Dec28, 2020

To 2020…the year that made us pause

At the time of writing this blog, in the year 2020, there have been a confirmed 76.4 million cases, 43.1 million recoveries and 1.69 million deaths worldwide due to Covid-19: an infectious virus that has been around for over a year but has left devastation for generations to remember.

2020 has seen us live through this pandemic, which is still far from finished but now as we near the end of The Year of The Lockdown, we’d like to look back and see just what we have all been through mentally this year.

Have a look at some of the numbers that were released by the World Health Organization, thanks to a survey that was conducted between June to August 2020, and which covered 130 nations across 6 continents:

• More than 60% people reported to have experienced disruptions towards receiving mental health services.
• 67% experienced disruptions towards receiving counseling and psychotherapy.
• 65% experienced disruptions towards receiving critical harm reduction services.
• 30% experienced disruptions to access mental, neurological and substance use medications.

Good mental health is key to the world’s growth and well-being. This year has seen mental health services also take a hit as people were required to be socially distant and in a state of lockdown. This is also the exact reason why we at Cambridge Medical Centre decided to do something different at the onset of 2020.

We realized this was going to be a year like none other, which also meant we’d have to practice mental health like we’ve never done before. This resulted in us going to the drawing board, unanimously deciding to double our work shifts, so as to get more proactive with our online presence. 2020 saw all our clinicians get more involved with Zoom sessions, conduct more free Webinars, post a whole lot more on our Instagram and Facebook pages, create more videos; to provide more access to a person who may need support while they’re unable to step out of their homes.

To give you a better understanding, here’s a video we’ve recently put together for all that we, as a community, have endured this year. All that we’ve learnt, lost and loved through this roller-coaster of a year. It is overwhelming to come to terms with the fact that Covid-19 isn’t something that is in our hands, however, we are still optimistic about how better we’ll get towards handling 2021; now that we have a year’s experience of living in a pandemic.

Christmas Blues | Cambridge Medical Centre | Dubai | UAE

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  Christmas Blues | Cambridge Medical Centre | Dubai | UAE

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On that note, here’s to placing our masks back on, sliding on those gloves, spraying on some more sanitizer and remembering that you are not alone in your mental health battles, we are here to support you as we together step into a new year.