MENTAL WELL-BEING

Ever since COVID-19 reached New Zealand and Australia, I have directly and indirectly witnessed children, young people, foster carers, residential and transitioning workers, social workers, managers and organisations commendably rising to the challenges that this pandemic has presented us all with, and seen excellent leadership in all of its forms. This is a truth of which I am certain.

In some ways COVID has brought us closer together whether in our households, with wider family, friends and colleagues, and across the community and country. We have shared struggles, whether that is trying to individually and collectively maintain a sense of control and hope for the future, being physically separated from loved ones, or having to attend funerals by video link so say goodbye to dying family members on a tablet.

However, another truth is that we are all experiencing COVID-19 in very different ways. Irrespective of our own individual strengths, challenges and sense of resilience, an unemployed care leaver living alone in a box of an apartment in Melbourne with a 8pm government-imposed curfew who is only allowed to go out for one hour of exercise once a day, is in a very different situation to me as a professional in my 50s with a home office in rural New Zealand some 500km from the nearest known community transmission. At the moment I can meet anyone in the country whenever I want.

A third truth that we’ve all come to realise is that this pandemic isn’t going away any time soon. As well as Melbourne, recent city lock-downs in both New Zealand (Auckland) and the UK (e.g. Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, and Leeds),have been a stark reminder of this, while some other countries are also seeing a second wave of new infections, e.g. in Canada, Ontario province had just seen the highest daily rate since June.

So let’s take a minute here to reflect. Six months on, what is your overall sense of the mental well-being of all the children and young people you are responsible for? How are they really doing? What’s your evidence for this? As well as your strategies across-the-board, what additional peer and professional supports are in place for those who are more at-risk or have a diagnosed mental illness? Do you think that these arrangements are  working? What’s likely to be the impact on them of another 3, 6, or 9 months of this or longer? Given what you now, what would (will) you do differently next time? And remember, what worked in March and April as an immediate response to COVID-19, may not be sufficient now or over the months to come.

What is important here is getting clear on what you are actually trying to achieve in relation to mental well-being and their life-chances. Are you trying to do the same as before but just in different ways? Are you more focused on helping children and young people ‘get through’ the pandemic? Are you working to activity ameliorate the worst potential impacts on the mental well-being of children and young people? And/or are you building on strengths and helping children and young people to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships, become more resilient and better prepared for the future? Children and young people also have agency here, even if we may need to help them find it. And then there’s the mental well-being of foster carers, residential and transitioning workers, social workers, managers and of course…you!

My contention is that as we get through COVID-19 and prepare for the coming recession, we all need to shift our thinking and actions up a gear on the mental well-being of all.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can email me at: iain@betteroutcomes.co.nz

Kia kaha (Stay Strong).

Iain