Supporting Health Workers, Unpacking Child Abuse in India, and the Inequitable Rise of Plastic Surgery

Editor's Note

The COVID crisis is not over for health workers. April 26 was the third anniversary of Dr. Lorna Breen's death, an emergency room director at New York–Presbyterian Hospital who died by suicide in 2020. This week, Sonya Stokes remembers her friend and colleague and writes on the urgent mental health needs of health workers since the pandemic and the staffing shortages that still afflict many hospitals. 

Another contributor from India bravely shares her experience with the sexual abuse she endured as a child from a family member and the inadequate support she received during her trauma. She is not alone. Many children are subject to sexual abuse and unable to come forward due to feelings of shame or pressure from their families. Overcoming those societal and cultural barriers to reporting sexual abuse requires holding more perpetrators accountable, argues the author.  

Plastic surgery is commonly associated with aesthetic surgery, but it originated as a reconstructive surgical specialty, helping victims of war recover from trauma. Today, surgical and nonsurgical aesthetic procedures are at an all-time high globally, but many low- and middle-income countries still face unmet needs for the safe and affordable reconstructive surgeries that were at the root of that surgical specialty.  

Wrapping up the week, our final piece surveys global progress on the World Health Organization's (WTO) Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan. Though some progress has been made, it has been frustratingly slow and the number of people living with untreated mental health conditions remains unchanged. To help accelerate progress, governments should ramp up mental health funding, prioritize improving mental health as a political initiative, and improve the quality of data and monitoring of the problem.  

As always, thank you for reading.—Thomas J. Bollyky, Editor 