City officials, politicians, and students are advocating for mental health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
In a press conference on March 29, Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg said \u201cIt\u2019s ok to not feel ok about the COVID-19 and about things like social distancing, self-isolation and the pandemic in general.\u201d Pegg said that feelings of anxiety are \u201cnormal and healthy responses\u201d to the whole situation.<\/p>\n
Ryan Maman, a third year animation student at Sheridan College said that the COVID-19 pandemic gives him \u201clots of anxiety,\u201d that harms his mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying not to give in to the panic,\u201d Maman said. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard when you already have anxiety going into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie Rubino, a third year visual arts and concurrent education student at York University said she suffers from anxiety, and that she \u201cfeels isolated in a bad way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubino said she understands that social distancing is necessary, but she is \u201cdefinitely anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom is diabetic, my dad has high blood pressure, my sister has had pneumonia three times, and my grandmother lives with us. We\u2019re pretty much all at risk,\u201d Rubino said.<\/p>\n
Rubino said she feels that she could only do so much herself, and that a lot of her anxiety is about other people. \u201cThere are so many people that aren\u2019t taking the necessary precautions to keep themselves and others safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rubino said that she has a hard time watching TV or reading the news now. \u201cIt\u2019s like 10 people dead in this country, 100 infected in this country. It\u2019s nonstop. To be watching and hearing so much bad news really puts me in a bad headspace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Maman echoed her worries and said that he\u2019s constantly on social media, reading about the \u201chuge numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt worries me a lot now,\u201d he said. \u201cI need to get out and go to different places to keep busy, so I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m gonna deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neal Solomon is a social worker and therapist who will be providing therapy for the Ontario Provincial Police during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that actively engaging with social activity is \u201cextremely important to maintain mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solomon said that social distancing can be detrimental to mental health. \u201cThe more isolated, the more cut off, the more likely for enhanced issues to appear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have current sadness, depression and anxiety, being cut off can really increase those problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Solomon said that during this pandemic, \u201cthe need will grow for therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n
To help those suffering from mental illness, Solomon suggested to stay in contact with friends.<\/p>\n
Solomon said that in order to maintain a good headspace, people should \u201ctry to make life as ordinary as possible in such extraordinary conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maman said that his main way of coping is by keeping busy. \u201cI\u2019m trying to read more, explore different hobbies, watch new shows, and generally trying not to get in my own head.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also helps knowing that we\u2019re all in the same situation,\u201d he said. \u201cA big part of mental health is feeling alone. There\u2019s comfort in knowing that everyone\u2019s going through the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI cleaned my room the other day.\u201d Rubino said. \u201cFor a while, I was feeling really depressed and I was letting my room get really messy. That was a physical representation of how I was feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubino said that she copes by leaving the window open in her bedroom. \u201cIt feels good to have the sun on my face,\u201d she said. \u201cThe breeze helps me get through the day so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 29, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference that the federal government pledged $7.5 million in funds to Kids Help Phone \u201cto provide mental health support to children and youth impacted by school closures and reduced access to social support and community resources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City officials, politicians, and students are advocating for mental health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a press conference on March 29, Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg said \u201cIt\u2019s ok to not feel ok about the COVID-19 and about things like social distancing, self-isolation and the pandemic in general.\u201d Pegg said that feelings of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":10613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[141],"tags":[465,456,463,466,143,464],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}