The Chronicle of Higher Education
by Sarah Brown
February 15, 2022
When the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee surveyed its employees last year about how the pandemic was affecting them, the results were alarming: Among the 631 university employees who responded, 73 percent reported having one symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the pandemic. Nearly 40 percent reported having three or more symptoms.
That’s not what you’d expect from people who generally have stable jobs and health insurance, said James (Dimitri) Topitzes, a professor of social work at UW-Milwaukee and co-founder and director of clinical services at the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being.
“For many people, the pandemic is not just an irritant,” Topitzes said. “It really destabilized folks.”