<< Are you ok?

I personally believe one of the most devastating effects of this pandemic will be the damage to our social fabric.While it’s true that relatively small groups and families might have grown together, overall it has drawn most of us apart. 

Concepts such as “cohort” or “cluster” have inevitably led us to reduced social circles for which we have sacrificed a huge portion of family and friends, in a way making us choose those whose company we prefer with disregard to the other members.

This exacerbates the problems of our hectic societies and lifestyles focused strongly on productivity and economic parameters to determine success, and further isolates individuals inside our own communities.

We will likely be seeing a myriad of mental problems (old and new) as we manage to get things “under control”. In fact groups such as the red cross were visibly concerned about a possible increase in suicide rates come the winter product of the increased isolation of individuals.

In this regard I believe we’ll have much work to do rebuilding these invisible networks that the pandemic has ravaged so violently. One particular effort of interest though I’ve seen in UK based “U ok M8?”, started by LADbible group in 2016. A very broad mental awareness campaign that for the last years has focused on breaking taboos and stigmas surrounding mental health issues.

The beauty of it however lies in its simplicity: “Are you ok?”. A very simple question with so much power to reconstruct social pathways. I don’t think we ask this often enough, and as a community, we hold the responsibility to check upon the rest of our members even if corona restrictions have made it visible harder. 

The whole point of this is giving a measure of care, reminding the people we have in our life that they matter and even in hardship there’s a place to which they belong to and people that cares about them.

Give it a try, get in touch, dare to ask “Are you ok?”. We might not get an answer immediately but we will have started a very important work for the future.

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P.S.: You can learn more om “U ok M8? Here: https://www.ladbible.com/uokm8