The Ironwood Center offers Mental Health workshops for frontline and essential workers

MAUMEE, Ohio (WTVG) - The pandemic has taken a mental toll on us all, but frontline and essential workers may be experiencing the biggest hit with the adversities that come with their jobs. Thankfully, Maumee’s Ironwood Center is here to help.

The center specializes in providing mental health services to the community, and with a new grant, they have new evidence and trauma-informed workshops for frontline and essential workers to gain the tools they need to overcome the added stresses and anxieties that have come from the pandemic.

Owner Christine Fair says recent studies from the CDC shows people are dealing with more anxiety now than ever before with not knowing what’s going to happen with our world and with our health. Learning these coping mechanisms is vital for overcoming this extended time.

“It really is getting worse, because I think people, we’re at the place where we’ve been holding on for a year plus, and we’re just really starting to feel the effects – we’re starting to feel less hopeful, starting to feel more stressed, our bodies are fatigued,” Fair said.

The “Resilience Roots” workshops are providing stress and anxiety coping strategies for these workers and educating participants on the stressors and triggers that are causing anxiety and depression, and how to build upon current strengths to become even more resilient during this time.

“Because we’ve been pretty isolated, our worlds have gotten much smaller, so now because we are starting to go back out to our grocery stores and back out shopping, people are feeling very overwhelmed by just the number of people around them, the traffic, and being able to just feel comfortable to navigate so many more things is also creating more anxiety as well,” says Fair.

The three-week free workshops run every month, now until December from 1-2 p.m. They also replay the live streams for those who sign up. You can find more information at: https://ironwoodcenter.com/resilient-roots

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