Corona Champions, Celebrating Men's Health Month and Employee Well-being
Rebooting in the post lock down world
Thank you again for your support for the idea of Corona Champions. The post seems to have resonated with many of you and received some great ideas to guide us, how we can go about celebrating the corona survivors and move the conversation from gloom to hope.
Am happy to share we launched this platform on coronachampions.org
As always, i am sending you this message because i believe you are interested in my Catalyzing Wellbeing and Impact Newsletter, focused on health, well-being and societal impact. If you prefer not to receive this newsletter, please use this one click unsubscribe link.
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Mental Health Support for Employees
Men’s Health Month and what it means to be a Man
As an entrepreneur in the mental health space, we had many of you reach out to me about what to do once we open up for business? How do we best support our teams, how to make sure we ease in back to our normal lives? How do we handle the apprehensions, and uncertainties?
You will find this recent article i wrote for YourStory useful, you can read the full article here.
Summary - Clear & honest discussion with teams, reassuring their emotional wellbeing and having a support system such as access to a psychology professional is important.
Also, if you are looking for mental health support for your teams, please do reach out to us at Let’s TALK India. All services are available for free during COVID19, and we are partnering with organisations like Apex Capital, BigFM and DYT.
JUNE - Men’s Health Month
Why ‘Shake it Off, Be a Man’ is Bad Advice
What is this depression nonsense? Just stop crying and act like a man!
Men struggling with difficult emotions have often received similar counsel at some point in their lives, usually from a male relative or friend. And while such advice may even be well-intentioned, it is deeply insensitive—it both invalidates the person’s experience, and blames them for not living up to some imaginary ideal of tough masculinity. As the world observes Men’s Health Month in June, let’s examine why the myth of the ‘bulletproof’ man is hurting, rather than helping men deal with the challenges of modern-day living.
It’s not ‘all in the mind’
Mental health is a vital part of overall health for both men and women. Studies have shown that conditions like stress, depression and anxiety do not discriminate on the basis of gender. But while men and women are more or less equally prone to mental illness, data from across the world indicates that more men take extreme steps.
In 2018, men accounted for over 68% of suicides across India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). A significant number of men who took their lives were daily-wage earners, self-employed or unemployed people. Also highlighting the strong economic motivations behind such acts is the fact that 66% of all suicides were by people who earned less than Rs.1 lakh per annum. Among stated causes, family problems and illness (especially mental illness) took a major toll on men.
While mental illness can be genetically inherited, conditioning also plays a major role. In patriarchal societies, boys and men are told to take emotional distress on the chin without complaint, while girls and women are told it’s okay to cry and share their problems with others. This stereotype is further exaggerated by the archetypal movie hero, whose innate greatness and cool aloofness (not to mention rippling muscles) are his biggest assets. Sadly, flawed gender stereotypes like these get imprinted deeply in the mind from childhood and often affect how men deal with problems in adulthood as well.
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Thats all from me for now, I hope you are keeping safe, and i hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter.
What do you recommend we cover in the next newsletter? And any ideas around which we can collaborate?
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Ashwin
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