I just got off the phone with a school administrator, discussing the emotional strain teachers go through trying to be educators, advocates, parents and administrators all at the same time, often with large classes.
Then there's ongoing conversations about occupational mental health and how poor work design is impeding productivity/innovation and actually increasing healthcare costs.
Nowhere is this conversation more salient than in the Public Service.
We focus on this problem as a dirty secret, a demon best swept under the carpet. We do this at our own peril, given the big-picture context involved.
Worse, this is a problem that doesn't need to be - certainly not in the scale it's emerging now.
Mental health is health - with the right diet, exercise, conscious control and external environments, we can all lead healthier, happier, more productive lives and be more resilient to the inevitable crises life throws at us, be they personal loss or the next big ice storm.
There are plenty of tools, programs, best practices, vendors, volunteers, survivors and practitioners to call upon. Mental resilience is a science now, whether we recognize it or not.
Until we do, though, more people will suffer and spread further suffering as a result, like a virus.
It doesn't have to be this way. It can't stay this way.
But change won't happen all on its own, laissez-faire style; we have to will it to happen.
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