Communicating with individuals dealing with long-term effects

Due to the novelty and the ambiguity of long-COVID living with long-term symptoms of COVID-19 can be incredibly difficult, both  physically and mentally. Therefore, validating the patient’s experience is important to allow individuals with long-COVID-associated symptoms to be heard and understood, regardless of laboratory testing or confirmatory results. The CDC has created interim guidance for caring for patients with post-COVID conditions. This guidance contains background information about these conditions, clinical considerations, patient examination, assessment and testing, and management of symptoms, etc., and may be helpful when interacting with patients experiencing these symptoms. 

While all of the long-COVID-associated symptoms can be incredibly difficult to manage, long-term loss or distortion of taste and smell can have detrimental effects on mental health and physical health. Smell training has been proposed as a potential way to stimulate olfactory nerve cells and work to better identify what is being smelled. Abscent is a charity founded by someone who experienced anosmia after contracting a virus in 2012, has created a thorough webpage on smell training - including how to do it and resources.