The realities of the lockdown and mental health in general

At PANORAMA we seek to publicise and encourage the use of one of Gibraltar’s many incredible charities that offer help to those in need. The Chairperson of GibSams Gibraltar, is Marilou Guerrero, and we have talked to her about her charity, the realities of the lockdown, and of mental health in general.

Marilou began her life as a teacher and later took on her family retail business before moving to the Finance Sector. She has founded many community projects that still flourish today, as well as launching the Gibraltar Special Olympics alongside Annie Risso and the Young Enterprise scheme. Marilou began GibSams in 2017 after a surge of suicides that year; two of whom were good friends of hers. Initially, she trained as a listener and then a trainer, but concentrated on developing the Charity through Outreach work and raising awareness. Now she is Chairperson of the board of trustees at GibSams.

Like so many others, Marilou finds herself in lockdown, and so we are grateful that she took the time to answer our questions.

THE CHARITY

“GibSams provides an anonymous and confidential Freephone Helpline 116123. Our team of listening volunteers are highly trained to actively listen to people who may be suffering any kind of emotional distress or crisis”, she said. “It is important for people to have the opportunity to explore difficult feelings. Being listened to in confidence, and being accepted without prejudice, without being judged, can alleviate general distress, despair and suicidal feelings.”

THE CHARITY

“GibSams provides an anonymous and confidential Freephone Helpline 116123. Our team of listening volunteers are highly trained to actively listen to people who may be suffering any kind of emotional distress or crisis”, she said. “It is important for people to have the opportunity to explore difficult feelings. Being listened to in confidence, and being accepted without prejudice, without being judged, can alleviate general distress, despair and suicidal feelings.”

Marilou continued to explain the form of care GibSams provides, and what steps they take to reassure callers and meet their needs. “GibSams listeners are trained to really listen to the person calling and provide emotional support. It is important for people to have the opportunity to explore difficult feelings... Talking to a trained listener helps to clear you thoughts and find your way through a time of crisis.”

We asked about some of the more administrative and operational methods of the charity. For instance, its funding (was it subsidised by the government, or did it depend mostly on donations, etc.): “The Charity is run totally by volunteers and depends mostly on donations and fundraising, although we receive a small grant from Government. Our website, gibsam.gi, has our bank details and anyone can make a one-off donation or monthly direct debit if they wish.”

We also asked if the community could do anything to help. Volunteering for a mental health charity would require extensive training, and perhaps even some number of qualifications. Surprisingly, Marilou said that the latter wasn’t necessary. “If anyone would like to volunteer as a listener, please email volunteer @gibsams.gi or contact us via our Facebook page or website, gibsams.gi. No qualifications are needed to be a volunteer. Listeners will be fully trained over five Saturdays. However, you can also volunteer to help us with our Awareness Events and fundraising; email me at info@gibsams.gi or contact me via Facebook or website.”

THE LOCKDOWN

It has now been just over a month since the lockdown was announced. For the over 70s in Gibraltar, this has gone on for longer. Though it may seem simple to stay at home, the mental stress of isolation can lead to any number of problems with mental health.

Upon asking how GibSams has coped with the lockdown, Marilou reassured us that “GibSams has continued to provide the same service during the lockdown. Our volunteer listeners are still there every day taking calls.” However, the lockdown will have obviously begun to affect those who had previously no past with mental health issues. They are, we said, “perhaps finding themselves with a series of complex and often confusing emotions. To those that are having difficulty of identifying whether they need to reach out or not, what would you say to them?” Marilou, again, urged those who were suffering, regardless of their past with mental health, to call the 116123 helpline. “It is OK not to be Ok; we are all human and things get to us, especially during these difficult times. It really does help to talk.”

This answer, we must stress, especially goes to frontline workers, who not only carry the enormous responsibility of our lives and daily needs, but must also deal with the incredible stress of lockdown. “You may be frontline workers, used to dealing with stressful situations but you are human too”, she said. There is only so much our daily applauding can do.

We asked Marilou for advice on how to deal with the general boredom induced by inactivity, and her thoughts on the government response with relation to mental health. “Is there any advice you would give, a kind of preventative measure to those that feel extremely restless in the days to come”, we enquired. “Organise your day”, she began. “Do things you enjoy. Eat well and do some exercise if you can. Make time to ring and talk to people you love.”

As for the government’s response, Marilou approved. “Government, through Civil Contingencies, have set up a number of support networks to help people who need support and many volunteers have come forward to assist these teams. Charities are also working closely with Civil Contingencies to provide support when needed. It is difficult to know how this is affecting the mental wellbeing of different people as the lockdown affects everyone differently. I hope that people are reaching out to get the help they need.”

MENTAL HEALTH AND AWARENESS

Today’s interview was about GibSams, yet, it was also in response to the current lockdown’s effects on the public’s wellbeing. Mental health is incredibly important, and it must be stressed at all times that people are there to speak to; to hug; to even cry with when needed. Given that we had the opportunity to talk with someone so attuned and experienced in the world of mental health, we asked some more specific questions relating to the topic.

In particular, we asked Marilou to explain how, in fact, mental health should be treated as seriously as any physical injury or physiological illness. Though awareness initiatives have indeed done much over the last few years, this is still a topic that many – even sympathetic people – have difficulty with.

She explained: “Mental and physical health are equally important and should be treated with the same priority. No one is physically well all their lives; everyone gets ill sometimes, either with a minor illness like a common cold or flu to a more significant chronic illness, like heart problems, for example or some trauma like an accident. Similarly, everyone suffers mental distress at times. These can be stress related or maybe the death of a loved one, and find it difficult to cope. In other cases, as with physical health, people can suffer from a more complex or permanent mental health problem. The only difference is you can see the physical illness but not the mental one. Why should one be stigmatised and not the other? They are both just as real. The brain is just another organ in our bodies and all organs can, at times, or permanently, not function efficiently or suffer damage. The stigma surrounding mental health leads people to suffer in silence and not get the help they need as they would if the pain were physical”

Given that awareness of mental health is fortunately on the rise, and that more people than ever seek help on the daily, it is unfortunate that many of our lower-income workers may not be able to afford the services of a private sector. This lead us to our final question, which concerned initiatives to bring even more support to public institutions and their incredible staff, so that they could meet the needs of the community without unnecessary strain to their services.

As always, Marilou was positive. She was glad that there “have been considerable improvements in the approach to mental health in the last couple of years. Wellbeing strategies focusing on mental health are now established in many public sector departments as well as in public sector companies.” However, she also saw that “there is still much to be done in this area and the present scenario is going to demand extra and new services which will mean funding for extra resources to meet the increasing demand. A major change has been the more open culture which is encouraging in the elimination of the stigma which has always surrounded mental health.”

27-04-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR