GUESTS: Cherie Hunter, Cook County health department contact tracer and investigator

Kimberly Knake, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Metro Suburban