Resilience in Unity



Rarely has health and wellbeing been such a universally hot topic. Before Covid 19 appeared, mental health was enjoying increased acknowledgement and recognition, as wellbeing advocates campaigned to achieve parity of esteem: equal valuing of mental and physical health. Now physical health has (understandably and necessarily) stormed back into the spotlight, there are concerns that emotional and psychological wellbeing will have even more difficulty stepping out of the shadows of it’s richer, better understood and more widely acknowledged cousin. This is despite the fact that universal crises like Covid 19 have an undeniable effect on how we feel.

Paul Daley’s piece in the Guardian recently suggested there will be a wave of severe mental health disorders as a consequence of Covid 19 and the new way of living it has bestowed on us. As anxiety increases, isolation takes its toll, unemployment rises and our normal routines are thwarted, Paul argues there will be a significant escalation of depression and anxiety disorders in the population. Lucy Johnstone, on the other hand, is of the view that our emotional responses to the pandemic - far from being diagnosable “mental disorders” - are entirely natural and understandable reactions to a worrying and, in some cases, traumatic situation. Whichever way you look at it, it’s likely the pandemic will affect everyone’s emotional wellbeing, to a greater or lesser extent. 

As a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS, I’ve seen that mental health services are already anticipating and working to support changes to people’s mental health in the coming months. Services are working hard to ensure that vital mental health teams supporting the most at risk people are still able to run effectively. Health professionals are reducing caseloads in order to be ready to be redeployed to crisis teams or inpatient mental health settings. Families are being notified of reduced services and, where possible, asked to take more of an active role in raising the alarm if they need more support, or are having a mental health emergency. 

Perhaps you might think that those conversations have been difficult - to have to advise your client that you are no longer able to facilitate their weekly, face to face sessions, and that they should contact the service if they need to. But actually, the most common response to my apologies and acknowledgements that times ahead may be hard has been “we understand, we’re all in the same boat”. This simple fact is what makes the situation both unbelievably frightening and yet somehow manageable. On one level, the utter scale and range of the pandemic is the most worrying thing about it, however the fact that everyone is having to face it together may also bring comfort and solidarity. 

Connectedness has long been considered an antidote to emotional distress, both anecdotally and in research circles. Being able to talk about your emotions with others makes you feel less alone and, ultimately, that you are loved and cared for by the people around you. This is why individual talking therapy is viewed as really bizarre in some non-western societies, who prefer to use a community approach to distress. How better to treat poor self-worth than with an out-pouring of ceremonial music, love and attentiveness from your whole community? When someone not only listens to you, but plans a village-wide, day-long event to help you?

Similarly, living through difficult events or experiences with others, and sharing the emotions that come with that, often brings a sense of togetherness, of belonging and of being understood. Having your emotions validated and supported can be a powerful experience in times when showing “negative” feelings is still very much stigmatised and discouraged. Evolutionarily and practically speaking too, groups are a benefit to survival and many of us will have seen this in action as communities band together to ensure food and medicine reach those who are most vulnerable. 

But it’s the initiatives like starting sing-a-longs on balconies that will get us through this psychologically and emotionally. Whether it’s putting cheerful messages up for your family, or pictures up in your windows, clapping for the NHS, or putting on shows outside older people’s communities, these are the activities that connect and inspire us. These are the activities that encourage hope and build communal resilience. These are the activities that make us thankful for the people we are stuck in the same boat with and who rowed alongside us until the end. 


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