The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Communication a ‘key’ to mental health issues
To mark World Mental Health Day, Michael Alexander speaks to a Dundee charity about the increased demand for mental health services during the Covid-19 pandemic, while celebrating positivity in the community
With the World H e a l t h Organisation’s World Mental Health Day upon us today, there’s no doubt peoples’ lives have been considerably changed by Covid-19.
Demand for mental health and psychosocial support is rising and that’s why the goal of this year’s World Mental Health Day campaign is increased investment in mental health after years of chronic underfunding.
In a bid to get more people talking about their feelings and struggles a Dundee father of three, who spent four years in foster care and has battled mental health challenges since early childhood, is speaking about how he has used music and creativity as a means of coping.
Marcus Balfour, 24, has been taking part in a series of online events organised by Dundee charity Front Lounge.
On Mo n d a y, Fr o n t Lounge showcased a song written and performed by Marcus during lockdown, the video of which was created by Nathan Inatimi.
Not All Doom And Gloom was penned as Marcus watched his children play in his garden during the peak of spring restrictions.
“It’s really about my love for my children,” Marcus said. “I didn’t really know what love was until I became a dad and they bring me much joy.
“The song was a way of putting my feelings into words in a way they can hopefully understand when they’re older. I really hope it has a lasting effect on them.”
Marcus, who now works as a care e xperienced adviser for a Dundee charity, describes music as a “coping mechanism”, especially when he had some major anger issues.
“The guitar helped during my roughest times, when I was in care,” he said.
“Sometimes I had no one to talk to, and it really helped get my emotions out, helped me process them. The guitar was like having someone to speak to.”
He wrote “countless” songs over lockdown. Music is his “saviour” and he thinks he created his best music in this time.
Marcus has a positive message to anyone else out there who is struggling.
“Communication is the key, the first step,” he said.
“There is always someone who feels like you. The prospect of opening up might make you feel incredibly anxious but, as soon as you start to open up, the anxiety levels drop. There’s always hope.”
Front Lounge project leader Chika Inatimi has been engaged in a national conversation about the “scourge” of mental health through Foolish Optimism – a ground-breaking film and national roadshow that aimed to “puncture the silence” on talking about mental health issues.
He said mental health services had been in “crisis” for some time with demand exceeding supply.
However, in lockdown a “light has been shone” on resource issues and the deficit that remains.
“Never before have we as a society been so acutely awa r e of how feeling,” he said.
“I think what lockdown did is it exacerbated an issue that was already there but it also pushed people who you might regard as fine into crisis.
“All the certainties of life have been taken away and all the normal places that people would normally get support had restricted access or were shut – you couldn’t even go to the doctors normally.
“What we’ve seen is an acceleration of demand as a consequence.”
Chika said “governments do what governments do” in such circumstances. He remains concerned that despite living in one of the world’s richest societies, so many people remain part of an “underclass” that is “disempowered and disenfranchised”.
But one of the “most amazing” aspects of lockdown was the goodwill and community spirit that didn’t want to see anyone left behind.
“Lockdown has highlighted deficits and shown what human nature is capable of if we decide,” he added.
“But I think the great fear now is that as things become better – even if we are not quite sure when that will be – things will simply go back to how things were.
“In the small reality of things, many of the folk who use our services have struggled.
“But when we talk about ‘ big t h i n g s ’, t h e r e’s a movement saying that we can’t go back to how things were – that we have to use this opportunity to we are re- engineer somehow.
“Time will tell.” Front Lounge has been engaged in projects including Hope Box – distributing art materials to targeted young families and single households to improve mental health.
Chika is also very proud that the Kindred Clothing project – a hands-on clothes- making course aimed at young parents – also managed to continue online during lockdown.
Front Lounge wants to continue having a conversation about lockdown – and also celebrate the “cool things” happening in communities – through its World Mental Health Day events.
On Monday, Art Drop, our society which included the launch of Marcus Balfour’s song, aimed to spread positivity and bring creativity into the community by dropping art around different locations in Dundee which can then be picked up and enjoyed.
Today, Hope Hub: A Socially Distanced Conversation, will discuss the need to connect and how mental health issues have been made worse by both the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions.
The event will also discuss food poverty and how access to technology can be provided to everyone regardless of economic background.
For more information pay a visit to facebook.com/ frontlounge.org/