There is increasing awareness now of the impact of COVID on the mental wellbeing of people who have directly or indirectly been affected by the pandemic.
In the U.K. we have been successfully able to see the light at the end of the tunnel after months of ‘putting our acts together’- social distancing, masks, hand sanitisation, avoiding gatherings and non-essential travels – aa formed part of the government advice. People listened and did abide by the regulations and the results are in front of our eyes.
Far Reaching Effects of COVID and our fight against it
Being a doctor, we have been able to take a few lighter breaths as the number of COVID patients are on the decline. On the other hand, all other health conditions, which almost had to take a backstage – have re-surfaced with an ever-increasing demand. It has been a struggle to provide for the medical needs of our patients- which is a matter of capacity and the demand-supply scale is almost tipping over!
In this situation, being of Indian origin has proved even more difficult as friends, families and neighbours back home are being hit by this invisible enemy. I find myself in a state where I am constantly perturbed as I keep receiving mobile messages (or through social media) of innumerable near and dear ones – some seriously ill fighting for life and some have been defeated.
I know I am not alone; I have talked with so many of my friends and colleagues of Indian origin who are all in the same boat. Answering simple medical queries or sometimes saying a couple of simple words of solace- all seem daunting.
But I am an optimist. At the end of the day, I believe this will pass. I am fortunate that as doctors we have resilience training – it is a pretty much constant “on-the job training” and this helps no end.