Mental health director on covid19 crisis:Get help if needed

People should not feel ashamed to reach out to others, including health professionals, for help in maintaining their mental health during the covid19 crisis.

Director of mental health Dr Hazel Othello said people should look out for each other as well.

She said people should not feel anxious if they are not achieving as much as others during the quarantine period.

If their source of information was social media, she warned, they would be exposed to many unproductive and unhelpful things. She said if this was making them anxious, they should expose themselves to more positive and helpful things. If people were feeling down, sad or unduly guilty, she suggested they might need to talk to a counsellor to manage those emotions.

Othello said employers should do whatever they can to manage the behavioural health of their staff, including letting them know where they can get support if needed, creating a family-friendly working environment, and checking in on their staff’s wellbeing, virtually if necessary. She said if staff have to come out to work, employers should ensure that national public health measures are being adhered to in order to keep them safe.

Othello said there has been a global increase in intimate partner violence, as people are in close quarters for long periods and this is a time of increased stress which can contribute to increased violence. This stress can also lead to increased alcohol abuse, another contributor to violence.

She told victims who are trapped with their abusers they should find relaxing things to do to bring their stress levels down when they were safe. They should have a plan for when they were not safe, including knowing the numbers they could call for assistance, and having a bag packed and hidden in case they had to flee in a hurry.If they had to leave quickly to save their lives and had to leave everything behind, they should do so, because they could always recover material possessions, but cannot recover their lives.

Othello said if people are experiencing changes in mood, appetite, sleep patterns, these could be signs of depression or a developing mood disorder, so they should reach out to a healthcare provider for help. She said people should take advantage of the numbers circulated for mental health services at the regional health authorities and those offered by the Association of Psychologists for the services they have made available to the public.

Othello said the covid19 situation re-emphasised the need for the implementation of the national mental health policy, which Cabinet approved in November 2019, and which is being retooled into a national plan.

She said its focus is the decentralisation of mental health services, and the current situation showed how important it was for services to be available to people close to where they live.

The Substance Abuse and Prevention Centre at Caura is now up and running for inpatient services, Othello said, while outpatient services have been modified to accommodate physical distancing. People who are stable and don’t need to come in for a session are getting counselling through tele-mental health techniques.