Mind Your Mind: A mental health awareness initiative

By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya

The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures taken to contain the spread of the virus has resulted in significant changes to our lives. These include restrictions to our movements, working from home, unemployment and pay cuts, and a lack of physical contact with friends and family.

In addition to this, the fear, stress, and worry that people feel can intensify during times like these, and many are faced with uncertainty even as the country slowly loosens the measures taken to contain the further spread of COVID-19.

Considering the impact the pandemic has on one’s mental health, there is a need for initiatives that raise awareness of this and make services, resources, and support more accessible. Mind Your Mind is one such mental health initiative and is a project by Eco Lanka Consultants.

Eco Lanka Consultants is an organisation focused on providing services based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Eco Lanka Consultants was founded by Sashan Rodrigo, who has experience in civil engineering, science, technology and environment, and public and non-profit institutions.

In his role at Mind Your Mind, Rodrigo provides his expertise in analysing qualitative data and guides the team throughout the project. His insight is a necessary component in making the project functional and unique.

Rodrigo also has experienced the positive outcomes of therapy and the importance of getting help at the right time. He believes that issues of mental health should be addressed in detail and that the reach of support should expand beyond the Colombo suburbs.

The project team is led by Sanuri Trikawalagoda, who is involved in counselling and helping people. Her capacity to do so is enhanced by an online course titled ‘Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health’ which she followed during lockdown. She is currently studying international relations at the Royal Institute of Colombo.

It is Trikawalagoda’s personal experience that backs her desire to promote this mental health initiative. While she was still in school, her parents got divorced, an experience that taught her a lot about being a child pushed around in the system.

The social media, creative, and online point-person of the initiative is Nishedha Indraratne. She is currently studying law at the Royal Institute of Colombo while also majoring in English at the Colombo University.

Indraratne has a keen interest in making sure people feel heard and understood during these times, an interest fuelled by her own struggles with mental health as well as observations of those around her. She hopes that destigmatising mental health will lead to more people taking mental health seriously and making necessary services more accessible.

Given the importance of the work done by the initiative, Daily FT spoke to Sashan Rodrigo, Sanuri Trikawalagoda, and Nishedha Indraratne about Mind Your Mind and what they hope to achieve through it.

“We chose to carry out this project because it has become more necessary than ever for people in the country to have stable and secure resources to get help for their mental struggles,” Trikawalagoda said, when asked if there was a specific reason for Eco Lanka Consultants to launch the Mind Your Mind project.

The team explained that the lockdown showed them that people needed help with their mental health more than ever. 

“What we may have not realised before lockdown was how much we depended on others and the outside world to help us stay on our feet. For each person, mental satisfaction comes from different things,” they said. The team explained that this lockdown has forced everyone to take several steps back.

For some, it has become a less than ideal situation to live in. Rodrigo, Trikawalagoda, and Indraratne explained that there are people suffering silently because their struggles will not be taken seriously by the people they are in lockdown with. People cannot meet their friends and support systems frequently and phone calls are not a good enough substitute. On top of everything else, one cannot complain about how life is hard without receiving a stern reminder of how good they have it.

“The stress, the anxiety, and the tendency to slip into depression have increased so much during lockdown. Recognising this and doing something to remedy it is so important if people are to improve themselves in all aspects once the coronavirus madness is over, however long that may take,” Indraratne commented.

The team went on to say that, many people lost their jobs and regular routines, are not able to socialise and see friends, and that parents are stuck with their kids 24/7 and vice versa.

They believe that this is a huge change and there is thus an increased need for mental health services. The team added, “People from every faction of society have had to adapt to a change in routine, income, and, in some cases, increased levels of abuse (primarily women and children). Issues that existed pre-lockdown such as drug and alcohol addiction have also come full circle.”

The Mind Your Mind initiative believes that while there has always been a need for the improvement of the mental health discussion in Sri Lanka, lockdown shone a harsh light on it and they felt the need to normalise discussions on mental health. In addition to this, the project aligns with the third SDG, which is good health and wellbeing.

“Mental health is not just for people who have diagnosed mental health issues, but for everyone. Taking care of your wellbeing mentally is just as important as doing so physically,” they added.

Project objectives

Mind Your Mind aims at destigmatising mental illness in a culture where people with mental illness or people who seek help are looked down at and ridiculed. The team hopes to reach people beyond the Colombo suburbs and reach those who lack the resources to obtain help and who hide their struggles without speaking up.

“The purpose of this project is to solidify the idea that mental health maintenance is essential. We want to make people understand that their mental health is no less important than their physical health, and that it is important to take care of their mental health especially with the challenges that the nationwide lockdown poses to it,” Rodrigo said.

There are four key goals of the project. This includes reaching out to the masses, for which an Instagram page (@mindyourmind) was created to provide information, tips, and helpful links and articles that can help people through mental health crises, as well as offer professional help.

Mind Your Mind also plans to gain insight for research purposes through their social media following and reach. The team added, “With more and more people joining us, we can arrange for helpful and interesting workshops and talks to be conducted through online media sources, so that people can gain more knowledge on the types of issues they are facing.”

The team carried out a survey which involved over a 100 Sri Lankans and looked at their thoughts and ideas surrounding mental health. “The results we obtained shed light on how Sri Lankans view mental health issues and struggles and has made it clear that there is a need for a mental healthcare initiative at this time,” the team said.

According to them, 32% of the participants believed that mental healthcare is important now because of the psychological toll caused by the lockdown and the mind-set change that is being forced on people because of it, while 20% of the respondents thought that mental healthcare is important at this time because of the anxiety, stress, claustrophobia, and uncertainty that it presents.

The team said that 12% of participants thought that the family, children, friends, and environment that are part of their lockdown lives was why mental healthcare is important and 9% thought that the lack of social interaction is the main reason for the need for mental healthcare services.

“This survey has also shown us how much more we need to work on familiarising people with the resources available to them for mental healthcare,” the team said, adding that only 38% of the people that responded said they knew of the resources available to them, while 20% said they were not aware, and 41% said they may be aware of what is available to them.

Mind Your Mind shared that 68% of the respondents said that the available resources for mental healthcare are not adequate, 26% thought mental health workers in Sri Lanka are good, 18% thought they are underrated, 16% thought there is a lack of empathy among mental health workers, and 10% thought that those working in the field need more awareness.

The survey also showed that 23% of people thought that these workers need more training and resources in order to efficiently be of service.

“These numbers are quite revealing and indicative of what the system is like in Sri Lanka and where it needs to be improved,” the team said, adding, “It must be mentioned that some people did say that they did not need help with their mental health.”

Professional help for those who need it

The team explained that, after obtaining the necessary approvals, they hope to use their social media reach to act as a facilitator in helping individuals at risk as well as connect those who need help with institutions that provide mental health services professionally.

This is of importance in Sri Lanka, where access to services and resources comes with its own set of challenges.

“Our main challenge is getting people to admit that they need help. This is another point in breaking this stigma. This is not easy as it is ingrained in our culture and society that mental health is for the ‘crazies’ and ‘weaklings’ and you should sweep it under the rug and carry on,” Trikawalagoda explained.

The team added that as a society, productivity and physical capability are seen as superior to actually caring for oneself. They believe that sending out the message that mental health issues are normal, can be remedied, and are not conditions to be hidden away and handled without proper treatment would help in disseminating the information to all parts of the country.

“Once people start talking about it and accepting help, the next challenge is to train and educate mental healthcare professionals including psychiatrists, nurses, and ancillary workers. This means that the stigma that mental healthcare workers face needs to be eliminated,” they added.  Rodrigo, Trikawalagoda, and Indraratne explained that they need recruits in this field and that any stigma surrounding the workers in the field automatically results in a low turnout.

The language barrier is another challenge they have considered. “Sri Lanka is trilingual, so we need the material we provide to be in Sinhala, English, and Tamil,” they said, adding that unfortunately, providing comprehensive terminology and making understandable literature in Sinhala and Tamil is extremely difficult. This is because people have not heard of the words and terminology used to describe mental health issues, which are usually discussed more in English.

“Again, this plays into the stigma because if people are not communicating, then the stigma remains, as well as the fact that because most of the available material is in English, people automatically assume it’s a ‘Western Concept’, which it is not,” the team added.

It is also important to consider the impact of COVID-19 on the accessibility of mental health services. With restrictions on movement and social distancing measures in place, individuals may find themselves unable to access the services they require. Fortunately, several mental health services are offering their services online.

“Online consultancies will be one of the solutions to the mental struggles that people are facing right now. Popularising the availability of online consultancies will get the conversation going at least in the immediacy of the lockdown,” the team behind Mind Your Mind said. They explained that mental health does not qualify as a necessary or essential service, unlike other healthcare services.

“Phone calls, video calls, and a plethora of online resources including videos, literature, and tips will help with getting the message out there,” they added. Mind Your Mind has partnered with oDoc, a mobile application that connects users with medical professionals within minutes for consultations via video, audio, or text. An individual can use oDoc rather than going to a hospital or any other location as it is available 24/7 on their mobile phones. This eliminates the risk of contracting diseases from public places as consultations can be done from the comfort of one’s home at any time.

The app also has on-demand counsellors and a range of mental health professions. All professionals on oDoc are licensed professionals, the team said, adding, “They are able to offer technical expertise on how to continue the initiative effectively, strategies to overcome some of the challenges relating to the stigma faced by mental healthcare workers, and effective strategies to break the stigma that is present in the general public.”

They added that the app gives people access to professional help as oDoc currently has over 25 mental health practitioners ranging from psychiatrists, counsellors, clinical psychologists, forensic psychiatrists to child and adolescent psychiatrists. “Additionally, this service helps people who are worried to be seen at hospitals while visiting these practitioners to do so through the comfort and privacy of their own homes,” the team added.

Social media

Mind Your Mind focuses heavily on social media and uses Instagram to spread their message. They are currently expanding their follower base and have received positive feedback. “We hope to share people’s stories anonymously in order to start the conversation. We have already been contacted by some willing to send in their stories and experiences to share it on our page,” they said.

They also use the Eco Lanka Consultants Facebook page to spread the word about the Mind Your Mind initiative.

Talking about the role social media plays in mental health awareness in Sri Lanka, the team said, “No matter how small or big a social media account is, anything posted has the potential to impact at least a few people. Starting this conversation through social media is the best way, we feel, to spread the awareness and encourage a communal response to mental health initiatives.”

They have observed that many Sri Lankans who are active on social media do care about mental health, but so far there has not been a designated space to support the kind of expression that comes with it. Mind Your Mind hopes to provide Sri Lankans with this space.

They added that, at a time like this, where making physical contact with a person can be deadly, social media is the best way to reach people of all walks of life. As of now, this has been the most effective way of reaching people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The next step

The team is currently planning the expansion of their reach on social media. Their first step is to increase follower interaction and have them share their stories. This will get the general public talk and encourage more people to share their stories as well as encourage those who need help to reach out.

“The next step would be to link our social media page with professionals so that those who do reach out to us can be ensured in getting the help they need,” the team said, adding that the next step would be to reach more people through content in Sinhala and Tamil.

They then hope to expand beyond social media. “Currently, our follow base is mainly around Colombo and the suburbs of Colombo. We hope to expand this even more by reaching out to people living away from the main city and educating them on mental health. We can do this by way of workshops, training personnel and get them to conduct their own workshops,” they said.