The reasons for which our mental health was burdened were mentioned by the Undersecretary of Health Zoe Rapti, in her speech at an event of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry on “Mental Health and Work in the Pandemic and After”, emphasizing among other things that mental health affects productivity of people.
As Ms. Rapti said, “we are called upon to manage both the effects of the pandemic on the economy and business, and the energy crisis, as well as the effects added by the war in Ukraine, events that have undoubtedly burdened our mental health. “.
Ms. Rapti underlined that the pandemic changed our lives in many ways, affecting our health, physically and mentally, with a significant impact on key aspects of our activity, such as work and business.
Citing the World Health Organization, he said that health is a basic condition for individual and social development while it is directly linked to the economy. “After all, there is no health system without a strong economy, but there is no economy without the health of the population, especially our workers. During the pandemic, job insecurity, financial stress, and isolation from the workplace with teleworked, significantly burdened the mental health of workers.
As he explained, there was an increase in levels of depression, anxiety, and anger, feelings of social exclusion and loneliness, the harmful use of alcohol and drugs and drugs, domestic violence, self-injury or even suicidal behavior. He went on to say: The situation was particularly difficult for families with children and for working parents in the context of their confinement at home with distance education for children and teleworking for parents. Businesses, for their part, were called upon to adapt to issues of work organization (workplaces, hygiene of these spaces, new forms of work such as teleworking), as well as to issues of health of their employees, both physical and mental.
The Undersecretary of Health also stressed that at the same time, the pandemic was considered a threat to commercial companies as 88% of them believed that Covid-19 would negatively affect their turnover and 56% of companies estimated that the drop in turnover would exceed 40%, thus enhancing the anxiety of businesses and employees for the next day.
In this environment, Ms. Rapti estimated, the management of prevention and response to psychosocial risks in the workplace are the main challenge for the social and economic policy of all countries, as mental health affects people’s productivity. And he said that in terms of depression and stress alone, according to the World Health Organization, they cost about a trillion dollars a year in lost productivity!
In this context, the Deputy Minister of Health explained, today, more than ever, with the multidimensional challenges of modern society, the need for effective systems that will provide holistic and on-site support to any personal, work or family problem is becoming more and more urgent. employees and their family members.
“In our country, our Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, created a special portfolio for Mental Health and Dependencies to enhance the mental resilience of citizens since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, for the first time in Europe, Prime Minister Europe, met and talked ad hoc on the subject of mental health twice, in just eight months, both at the Athens Mental Health Summit in July 2021 and at the inauguration of its new Patient Quality & Care office WHO in Athens, giving clear instructions and directions for the necessary policies to be adopted “, stressed Ms. Rapti and continued saying:” Our country now has a dynamic and extroverted presence in international forums and in the European “becoming” for the mental Last summer, at the Summit of the 53 countries belonging to the WHO Europe, which we organized in Athens in collaboration with the WHO, on the effects of the pandemic on mental health, the Athens Declaration was signed, which underlined the need to adopt policies to address the mental health of citizens. In the process of international dialogue on mental health, our country participated with proposals in the launch of the Pan-European Mental Health Alliance in Brussels, in September 2021, as well as in the Paris Summit, last week, which specifically concerned the mental health of the vulnerable. groups, children and adolescents. ”
Referring to the actions taken by the Ministry of Health, she noted: “We started the free psychosocial support line of the general population, 10306, on a 24-hour basis, which has received 210,000 calls so far. It is no coincidence that many phone calls are related to expression tensions, stress, and family quarrels due to the mandatory coexistence of family members in the context of teleworking. mainly the health professionals in the hospitals, with which we provide psychological support, through tele-counseling. In total, more than 12,000 people have been supported. In the labor market, we also provide psycho services social support through tele-counseling to our citizens living in remote island and remote areas of the country, such as Kastelorizo and Symi, and the villages of Evros. We are completing the “National Mental Health Plan”, where we have highlighted the issue of workers’ mental health in a distinct way, so that, with funding from European tools, such as the Recovery Fund, we can develop 7 day care centers specifically for employees, training programs as part of Primary Health Care, as well as labor market integration programs for people with mental health problems and programs for the provision of psychosocial support and psychoeducation for employees and the unemployed. The Chambers have, in fact, been identified as our strategic partner for the implementation of the above policies “.
He concluded by saying: The government will continue, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has clarified, the support measures in order to continue the recovery process in which the country has entered. We are already experiencing the largest reduction in unemployment in Europe, from 20% to 13%, disposable income has improved, while we will proceed to the second increase of the basic wage, in May, along with the measures to support the income of households and businesses, from the energy crisis announced last week, amounting to 1.2 billion for April and 3.7 billion in total. Finally, I want to believe that at the Summit on 24 & 25/3 in Brussels, the proposals of the countries of the South and our Prime Minister for the need for a joint supply of natural gas in the EU countries. they will be accepted and there will be financial breaths “.
Source: Capital
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