Message from Councilmember Ellen Zimmerman | May 27, 2021
On Monday morning, I had the honor to stand with my colleagues and warmly welcome back a Scotch Plains resident who shared a harrowing story of being stuck in India since last month.
Ashu Mahajan left Scotch Plains on April 17 to fly to New Delhi to care for his 75-year-old father, who contracted COVID-19. Ashu’s father was already on a ventilator and unconscious by the time he arrived and sadly passed away on April 21.
But then Ashu was trapped in India’s capital because of a visa issue — and the US embassy has since canceled all routine visa appointments in light of the surging pandemic cases. The next available appointment Ashu was able to make was for February 2022. This required the direct intervention of Sen. Bob Menendez, who joined the family in Brookside Park on Monday to share the story and welcome back Ashu.
Like everyone else, I am relieved that Ashu is safely back home. What truly impacted me were the impassioned words of his wife, Neha – a fellow wife and mother living in our community – who was frantic for weeks about the condition of her husband, as she cared for their two young daughters and attempted a shell of normalcy.
She shared with us how frightened she was to live with such uncertainty, and how the emotional toll of such an ordeal affected them all. I can only assume there are countless other stories of people living in peril in our community; the enormous mental toll of this pandemic has affected so many of us in so many different ways.
To me, this continues to be a public health and mental health crisis.
That is why Mental Health Month, marked throughout May, appears more relevant than ever. In fact, at the last council meeting, we passed a resolution raising awareness of mental health struggles in our community and how to look for the signs when friends and family are suffering in silence.
While one in five people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, everyone faces challenges that can directly impact their mental health.
We know that the past year forced many to accept tough situations that they had little control over. If you found that it impacted your mental health, you aren’t alone. In fact, of the almost half a million individuals that took the anxiety screening at MHAscreening.org, 79% showed symptoms of moderate to severe anxiety.
It’s important to remember that working on your mental health and finding tools that help you thrive takes time. Change won’t happen overnight. Instead, by focusing on small changes, you can move through the stressors of the past year and develop long-term strategies to support yourself on an ongoing basis.
It is important to remind everyone that mental illnesses are real, and recovery is possible. Our challenge is to find balance between life’s ups and downs and continue to cope with the challenges brought on by the pandemic.
It’s also vital to accept the situations in life that we cannot change, actively work to process the mental struggles associated with big changes, manage anger and frustration, recognize when trauma may be affecting your mental health, challenge negative thinking patterns, and make time to take care of yourself.
A great starting point for anyone who is ready to start prioritizing his or her mental health is to take a mental health screening at MHAscreening.org. It’s a quick, free, and confidential way for someone to assess their mental health and begin finding hope and healing.
It is a significant way for Scotch Plains to begin the healing process.
