rates skyrocketed, and lockdown created a make-or-break environment with people having relationship realizations. In the United States alone, the divorce rate increased by 34 percent.43 Relationship counselors rank financial problems, boredom, mental health issues, disagreements about parenting, and division of labor in the house as the most common sources behind relationship trouble. The most affected couples had bumpy relationships long before the pandemic, and being couped up with the stressors further amplified during the lockdown, leading toward separation.
Humanity Needs Empathy Now More Than Ever
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic, political turmoil, and revelations about systemic racism and sexism have been heart-wrenching for people and their families all over the world. Millions of people have reported that they struggle to put enough food on the table. Just in the United States, over 26 million adults said they could not feed their families properly in 2020 due to hardship44 and an additional 24 millions adults are undergoing some form of food insecurity.45 Families suffering from unemployment also have had to grapple with an inability to pay rent or mortgage. Studies have shown that renters of color face food and housing hardships, in addition to difficulty covering expenses such as utilities, car payments, or medical expenses.46
Over 1.6 billion workers were impacted or unemployed due to the pandemic out of a global workforce of 3.3 billion!47 That is nearly half of the global workforce affected or at risk of losing their livelihood. Unemployment rates have jumped since April 2020 to levels not seen since the Great Depression of 1929, and it is depressing to realize that these rates will continue to grow until conditions improve globally.48 Job losses have predominantly centered in low-paid industries, part-time jobs, and the gig economy. A recent US Congressional Research Service report stated that part-time workers experienced an unemployment rate almost double that of full-time workers in April 202049 and, as expected, racial and ethnic minorities had high rates of unemployment through all of 2020.
The last two years have been ones of losses, not just in lives but also in jobs, security, safety, belonging, familiarity, love, emotional health, and well-being. People have been afraid to venture outside their homes, and many have become depressed or have severe anxiety bouts. In senior living and care communities, people have been suffering from an atmosphere of fear, from contracting the virus and from the isolation and new realities the pandemic has triggered. Most of us want to step up and contribute to solutions but are hard-pressed to know what we can do as individuals and as long-term care teams.
Finding the Silver Lining in These Dark Clouds
It is difficult to see the silver lining from this devastating pandemic, in addition to all the adverse events since early 2020. However, being a naive optimist, I firmly believe that there are some positives to all our suffering:
There is a vaccine (in fact, there are several!). Scientists across the world rallied together with a singular purpose of finding a vaccine for COVID-19. Humanity could not afford the long cycles of rigorous testing, but at the same time, they needed a level of confidence that the vaccine would work en masse. People worked around the clock, put themselves at risk, and pushed the boundaries of medicine, technology, human endeavor, and grit.
Stronger relationships. The pandemic has given people a chance to spend more time with their families and build genuine relationships. Parents are becoming more involved with their children. Family bonding has strengthened, and children are communicating better with their parents. People have found more ways to reconnect with their loved ones as sources of mutual support, advice, and care. On a personal note, I spent over 900 extra hours with my family and am grateful for the social distancing protocols to have given me a chance to create some beautiful memories with my wife and son. I could not have done this if we were not on a lockdown.
Better hygiene. We finally learned how to wash our hands properly in 2020! Our smartwatches now have apps that train us to wash our hands appropriately and for the right amount of time. People are now more aware of how important it is to practice hygiene, and it's no longer just a good habit but a skill you need to survive. The pandemic made us cognizant of maintaining our hygiene by sanitizing our hands after touching anything, covering our mouth while coughing or sneezing, and washing hands regularly. We also learned to gauge how much six feet distance is and respect people's personal space.
Reduced air pollution. With the shutdown of economic and commercial activities, people were confined in their homes. Traffic volume rapidly plummeted by over 80 percent, making a significant drop in the air pollution rate.50 NASA satellites have documented a substantial reduction of 20 to 30 percent in air pollution.51 As all the social, industrial, and urbanization activities stopped, nature bounced back and improved various environmental parameters, including air quality, noise pollution, and cleaner rivers.
Increased kindness. Social distancing has affected people's relationships and their compassion toward others. As life slowed down and with nowhere really to go, people started acknowledging, conversing, and even, in some cases, caring for their neighbors and the community's health and well-being. People are cooking meals for the needy, offering emotional and even financial support to those in need, and performing supermarket runs for those unable to leave their homes.
Prioritizing life over work. Many people have started to slow down and enjoy the time with their loved ones and friends. They have created new memories and experiences within the confines of their homes, in many cases strengthening their relationships. Work-life balance has become a more important aspect of many people's lives. Even though many people were sequestered in their homes for long periods, they created innovative ways to enjoy themselves.
As an optimist, I see these signs and feel hope that things will work out eventually. However, as a pragmatist, I know that we cannot rest on these meager triumphs alone. We must endeavor to bring more hope, cheer, and positivity into the world. But how do we heal a world that has endured an exponential amount of pain and suffering in such a short time?
Proposing: Empathy as a Prescription for a World Overwhelmed by Adversity
Empathy is the powerful driver of breakthrough change toward achieving a much more just, caring, and compassionate world. Now, as individuals and teams, we can bring new energy and determination to making empathy a way of life that infuses all of our activities and relationships and sparks inspired positive change.
Says Jamil Zaki, in his groundbreaking 2019 book The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World: “Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. We struggle to understand people who aren't like us, but find it easy to hate them.”52 Studies show that we are less caring than we were even 30 years ago. In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama said that the United States is suffering from an empathy deficit. “As you go on in life, this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier … we live in a culture that discourages empathy.”
According to Zaki, empathy is a skill that we can develop and sharpen over time. By working on this skill, we can
