INDEPENDENT Senator Dr Varma Deyalsingh wishes for a vaccine for mental health.
He said, “I wish we had a vaccine for the mental fallout.”
Dr Deyalsingh was speaking on Tuesday at a sensitisation session organised by the Employers Solution Centre, along with the Employers’ Consultative Association (ECA) which addressed the critical and emerging issues surrounding mental health in the workplace due to the pandemic.
He described the mental fallout as a pandemic within a pandemic.
Dr Deyalsingh said statistics showed that 20% of all employees would experience a mental health problem but the pandemic was increasing that percentage.
The pandemic brought with it, increase in substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and divorce.
“Not only is Covid-19 destroying lives but marriages. Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, adjustment disorders are all increasing. The mental fallout is great,” Dr Deyalsingh said.
Added to the list was job loss fear, financial difficulty and the stress relievers such as entertainment, dining out and a day at the beach to name a few were no longer available as before magnifying the mental issues, he said.
Dr Deyalsingh said, “To tackle the mental health of employees we have to look at the home situation, as this would affect their job performance and relationships. If someone has a mortgage to pay, if someone has a job loss of their husband, with less money coming in, all these are factors that must be taken into account.”
He said most depressed people do not seek help most times because of lack of awareness.
The senator recommended that employers hire a “social worker buddy” and employers allow their employees’ relatives have access to social programmes also.
He also recommended that fired workers receive counselling to help them cope, online exercise classes for workers, and a phone system whereby women travelling in PH taxis can have checks on each other.
