People are very simple and pretty fragile. Any help is relevant for us at this point in time. The demands are many and the resources to support our mental health in a BANI world are relatively scarce.
Today, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, sent an open letter to all world leaders asking for the prioritization of Mental Health in the agenda of all governments. Today, despite more than 70% of human work being mental and cognitive, only 2% of the global budget for Health is allocated to Mental Health - and as the secretary general himself says in his open letter: this is unacceptable!
The issue of mental health is a wicked problem, the kind that requires countless joint efforts so that the basis of the equation of psychic suffering can be reversed and start to evolve into syntropy.
Global resources for mental health care are still very scarce and poorly structured. According to the UN and WHO, COVID19 is being controlled, but the mental health pandemic, if not given due attention, could last for more than two decades.
In developed countries, 75% of people in mental suffering say they are not receiving adequate care. In poor countries, more than 75% of the population that needs mental health care does not have any kind of help or support. But why did it took us so long to realize this? Well, as a famous prince says, maybe because the essential is invisible to the eye.
"Thinking that a talk will solve your company's mental health is like having a child addicted to drugs and thinking that a pamphlet would solve the problem."
We know that giving lectures within companies or governments about mental health, for example, is a relevant activity for raising awareness. But this has minimal potential to solve the problem. Giving a mental health talk thinking it will solve the problem is a bit like having a drug-addicted child at home and giving him a pamphlet and thinking it will change him. The action itself may even be well intentioned, but it's the legitimate case of looking the other way.
The resources needed to solve or at least address a problem such as mental health, whether inside or outside organizations, requires much more resources than we want to accept. But the point is, we need to accept. The mind is the foundation of human life and if the mind is not organized and functional - and we have a million reasons for that nowadays - everything else goes into a kind of entropy. Cognitive resources and emotional resources need to be exerted forcefully in the search and construction of solutions. As a matter of fact, the issue of mental health is a wicked problem, the kind that requires countless joint efforts so that the basis of the equation of psychic suffering can be reversed and start to evolve into syntropy.
You as a parent, employer or educator need to do a lot more in situations like these. You really need to devote more than you think you are cognitively capable of and more than you think you are emotionally capable of. Caring takes us beyond. We push our own limits - and by helping others we lift ourselves.
In terms of systems, first we need to find possible solutions and then actively transform these solutions into a culture within your organization. Furthermore, as we all have a mind, we should use this effort on ourselves first of all and, in parallel, use it on each other. Put the mask on yourself first and then on the child sitting next to you - remember that ideia?
This double effort is worth it, as the return on that investment does not directly affect your bank account, but adds more years to your life and more life to your years. First for yourself and, after understanding this new language of care, for your neighbors, colleagues, bosses, subordinates, you name it. Eventually, everyone around you. This, very briefly, is the real cadence of the mental health revolution we are starting to build now - one step at a time, onde day after another.