City of Cupertino, CA World Health Organization Videos (COVID-19) (PSA), 27 Mar 2020

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From YouTube: World Health Organization: Q&A on COVID-19 - Mental Health

Description

The World Health Organization's Mental Health expert, Aiysha Malik speaks with WHO's Head of Social Media and Media Monitoring, Sari Setiogi, about mental health challenges during the COVID-19 outbreak. Originally recorded on March 10.

The City of Cupertino would like to express thanks to the World Health Organization for permission to use their video during the COVID-19 pandemic. More information can be found at https://who.int/covid-19

For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus

A

For the latest information regarding the Cova 19 pandemic in Cupertino, please visit Cupertino org, slash coronavirus.

B

Hi good afternoon, good morning and good evening, thank you for joining our life today from w-h-o headquarters in Geneva Switzerland.

B

We're live today on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and we're going to talk about coronavirus or the cove at 19, as you have heard in the news a lot so the disease have affect people from many countries and in January, 2020 w-h-o have declared as a public health of emergency and for this outbreak.

B

We know that we are not only fighting the virus, but we are also managing stigma, fear and discrimination. So today, I'm sitting here with our mental health expert, I sha malik to talk about. Why is it important to to talk to understand about the mental health aspect on this disease? So I sure? Can you explain to our audience today?

B

Why is it important to to understand about the mental health on Kove 8:19 thanks.

C

Sorry so ah sorry said we're not just talking about an outbreak of Cove in nineteen. What we're also seeing is an increase in the anxiety that people are experiencing. So it's really important to think about mental health as part of the public health response to Cove in nineteen.

C

We know that in emergency situations the mental health can decline in the population and that there's a high rate of mental health conditions, so people who might be vulnerable to experience mental health or stress during this time might include people who have pre-existing mental health conditions or substance use conditions in the community or who might represent other vulnerable groups who are vulnerable to stress. So we're not just talking about protection from covert 19, but we're also talking about prevention of stress and fear. During this event, as well.

B

Thank you, Oshin and if you have any questions for Aisha around mental health on Kovac, 19 corona, the new coronavirus ascend in your question as comment on facebook and linkedin and on twitter, you can tweet and use hashtag as w-h-o.

B

So I should there's a lot of fear spreading right now around the new corona virus. Should we actually be scared, or is it a big the result of the spread of misinformation that people see in social media in the news can.

C

B

Us more about that.

C

Sure so fear is a response to perceived or actual threat or danger and closely linked to that is anxiety or worry or stress which can come about when things are uncertain or unknown or unclear to us and as kovat 19 is a new virus and as we are still learning very much about this, although tremendous work has already taken place already to learn about the virus, it naturally can elicit these types of feelings.

C

So you will hear this message repeated quite a lot, but it's really important to bear in mind that fear and anxiety is part of the normal response to this new situation. So many things can cause fear, and one of those things are is misinformation and rumors.

C

So this is something that can exacerbate people's fear and it's why a repeated message for managing fear in the cove in nineteen response is to to get fat, so fat, minimize, fear and these facts can be obtained from credible sources or trusted scientific sources, for example w-h-o or your national or local public health body as well in in terms of fear.

C

Many of you might not think that you're experiencing fear or worry, or some of you might be thinking that way it can express itself in various different ways, so you might be experiencing a high level of questions that your arms asking yourself or a high number of thoughts that you're having so questions like how do I protect myself, how do I protect others what's going to happen with my workplace?

C

These are all very natural questions to be asking and if you're asking these questions, then I would again encourage you to go, find the facts and get the answers as well. So fear is something that's designed to keep us safe, so it makes us take action to keep ourselves safe, but sometimes the actions that we take might be inadvertently harmful to ourself or to others. So this can include things like stigma.

C

This can include panic like behaviors. It can include things like overwatching distressing sources of information, so sometimes fear can be both helpful and keep us safe, but also could be harmful as well, and so it's important for us to think about. How do we manage that fear?.

B

Thank You Ayesha and there's a lot of information on our website. You can go to www.imtcva.org.

B

I share other than fear. There is also a lot of discrimination and stigma, particularly affecting the Chinese population, because the outbreaks started in China. Can you explain why this is happening and what is the solution? Okay, so.

C

Stigma or health-related stigma is something that can arise where a sense of disapproval or shame is attributed to a person because of their association with a health condition. So here we're talking about kovat and what that does is it can result in the experiences of rejection or exclusion or acts of discrimination, and these acts of discrimination can be very harmful, physically and mentally for that group. So our main message here is around the use of language to fight stigma. So words are very powerful.

C

Words can create stigma, but that also means that words and the words that we choose to use can minimize stigma as well. So, for example, one thing that we would encourage is not to attribute co vid 19 to any specific socio-demographic, so that can include, for example, ethnicity or nationality or geography.

C

Co, feed 19 can and has affected people from various different backgrounds. It's a global issue and it's important to not attach it to a particular identity group, because it can affect acts of discrimination towards that group or people who might be perceived as belonging to that group. So language also can go beyond that as well, so we can also think about how do we use language when we talk about kovat 19?

C

One of the things that we can do is something called separating covert 19 from the person that you're, describing, rather than giving them the identity bike, ovid 19. So in English, what I mean by this is, you would prefer to say a person has kovat 19 or a person who is recovering from Co vid 19, rather than attaching the label to the person, for example, The Cove in nineteen case Cove in nineteen family.

C

Other examples of how we can think sensitively about our language in order to minimize stigma is to not use terms such as victims or suspected cases. These are words that can arise anxiety, and so it's better to use alternative phrasing, so keeping your language as person-centered as possible.

C

An another important way to address stigma and discrimination is to really think about messages which evoke empathy, messages which invoke compassion and which invoke evoke kindness.

C

So one way that this could be achieved is to start sharing stories which are around hope or positive messages like recovery, so stories about recovery or stories about loved ones, supporting a person who is unwell during that time or about communities supporting each other.

C

So we've heard impress briefings this week, some very nice stories coming from communities who have been supporting family members of health workers who are responding took over 19 and on top of these actions that are constructive, that you can do the community in the public play a huge role in tackling stigma and discrimination. So you can yourselves be advocates for using these kinds of language tips that we've given and also for addressing any misconceptions or rumors or misinformation. That's been spreading, so I would encourage everyone to take a role in that.

C

This is something we can all participate in, and we also have guidance aren't available on the WHI website, which will give you some tips on the kinds of things that you can do to tackle stigma.

C

B

We all have a role, yes,.

A

B

So we actually started getting questions from the audience. Thank you for sending your questions and I will be checking my phone every now and then and apologize for that, because I need to read the questions so I should. The first question is from Vasuki Vasudevan, it's a good question as parents. How do we cope with distress in following the news and all that about the coronavirus and how to how to talk with children about discovered 19m? hmm It's.

C

A really good question: it's a very important thing to be thinking about in terms of mental health considerations when we think about the stress that young people might be experiencing and in turn that role that parents might have as part of alleviating that stress. So during a situation like this- and it very much depends on the situation in your own community, children will experience stress. Also, children can experience stress and they might present in many different ways. They could be more attached to you or more clingy to you.

C

They could be sad or crying or withdrawn, or even to the point of bedwetting, if they're very anxious, so children express stress in different ways and what we encourage is for parents to give as much love and attention and their time to comforting their children if they are experiencing this now children are very smart, the very perceptive they can tell if something is different or something has changed.

C

For example, perhaps you're having as a parent who's working, perhaps you're having to work at home more and your child has noticed that or perhaps their school has closed and they've noticed us as well. So children are perceptive to these changes and will naturally ask questions.

C

What we would do is encourage you, as parents or caregivers of young people, to be as honest as possible with them, because giving children clear messages about the situation in a way that's adapted for their age can help them to understand. What's going on so remember again, the the idea of facts, minimizing fear applies to every part of the population, whether you're a young person or a parent.

C

If you, if you're in a situation where you're having to spend more time at home or your kids, have had to come off school, we would encourage you to try to maintain as normal a routine as possible for that child, so helping them to retain on to some sort of normality and if that's not possible, to create new routines, which include times for playing and times for learning, if that's possible. So there's a big role that caregivers can play in this great at my so.

B

I think going back to individuals, people who are facing discrimination in a question from Mahad iemon. How can we provide support to this individuals who are facing discrimination because of this coronavirus.

C

That's a really nice question and I'm really glad you've asked that question, because it really for me emphasizes that all of us have a role to play when it comes to supporting those who might be additionally affected by the current situation. So, in this regard, I would say to make sure that you're providing is much kindness and compassion to that person as possible. You can use principles called psychological first aid principles and that information is also available on our website, where you're, giving practical but emotional supports to that person if they need it.

C

I also talked about before all the actions that you can take to help to tackle stigma so around using certain types of language and also around your role in correcting any misconceptions or misinformation or Mis uses of language out there. So that's another activity that you could do at the higher level.

C

If you feel that your friend or is really affected by this experience, that they've had if they've had direct discrimination, you can encourage your friend if they need to to reach out and seek social support from a trusted person, so that could be someone in their social circle like yourself or like a another friend or a family member, if needed. It can also includes seeking specialist supports from mental health and psychosocial services if they're available in your area, if your friend's well-being really declines good.

B

Advice again so, with this coronavirus, some countries are asking people to do self quarantine or for visitor who just came to do we just come into the country to be under quarantine, I get a question from remya or not what kind of support we can give to reduce the anxiety for people who are on current e haha yeah.

C

Really, impulsive question being in some form of isolation or quarantine, is a challenging experience for your mental well-being. We advocate very heavily around social support being very good for your mental health, but the idea of isolation or quarantine means that that can be a little bit limited. That's not always the case.

C

It could be that your self isolating at home, but you've still got other family members or friends in the house, all that you're in quarantine and that there are other people that might be accessible to you, if possible, keep maintaining your social contacts within reason if in person, according to the health guidance of your country. Otherwise, if you have this accessible to you, digital methods of communication or even phone, it's a really good way to keep maintaining your social contact and it's something in particular to think about with adolescents.

C

During this time now, when you're in isolation, another important thing to do is still to continue, if possible, maintaining your routines to maintain a sense of normality and, when I say maintaining a routines. This is because it includes self-care strategies, so you're eating well trying to make sure you get enough rest and sleep and trying to get physical activity as well. So these are all things that you can do when you're in isolation and also activities that stimulate your mind or the. What we call cognitively stimulating can be quite good as well.

C

So a number of number of different, simple actions that you can take to help minimize stress during during that time. Thanks Asian.

B

We talked earlier about children. Now we get a question from Andrea Quinta from Portugal who asked: how can she help her parents to to cope with their anxiety about the coronavirus, Oh.

C

So this is this Audria asking as a child: yes, parents.

B

Is 66 years old.

C

Oh okay, so really important question so I see we were talking about children earlier now we're talking about. Actually our parents who might be older, adult population, so older adults vary in many different ways and what is important for older adults is ensuring that they have the facts and the information presented to them in a very clear way.

C

So again, just reiterating that facts can help to minimize fear and what can be helpful for older adults is to think about making sure that the information that they're receiving about how to protect themselves is clearly presented and is something that they're able to understand and implement for themselves. So this is a very simple action that can be taken. Similarly, all the advice about taking care of yourself, so the healthy diet, healthy sleeping, healthy exercise or some form of physical activity can also be applied to older adults as well.

C

So this can be among some of the things that you're recommending to your parents if they're in, if they're in that population. Now there are a variety of things that we also need to think about with the older adult population. Some people might have cognitive decline or a dementia, and there we need to think a little bit more about how the messages are given to ensure that there able to protect themselves. So you might need to make adaptations.

C

You might find that you're needing to repeat that you're presenting information more simply using simple languages or even presenting it using images or pictorially. This can be an important adaptation to make, and this is something that can be helpful to minimize the stress of older adults at that time.

B

Nayla abu muhammad ani, I hope I read the name correctly asked about what about health care providers who are taking patients with coverage. 19 I mean with the number of patients I think they they're also affected, and how can they take care of their mental health? Yeah.

C

That's a really excellent question and I'm glad that you asked this so health care workers or anyone that is responding at this moment in time in health facilities to covet 19 are under a lot of pressure at the moment they might be experiencing longer work hours, higher demands on them, many pressures, and on top of that, the fear around covert as well, which affects all members of the public, and this can be detrimental to workers, mental health and their stress, and so it's important for people that are responding to recognize and be aware of the fact that it's very likely many of your colleagues feel the same way and feeling stressed in this situation.

C

A little bit like fear can sometimes be helpful. It's probably keeping you motivated and active in your job and it's important to think about managing your stress as well as protecting yourself physically during the Kovan 19 response, because the better, your mental well-being during this time, the better capacity you will have to be able to do your job. So it is important to think about stress management as well. So again, the same things apply to health workers in terms of looking after yourselves as it does for all members of the population.

C

So your self-care strategies around seeking social supports, looking after your health, your diet, your physical activity and also thinking about what are the strategies that you might have used before to help you cope with stress. Many of you might not have experienced a situation like covet 19 before that's okay, the situation may be different, but the strategies for managing stress are the same, and it's really important as well for health workers to think about, and everyone to think about minimizing strategies which might not be very helpful for you.

C

So these are things that feel really good in the short-term like having alcohol or having tobacco or drugs, but actually in the long-term, don't benefit your mental well-being, so many things that health workers can think about. But on top of that we are talking about a workplace situation where health workers have managers or leaders of health facilities.

C

So it's also important for managers to think about the idea that protecting their health workers from chronic stress will benefit that worker, encouraging things such as taking breaks so encouraging them and modeling them can be very helpful for your health worker population.

C

Rotating workers from high stress to low stress functions or pairing, experienced workers with inexperienced workers or other forms of the buddy system can be really helpful and just like everybody else, making sure that your team that responding to Co vid are kept up-to-date with the information. So that's all the members of your team. This can really help with managing stress at that time and, finally, that managers themselves are probably under undue pressure in this in this moment.

C

So it's important for them to model self-care strategies, so it benefits them and is a good representation to their workers. Great.

B

We're getting a lot of interesting questions and people are asking for a different group of the population. We have a question from Heather Dawson who asks so as a mental health practitioner. How do we control the anxiety of those who are most vulnerable, for example, the homeless substance, addicted and severely mentally ill yeah yeah.

C

Really nice question Heather about what? How do we best support people who are currently experiencing mental health or substance use conditions or who might be at risk of experiencing stress such as a homeless population? I?

C

Think at this time it's very important to make sure that those people who are experiencing mental health and substance use conditions still have access to the treatment that they need, whether that's in person, medical treatment or psychological treatment or medication treatment that it's important, that that support is still in place during this time and that's something really important to think about particularly around where people might have to self isolate.

C

So, as I said earlier, the situation like this can really exacerbate the stress of the population and can really exacerbate stress or potentially lead to relapse for people who do have existing conditions. So it's important to ensure that that care is still in place and the mental health, practitioners or mental health and psychosocial support practitioners a well-placed to provide this support.

C

Many practitioners might not have had the experience of being in a public health emergency like this and I would encourage them to get some training to make sure they are having the capacity to respond to people at this time. So those are some of the messages to think about. In this scenario,.

B

Thanks, hm there is also a question from Carlos Rivera Rosario. Thank you for your question. This is about employers. How can employers who work with their employees for mental health in the workplace in.

C

B

C

Yeah great question Carlos so again, what's important in the workplace is the role that employers can play in disseminating information that can help with various aspects of the response to Co vid 19, whether that's information about how you protect yourself physically, so, for example, to their hand-washing and so forth, but also how employees can be protected from their stress management as well.

C

So previously, we've encouraged that employees have an active role in this, whether it's disseminating that information by email or having posters up the same should be done for stress management as well, and on top of that fundamentally, this is around your employees having access to factual, credible, up-to-date information so encouraging accessing those resources is something that employers can do as well, because facts will help with answering the questions that your employees might have and providing forums to have conversations provide an opportunity for employees to ask questions can also be something that's very beneficial at this time to address the questions that your employees might be having that might be causing them some anxiety.

B

There's a question from Tenzin chakra asking about what about meditation for those who are stressed.

C

Really nice question something that we encourage is strategies that you have used in the past which have you have found to be helpful to you, which have helped you to relax or to minimize your stress or minimize anxiety would really strongly encourage carrying on with those activities as long as they are helpful and safe for you. So meditation could be one of those activities and there are many other activities that people might have found has been helpful in the past, for them to manage stress and it's something that they can implement now.

C

So I think that's a very nice message and another example of positive actions that people can take something that can be shared and encouraged in others.

B

Another interesting question from who and Carlos Lopez in Madrid I believe who asks in relation of schools being closed either, because there are case there was confirm, covet 19, patient or as a precautionary. His question is how to reduce fear about covet 19 among students and possible bullying consequences for children who are infected 19.

C

It's interesting question very interesting question and I'm, making the assumption that, with the way that you've asked the question that you're talking about a school that hasn't closed yet so you're talking about situations where students.

B

C

Maybe afterwards, situations where there might be bullying so really important point and actually ties into what we've been talking about earlier in this conversation, which is around stigma and stigma having an impact on the acts of discrimination that people can take and bullying between young people is one of those examples. So if a school is still in session, this is an opportunity for schools to be able to disseminate the information which helps to tackle stigma.

C

So these are the things we were talking about earlier around not attaching kovat 19 to any particular socio demographic or nationality or geography, because by doing so we can increase the likelihood of discrimination towards people who identify from those groups or who are perceived to be identifying from those groups.

C

So there's that's one aspect of it now: if schools not in session, this is something that parents or caregivers of young people can address as well, so addressing how to manage the fear around a covert nineteen, so encouraging young people in a way that's adapted to that person's developmental ability and their understanding around what the facts are, how to protect yourself and methods for managing well-being and stress so, for example, maintaining your routines, maintaining a healthy lifestyle at home and encouraging times for play and learning, if that's possible, additionally, social support as well so keeping in as much contact with each other, if not in person than digitally.

C

If that's an option, if you're young, if your child or person that you know has experienced bullying or continues to experience bullying in the community and it's something that is causing them a lot of distress, because we know there's a link between bullying and mental health, then I would really encourage social support around that person and for that person to seek further support through local services and local providers to help them manage the distress that they're experiencing great.

B

There's a question from Twitter about the noose on coronavirus, because there are so much so many reporting about this coronavirus and it affects people when they watch when.

C

B

Hear how to how to react to all this news around us yeah a.

C

Great great question: there's so much information out there at the moment and for some people, actually it's quite normal to have so much information coming at us and be quite overwhelmed by it and in fact some people can find the news very distressing at this moment in time. So we would really encourage, as well as passive, managing fear and stress in covert 19 to minimize.

C

If it's something that distresses you to minimize the amount of times that you are exposing yourself to news or media, and you could even consider limiting you're setting a target to limit yourself, for example, one to two times a day. Only something just to reflect on with the news as well is just to remember that the numbers and the the information that's coming through these are numbers, but we are talking about people and people's lives. So that is just something to reflect on when trying to think about.

C

How do we make sure that we have empathy and kindness as part of our response to Kovan 19.

B

And a question from Jenny Cheung about panic buying when.

C

B

Are buying toilet papers, pasta, canned food? Why do people behave this way and should they actually what should they do? Okay,.

C

So I said earlier, the fear is something that our we're all designed to experience. Fear, because fear is something that can help to keep us safe and fear, is something that we experience in the face of perceived or actual danger or weather, where there's uncertainty, something unknown something unclear, so fear can sometimes lead us to take actions which help to keep ourselves safe, and sometimes it can lead us to actions which might not be beneficial for us and might not be beneficial for others. So this is something that fear does.

C

If we're experiencing a lot of fear and engaging in actions which perhaps aren't helpful or necessary for ourselves, or indeed for the benefit of our communities. It's it's something that it makes sense in the context of the situation, but the advice around this is to think about what are the facts at the moment? What does the information say about what you need to do to protect yourself and I? Think the advice is around making sure you have sufficient resources. Should you have to self isolate, which is for a period of 14 days.

B

Here is a interesting question that probably some of us experienced this day. It's from Twitter, my fear, is about coughing in public people. Look at you with suspicion. How can I approach or manage situation like that? If.

C

There is it that's a very interesting question as well: I think it's an anxiety that is indeed shared by many people. The the important thing here is you don't necessarily need to take responsibility for managing other people's responses to you, I think, ultimately, as long as you're following the protection procedures and the coughing etiquette, so on that's been advocated by w-h-o. That's what's important in this situation, so other people I hope. You are aware of of the advice that WTO has been issuing around how to protect yourself, for example, in good coughing etiquette.

C

But it's not it's not something that we cannot always manage the response towards other people, but this is part of why addressing the stigma around Co, vid 19 is is important. It is flu season. At the moment, many people do have coughs and sniffles and.

B

When we are talking about coughing etiquette, it means coughing to.

C

B

Cover it with tissue and then after that, to throw it away immediately in a bin a closed bin right, so one last question is also from Twitter. So how can people be made aware not to fear stigma and to act logically,.

C

B

It's not only for themselves, but also for others, so not affecting other mental health well-being, yeah.

C

It's a good closing question: it's a really. This is a great closing question, so overall we're thinking about managing fear during covered, but in turn, also managing stigma. So, first of all, it's very normal to be experiencing fear and stress during this time.

C

Facts facts on how you protect yourself, how you can protect others are the solution to any misinformation or rumors, which can be part of perpetuating some of the stigma at this time and self-care strategies are the way to address your mental health and your stress and manage your well-being at this time, and should you experience a deterioration to make sure that you do go, seek specialist support if needed, minimizing the amount of time that you are exposed to news? If it is something that's distressing, you is important, but also to manage stigma.

C

Thinking about managing your language, so not using terms the attribute stigma on to a particular group of people and also thinking about how to promote empathetic positive messages who around recovery stories around people who've supported another person during this time. These can be helpful messages that all the community can participate in to help promote mental well-being and reduce stigma at this moment in time, while we're all responding to Kobuk nineteen.

B

Thank You aja and thank you for everyone who have joined us this afternoon. We have people around the world joining our life from South Sudan, Myanmar, Italy, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Portugal, Thailand, Romania, Kazakhstan, Australia, Denmark, Singapore, Indonesia, Mongolia, Costa, Rica, China, Austria, South, Africa, Jamaica, Namibia, Uganda, Pakistan, Cambodia, and many more so we are all in this together and we all have a role to play, as Aishah said so also as our director-general, dr. tetra, said, it's solidarity and not stigma for more information. You can go to our website.

B

Www.H int, slash, covet 19. Thank you again. I sha Malik and I'm.

C

B

Seti Oggy thank you and keep joining our life next time.

A

For the latest information regarding the Cova 19 pandemic in Cupertino, please visit Cupertino org, slash coronavirus.