The Advocate Editorial Board This past week’s weather has made us – and we suspect most of you – ready for summer. Temperatures nearing 80 degrees with bright sunshine helped generate smiles across Licking County as we move towards a post-pandemic life. New CDC guidelines and Ohio regulations have lifted most of the COVID-19 restrictions we’ve […]
JOHNSTOWN — Don’t wait to get help for yourself, a family member or friend with mental health issues or thoughts of suicide. It seems like common sense, but it often does not happen. That was the message from health experts and community leaders at Wednesday night’s forum on mental health and suicide prevention at Johnstown council […]
NEWARK — The Youth Engaged in Service Club exists to help local teens, but now needs help itself after a Friday evening fire caused extensive damage to the club’s building on East Church Street. Newark Fire Assistant Chief Nick Simmons said the interior damage was substantial, but the building appears to be repairable. There is no estimate of […]
How are you feeling as we near the first anniversary of COVID-19’s effects on our lives and our community? If you feel as if you’re stuck in a rut that’s not of your own making, a new term I keep seeing will resonate with you: pandemic wall. Let’s explore what it means and what we […]
The 2020 holidays are behind us and many are applauding the fresh start of a new year. I know that as much as I enjoy decking the halls, sharing special meals, gifts and celebrating with my family, I’m weary when the last box of decorations is put away. This year more than ever, after an […]
How are you doing right now? No, really, how are you doing? We’re so quick in our society to say, “Great!”, “OK” or “I’m fine.” Right now many of us are just barely getting by. We’re collectively fatigued by all of what is going on – COVID-19 hovering over our world and affecting so many […]
NEWARK – Endurance and resilience have always been important to director Kevin Patrick Allen. It was evident in his Amazon documentary “What Comes Next,” about finding a meaningful future after loss. And it really hits home in “A Good Man – The Jim Tyrer Story,” his and Steve Hebert’s documentary examining the life of the […]
COVID-19 has brought challenges for parents and families, unlike any ever experienced. Some of you have been overseeing your children’s schooling from home since mid-March. Many parents have spent much of the past six months working from home while others are searching for new job opportunities. My hunch is that none of you planned for […]
Having Respect for Others to Improve Mental Health Respect, according to Webster, is to regard with special attention, to care for or to consider worthy of esteem. The goal of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948, was to grant status worthy of respect to all […]
Managing Stress Under the Coronavirus Quarantines As we all stock up on supplies, hunker down and try to keep ourselves and our families safe from COVID-19, one element to the uncertainty surrounding this global health issue that we can’t overlook is the effect on our mental health. MHA’s national screening data showed a 19 percent […]
