“My story thankfully has a happy ending, but not everybody is able to share their story. I am just really happy to be able to share a story that allows people to think differently, and allows them to take the initiative to prioritize their mental health," said Nieisha Deed.

This story, Nieisha Deed’s story, is one she has told many times - to individuals, to crowds, and more recently to online audiences. Deed is the founder of PureSpark, a mental health organization that aims to spread awareness, educate, and provide access to resources. The idea for PureSpark came from Deed’s own struggle with mental health, which culminated in an attempt to take her own life in 2017.

Listen: Deed's Personal Journey

PureSpark uses social media and their website to provide resources and daily coping mechanisms that would otherwise be out of reach for someone who is unfamiliar with the mental wellness system. While open to providing information for everyone, the organization’s focus is on Black women. They started a Massachusetts wellness directory this year.

After graduating from Howard University in 2005, Deed worked as an accountant for 15 years. She changed paths after her struggle with mental illness. She left her apartment in Washington, D.C., behind and moved back home with family leaving her old career behind. This was not an easy, or conventional choice, but Deed knew she needed the change.

Deed first publicly shared her story at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. This step sparked a new confidence in her, that she no longer needed to be afraid of people's judgments. She decided she wanted to keep educating people, so she started a social media campaign to continue spreading her message. “I learned what depression is and how healing takes place, and I wanted to share this with the world," she said.

COVID-19 arrived shortly after PureSpark officially took off. As a result, many of her plans had to shift to a virtual format. This included Peer Support by PureSpark, a weekly support group where people could come in, talk about their feelings, and learn different methods to cope with them. The timing with COVID-19 ended up working out. “I started a virtual group to discuss our concerns, the existing racial tensions, and how we can mentally cope,” Deed said. The ultimate goal of Peer Support is to educate people on the various ways they can deal with feelings of depression or anxiety.

A lot of people didn't know where to begin. “They did not know the difference between a therapist and a life coach," Deed said, "and that is where I came in.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has been disproportionately affecting communities of color. A study conducted in Massachusetts found that communities with higher percentages of Black and Latino populations registered higher rates of COVID-19 cases. Nationwide, the COVID Tracking Project has found Black people have died at 1.4 times the rate of white people in the U.S.

Deed expressed a deep concern: that there are not enough resources out there, especially focused toward People of Color.

“There are not enough experts who are culturally competent to deal with the trauma associated with Latin, Asian, and African history," she said.

In addition, she said there are currently not enough therapists in general. “There are immense waitlists out there and if it's urgent, one cannot even get a therapist,” she added.

In Peer Support, she has seen many attendees who are frustrated because of the pandemic and the isolation that it has caused. “Many women with children have turned into teachers. They come to us for help, asking how they are supposed to teach, do household chores as well as work," Deed said.

She also noted that people who are single and do not have children are facing even more extreme isolation. “They cannot go outside, and Zoom cannot replace real human connection," said Deed.

Another topic that has been discussed in Peer Support is the racial tensions that escalated this past summer. Deed was around 10 years old when she saw Rodney King beaten on television, and she said that the killing of George Floyd brought back that trauma.

Listen: Impact of King, Floyd

Deed said that at one point, she stopped watching the news because it was bad for her mental health. Instead, she felt like she needed to do something about it. “I needed to have a space for people who look like me and give them a chance to share their stories and feelings," she said.

Deed's advice to people struggling with mental illness is manifold. First, she points to the need to realize that people are not alone and that they can adapt. For instance, they can have small, socially distanced get-togethers and Zoom parties. She added that if one is having a tough time, it's essential to stay connected to family and friends. “This time has taught us how important relationships are," she said. "Feel your feelings, and find ways to cope.”

Jason Strauss always pictured himself as a doctor throughout his life. Yet psychiatry was not the first field he had in mind. 

"I thought I was going to maybe be a pediatrician or an internist or when I was doing my rotations in medical school, I just really liked being able to spend a significant amount of time with my patients and really getting to know them," said Strauss.

Strauss is the Chair of Psychiatry at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, where he specializes in treating patients with severe and persistent mental illness. He is also responsible for the training of other psychiatrists.

He was first exposed to the psychiatry field when he began treating elderly residents and found to his delight that it was a pleasure working with them. Following his residency work, he began a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry for a year. Then, for the next 12 years, he worked as a geriatric psychiatrist in several settings.

Nine months ago, he transitioned to his current position, and while he still works with older patients, he has also been working with underserved populations.

"I sort of felt like in my role, and kind of doing teaching and training and sort of having some oversight over our department and what our goals or priorities should be, it just sort of felt like this was a new and interesting challenge," he said.

The coronavirus pandemic changed the dynamics in hospitals and Strauss has been a witness to a lot of these changes.

"As the pandemic progressed into the summer, and fall and even more so, this spring, things have really taken such a turn for the worse in terms of people's mental health," Strauss said.

"Just the isolation, not being around people, not being able to be outside, and not being able to engage in activities that are generally enjoyable."

The pandemic has even taken a toll on those who previously did not have any mental health issues. Usually healthy people found themselves seeking treatment for the first time in their lives, completely overwhelmed by the pandemic, according to Strauss.

"We're seeing a lot of people in our outpatient clinic who really don't have a past psychiatric history, but are really struggling a great deal with depression with anxiety, for the first time and they've dealt with a lot of stressors in their lives," said Strauss.

While on one hand, the pandemic affected people with no previous history of mental health issues, on the other hand, it also exacerbated problems among those who had existing conditions, according to Strauss.

"What we're seeing is people are much sicker," Strauss said. "People who do have a history of mental illness, it's really made their symptoms much worse. And it's exacerbated their underlying illness.

"It's affected, in many cases, their ability to seek treatment. It's affected their ability to be on the right medication if they need it, or the right kind of psychotherapy if they need that," said Strauss.

This higher demand for help strained hospitals' resources. Even at St. Elizabeth's, Strauss said, more patients needing assistance meant fewer beds and longer waitlists. Additionally, Strauss pointed out that with nursing homes closing to new patients, those who would typically live in nursing homes are forced to remain in the hospital.

"People who would ordinarily be able to be discharged safely to nursing homes, are just not able to because the nursing homes are not accepting patients and so patients are not safe to go home. And so they stay in the hospital," Strauss said.

Substance abuse is also an issue that has grown during theCOVID-19 pandemic, said Strauss. Stress and the difficulty of managing life in a pandemic have played significant roles in that matter, increasing the rates of alcohol and opioid use.

"We are seeing people who have been struggling for years, and people who had maintained many years of sobriety who have relapsed under the stress and difficulty of the past year," said Strauss.

"We've seen many people who really didn't have any significant past history, who are really struggling for the first time and seeking treatment for the first time."

Strauss does believe the numbers will go down at some point. Still, given the current state, it may be difficult to give an exact estimate of when that will happen as a majority of individuals are "collectively traumatized" from all the shared experiences from the past year, he said.

"As a society, we're just , you know, a very anxious society and there's just always a lot going on," Strauss said. "There's a lot going on in the news and there's a lot going on in politics and I think the struggles around that are going to continue to some extent."