Local GP warns of lockdown’s impact on mental health
PEOPLE OF ALL AGES FEELING TRAPPED AND FATIGUED IN LOCKDOWN
A MENTAL illness epidemic has broken out across County Wexford as the strain of lockdowns is driving people to depression.
Dr John Cox has been appointed to the Mental Health Commission for a one-year term and says urgent action is needed to address a mental health epidemic in the country.
‘People’s mental health is in a very bad place at the moment. We are dealing with a lot of mental health issues in all age groups,’ the Fethard-on-Sea GP said.
Dr Cox said more needs to be done to provide meaningful supports to people. ‘I think we could do more for people with mental health issues, definitely. Certainly in the content of the current Covid pandemic. We have a major problem on our hand.’
A MENTAL illness epidemic has broken out across County Wexford as the strain of lockdowns is driving people to depression.
Dr John Cox has been appointed to the Mental Health Commission for a one-year term and says urgent action is needed to address a mental health epidemic in the country.
Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People made Mary Butler the announcement on Thursday after Dr Cox was nominated by the Irish College of General Practitioners.
The Fethard-on-Sea based GP is past Chairman of the Board of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and past Chairman and Provost of the RCGP Republic of Ireland Faculty. He presently sits on the council of the ICGP and is Secretary of the ICGP Wexford Faculty.
Dr Cox is a GP trainer with the HSE South East Training Scheme and was previously a director of the Irish Heart Foundation.
The Mental Health Commission’s main functions are to promote, encourage and foster high standards and good practices in the delivery of mental health services and to protect the interests of patients who are involuntarily admitted.
There are a variety of types of mental health services which are provided in both in-patient and community settings in Ireland. Services include general adult mental health services, as well as mental health services for children and adolescents, older people, people with intellectual disabilities and forensic mental health services.
Dr Cox said further supports are needed for people who are struggling with months of unemployment and a lack of socialisation.
‘I am delighted and deeply honoured after I stepped down as chairperson of the GP association,’ Dr Cox said. ‘People’s mental health is in a very bad place at the moment. We are dealing with a lot of mental health issues in all age groups. We have the elderly who would be the most extraordinary group. Many of them would have gone to the day care in Ramsgrange which has been closed since the first lockdown. Many have early onset dementia. This is putting huge pressure, usually on the spouses who are trying to care for them.’
People in their teens and twenties are also feeling a loss of purpose in their lives.
Dr Cox said he saw one patient who was used to playing regular sport, which has now stopped, and whose job has more or less shut down due to Covid.
‘All this has had a very negative impact on his relationship and he is now on a low dose of anti-depressants. That, for me, has been a wake-up call. People like him would only ever previously been in with me for a sports injury. He has been a victim of what is going on and I’ve had young ladies in who want to do their exams but are in an awful state about how lockdown is leading to social isolation.’
Like all GPs, Dr Cox has been referring patients to counsellors and he has criticised the inaction of politicians in delivering enough mental health supports for people.
‘While politicians are very quick to look for a new cath lab; politicians can become very exercised about that. Mental health doesn’t get the same treatment and it doesn’t seem to have the same grip on people’s mentality.’
Dr Cox said there is still a stigma surrounding poor mental health.
‘People have come a long way but there still would be a stigma around mental health. I have even found people who would be very anxious that someone would write down notes at the practice about their mental health, that it would cause problems; whereas they’d have no problem coming in and having notes written about a sprained ankle. All of these issues have been brought into much sharper relief.’
Dr Cox said more needs to be done to provide supports to people, many of whom have been made temporarily unemployed due to the pandemic.
‘I think we could do more for people with mental health issues, definitely. Certainly in the content of the current Covid pandemic. We have a major problem on our hand. Initially it could be to increase the availability of the counselling in Primary Care services which is available to adults over 18 years who are medical card holders and experiencing mild to moderate psychological and emotional difficulties, such as depression, anxiety, panic reactions, relationship problems, loss issues, stress.
‘At the moment there is a waiting list to get seen on that. That is one practical thing we could do and obviously you could reach out to people directly through the media to say that it’s OK to feel vulnerable at this stage and encourage anyone who has had mental health issues to phone their doctors. People say they feel bad about calling because of how busy we are with Covid but if you are feeling morbid about small things and not sleeping well and are depressed, pick up the phone and call us. We are here to help and can direct people to counselling and can see them,’ he said.
Unlike the mental health crisis that arose following the 2009 recession, the current crisis is different in its impact.
‘2009 was a terrible time, I think mainly because it all happened so suddenly. People who found themselves doing so well financially found themselves almost in a state of ruin in the space of a few months. This is a more gradual attrition; a wearing down of people’s mental health.’
Dr Cox said as a member of the Mental Health Commission, he and his colleagues will look more closely at what supports can be provided.
‘It obviously has to be done through education and through the media.’
CARTOON fanatic Josephine Grace sent the internet into meltdown last week having discovered what a character in Monsters Inc was alluding to when he made a cryptic comment.
Singer Josephine, from Mount Ross, uses Fyiya as her performance name and posted as IamFyiya on TikTok.
Josephine (25) decided to re-watch Pixar movie, Monsters, Inc. recently out of utter boredom and picked up on the unusual ‘23-19’ announcement scene. In the scene, monster George Anderson comes out of a child’s room with a white sock on his back. It sparks mass panic among everyone in the building as a worker screams: ‘We have a 23-19.’
Those two numbers would be meaningless to a young child watching the classic film for the first time but Josephine found out 23 and 19 actually have a specific meaning, the 23rd letter in the alphabet is W and the 19th letter is S.
The TikTok video has been seen more than 400,000 times, growing her fan base to over 8,500.
‘I put up a TikTok video. I had no idea. I put it up purely saying I’d found out what George said. The scene is set in a covid-like lockdowned area. They call out 23-19 and
I was able to dissect that to mean white socks after letters in the alphabet. I am a massive Disney fan. I put it on the internet and it went to 300,000 views in no time. Now it’s gone to over 400,000. I write that I was a day years old when I found it out. Monsters Inc is a classic. I still love it.’
Based in New Ross full-time, Josephine hasn’t been in England recording since March. She turned to TikTok having found Facebook to be too depressing.
‘We’re sitting with the news and the covid numbers every day so I randomly started posting my own TikTok. I can work through Skype it’s just painstaking. Since lockdown happened I needed to get my mind into something positive because we are all stuck here in the house. I ended up watching Monsters Inc and I actually put it together. I don’t know exactly how. It was out of sheer boredom. There isn’t a hope in hell that I’d have found it out if I tried.’
Josephine has been targeting TikTok fans in America. She interacts with followers and does a TikTok live sessions. ‘It brings people in and shows them what I am about. It’s about having a laugh. It lets people get to know you. For me it’s a very slow side hussle. I rarely wear makeup on TikTok. You just show who you are and your quirks and your personality gets to shine, whereas on Instagram it’s all fake. It’s almost like people are done with body shaming and filters. You just want real people talking about real issues. I love TikTok. I started by just watching cat videos.’
Josephine has more than 8,500 followers and when she reaches 10,000 she plans to register to get blue-ticks and creator funding. ‘ That is when TikTok starts paying you per 100 views. It shocked me that the story made the tabloids. My people in the UK texted me saying I had gone viral. I’m a bit baffled.’
She plans to do a Tiktok alerting her viewers that she went viral. ‘ This is my fourth time going viral but not to the extent of this. I think it’s because it’s something
quirky.’
The staff at Dillon’s Londis in Fethard-on-Sea have been dancing their way across the Hook Peninsula, raising money for LauraLynn.
LauraLynn staff work closely with a child’s primary care team to provide care and support throughout the journey of a child’s illness and beyond.
In addition to this, the hospice also provides psychological support and counselling, residential family camps, a bereavement programme, music therapies and holistic therapies to families.
The staff at Dillon’s Londis have danced everywhere from Hook Lighthouse to Baginbun Beach, and Fethard to Slade, raising money in the process.
They are one of 48 Londis stores nationally taking part in the challenge and are currently in third place for their efforts.
Emily Gleeson from Dillon’s said: ‘We are still in the process of raising money at the moment it stands at nearly €1,000 in our shop.
‘We are doing the 280,000 step challenge so we did this to raise extra money.’
IT’S been a while since we were treated to the sight of a delirious Davy Fitzgerald cheering a Wexford team to victory, but on Sunday evening he, and thousands across the county, roared with delight as the Mahoney family from Glynn Barntown were crowned Ireland’s Fittest Family.
In a nail-biting finish, Conor, Joanne, Alan and Kevin Mahoney pipped the Allens from Tipperary, edging ahead at the three-metre wall before scaling the ramp to clinch victory. The Cullen family, from Blackwater, finished third overall.
Filmed last August in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains, the 16-team event took place over an intense threeweek period. And having been crowned winners almost six months ago it was up to the Mahoneys to keep their success a secret.
‘We tried to keep it a secret but I think a lot of people knew or at least had their suspicions,’ said Kevin (23). ‘We watched it together on Sunday night, I didn’t think I’d get as excited watching it back but it was good that people saw what we went through to win it.’
One person who definitely knew the outcome was Joanne’s mother.
‘I had to tell my mother we’d won, she would have died of a heart attack watching it if I hadn’t,’ Joanne laughed. ‘But none of my husband Tommy’s family knew. We watched it with them and my immediate family on Zoom, they were all jumping up and down, had the champagne out, we were nearly as excited as they were.’
At one point, as the race drew to a close, it looked as if the Mahoneys were destined to finish second as the Allens pulled clear.
‘I thought it was gone from us,’ says Joanne. ‘ The Allens had pulled away and I remember looking up and thinking “oh my god, it’s gone, it’s finished.”
‘But we had practised that wall, we’d set up a container at home and practised that wall to a tee, we had the technique for it down.‘
It was Kevin who set up that gym, including a wall, for the family to practise on, and he says he felt calm and confident even as the Allens threatened to pull clear.
‘We knew if we were in touching distance at the wall we’d have a good chance,’ he said. ‘ The Allens were fast at the nets, that was the first time they went ahead of us, but we knew we had a good wall so we didn’t panic.’
It was Kevin’s brother Alan, along with Joanne, who sent off the application forms for the competition last year, a move which wasn’t met with enthusiasm by everyone in the family.
‘Conor didn’t want to do it at all, I don’t know why, maybe he didn’t want to be in the limelight,’ Kevin said. ‘Even after we were accepted he said he wasn’t going to do any extra training, just his GAA training.’
A member of both Wexford’s hurling and football U-21 panels, Conor’s GAA training stood him in good stead throughout the show, impressing their coach.
‘Davy was the coach we wanted from the start,’ says Kevin. ‘Not just because he’s Wexford manager, we just thought he would suit us, his style of management would bring out the best in us, and it did.
‘Conor got drafted into the senior squad a couple of weeks after the show, but it wasn’t solely because of his performances in that, he had a very good season with Glynn Barntown too.’
Indeed, according to Joanne, the Wexford manager had been keeping tabs on Conor long before they were paired together for the show.
‘Davy was brilliant, he wouldn’t get you wound up until just before it started,’ she says. ‘He’d keep you very calm right until the last moment, and then he’d have you buzzing. He rang us last night and we talked for ages. He said he’d been keeping tabs on Conor beforehand, knew him as the handy no 11 for Glynn Barntown, but when he saw his commitment on the show it sealed it for him.’
The Mahoney sporting talent doesn’t end there, Alan is currently a member of the Wexford Minor Football team, Joanne has been a gymnastics coach for over 30 years, and Kevin himself is a former GAA man who now dedicates himself to gym work.
That dedication saw him construct a makeshift gym for the family to train on in preparation for Ireland’s Fittest Family.
‘We found out we were going to be on it straight after the first lockdown so we set up a gym at home, tried to get a bit of a head start,’ Kevin says. ‘ The two lads didn’t do a whole lot extra, they just kept at their GAA training. My mam put in the most work, she was a star in the final, she lost a stone even before it started, she put a huge effort in.’