"No judgment or quick fixes."
Whatever the state of our politics, the state of a people’s mental health is an issue that bears watching and, more importantly, acting upon.
Sunday, October 10, was World Mental Health Day. Prior to the pandemic, mental health issues have already had a crippling effect on millions of individuals, even as the perception of it and provision of services to address it have left much to be desired.
We were still in the thick of transforming the way people thought about mental health issues, pointing out that these were not a curse or an exaggeration but a scientifically established condition that can be treated through several methods.
And then COVID-19 took the world by surprise, and everything else became secondary to the need to protect ourselves from the virus and cope with the number of patients getting sick and dying.
As the months passed, we saw that mental health did not take a backseat. In fact, mental health issues were exacerbated by the anxiety and fear over the health crisis, the uncertainty over economic prospects, frustration with the uneven government response, and the isolation, in different forms, that people were subjected to. Small reliefs like the shift in the environments of home and work, and time spent with friends and other support groups were taken away in an instant. It became difficult to contemplate the future, and easier to question whether every step was even worth the effort.
Worse, certain groups of people became even more vulnerable—for example, frontliners who every day witness the magnitude of the devastation and loss brought by the pandemic find themselves with little recourse to process their own trauma. This is coupled with the constant fear of becoming infected with the virus themselves and passing it on to their families. Another vulnerable group would be overseas Filipino workers who lost their jobs as a result of business closures and find no options to sustain their families from here. The situation looked equally dire to those locally employed but who also lost their source of income.
This is the second time that World Mental Health Day is commemorated in the shadow of the pandemic. And as in last year’s commemoration, the objective is to highlight and raise awareness among the general population that mental issues exist, more pervasive in some than in others, and that something must be done to narrow the gap between the demand for, and the supply of, mental health services.
There are programs at the national and local levels, there are initiatives by the private and civil society sectors. There is also the relief offered by communities, peer groups, and families.
In our spheres, we can do much by heightening our sensitivity to tell-tale signs that a member of our inner circles may need help. We offer no judgment or quick fixes—just an assurance of our presence, support and compassion.