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her for “caring” and requesting that, when they were ready to adopt a new pet, they wanted her to help
them in the selection. The staff placed the bouquet with the card on the office reception counter for all
to see.
Yes, as professionals, we have to exercise some restraint over our emotions. But, our patients know the
difference between crying for them and self-indulgence on our part. Sometimes, especially when there
is nothing else we can offer, they just need our compassion.

Think about it: “To cry or not to cry? What kind of doctor do you want to be?”
“Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Residency Update: San Mateo

Combating Opioid and Meth Epidemics in the Age of COVID

By Jiaochen Ke MD and Tomoki Kimura MD
RFM Reps from the San Mateo County BHRS Psychiatry Residency Program

As the COVID pandemic once again rips through our communities at an astonishing speed, we are starting
to get a clearer picture of its rippling impact on the hidden epidemic of substance use in this country.
According to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of overdose
deaths from 5/2020-4/2021 exceeded 100,000 for the first time in our nation’s history, increasing by
31% compared to the year before and more than doubling the number from 2015 [1]. In San Francisco, the
number of drug overdose deaths was more than twice the number of COVID deaths in 2020 [2], and the
opioid-related overdose death rate in 2020 was more than 5 times the rate in 2015 [3]. Meanwhile,
methamphetamine- and other psychostimulant-related overdose deaths from 5/2020-4/2021 increased
48% from the year prior nationwide [1], and according to the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard,
the 12-month rolling rate of psychostimulant overdose deaths in California increased by 71% between Q4

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY Page 16 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022