Like the outbreaks aren’t enough, we now have the problem of domestic violence to worry about here too! Bad new, they still don’t, take that, needed, “holiday”, do they? Nope! Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
The problems caused by the current outbreaks isn’t limited to just the medical, the economical, or the daily living routines, its effects on the emotional, psychological is still, undermined right now. Last May, W.H.O. already warned about the anxieties of the members of the public from the uncertainties caused by the outbreaks, the fears, the economic instabilities, and warned the societies to provide more support to the children, the elderly, and the population that are reliant on others.
The outbreaks caused troubles for the students’ psychological wellbeing too. Last year, the universities across the U.S. closed down immediately in emergency, causing the students to exert serious psychological symptoms, worried how they may have to delay their graduation, or couldn’t continue getting their educations, while the exacerbated racism caused partial of the students feel threatened of their lives; and, staying at home, caused them to disconnect with the outside world, lack that sense of belonging, with a lowered feeling of happiness, a rise in feelings of uncertainties of the futures, losing their part-timing opportunities, it’d, caused them to face the economical difficulties as well too. The students of Australia’s medical school’s survey for mental health found, that sixty-eight-percent of the students showed worsening of their mental conditions due to the outbreaks.
All of these changes in behavior, and psychologically wellbeing, we’d started seeing in our university campuses last year. Because of how bad the outbreaks from other countries are getting, a lot of the students from other areas such as Macau, Hong Kong feared getting labeled, feared being, attacked, the students with a regular fever were all waiting for the results to see if they’d contracted the virus, and in the waiting time, they’d shown signs of upset, and feelings of being, isolated too, and their roommates, classmates were also, living on eggshells, waiting for the test results.
The masks, the stopping of the classroom sessions, the social distancing, brought the feelings of being isolated added to the level of difficulties of keeping tabs on the students’ mental wellbeing. In the past, we can observe in class, basing off of the attendance rates, or the reports from the classmates, the roommates, or the students going to the counseling office, to help note the mental conditions of our students. But now, all of these assistances, are covered up by the masks, along with the distant-education means, and stopping of the school class sessions, and, the sudden occurring psychological crises made the professors of the different majors, the counselors, along with the members of student affairs’ offices busy. And, the lacking in part-time opportunities, causing a reduction of income for the families, it’d pressured the students who are trying to pay for their own education even harder. They’d become, a group that the schools are, keeping tabs on currently now too.
As the end of the semester approaches, normally, it’s the time of heightened time of the appearances of students of high-risk, along with the counselors at the universities, readying themselves for war, and yet, because of schools halting, moving away out of the dormitories, or distance-education means being offered, the schools, the majors are having troubles, keeping track of the new challenges in the high-risk students’ lives, and it’d added on to the already, growing pressures of the school’s counseling office. And I want to use this article, to call out to all, who are staying at home, keeping yourselves safe, to use the tools, other communication means, to show more care and concerns for the mental wellbeing of your loved ones, and remind the teachers, the parents, to be in tune with your children and students’ emotional changes, and encourage all students who felt a need to seek out help, to seek out the assistance they are in need of on their own.
And I still want to mention, that being quarantined at home it’d, caused difficulties with the family relations; the women’s unit of the U.N. used the “shadow epidemic” to describe the influx of cases of domestic violence that is continually, rising up, the research showed, that with the outbreaks getting worse, the closing in of the countries, the restrictions getting tougher and tougher, the number of calls at the domestic violence prevention centers are also, on the rise.
And although we can’t be sure of the causal factors of increased number of calls to the domestic violence hotlines, but, based off of the experiences of the volunteers of the call centers across the nation, as the paper reported on how the officers were doing a walk around at the hot zone of Wanhwa, they’d heard women or children crying inside the homes, it should be, similar.
“The virus is our common enemy”, any sort of separation, loss, violence, or discrimination that occurred during any outbreaks, is what we should work hard to overcome, as we, try to, stop the spread of the viruses.
And so, this, is something that’s, in the dark, with the outbreaks happening all over the country, there are, those who are, being, abused who are having, even less resources to get the help they are in need of. We already have enough on our plates, with the fight against the spread of MERS-CoV here, and we also have to worry about the spread of domestic violence across the country too, we are, cornered here all right, and if we don’t figure out a way to solve either one first, then both, we are, all screwed here!
Life, the Obstacle Course 