Covid-19 is affecting everyone one way or another. The direct impact is on the healthcare workers. With limited healthcare resources and inadequate health systems in most of the Asia Pacific region, most of our members are putting their lives at risk to fulfill their role of caring for the sick.
Some have walked a few kilometres to the hospital to work and back home when their cities are in a lockdown as no transportation available. Some go into clinics with only surgical masks or are even seeing patients with only cloth masks, due to the limited PPE in their service setting. There is pressure to step up and revise medical knowledge within a short span of time to serve efficiently when dispatched from their various departments into the frontline, to care for a completely different group of patients from their usual cases. Various invisible stressors such as discrimination from communities against healthcare workers, having to spend time apart from families and friends, having hugs rejected from their loved ones until they “disinfect themselves” when they reach home after a long day and grief from the death of fellow colleagues, are just a small part of what they have to face on a day to day basis.
We hope that this series of self-care workshops by the APHN psychosocial support volunteer’s group, facilitated by trained social workers, psychologists and volunteers trained in psychosocial support, will provide an avenue for them to release these negative emotions in a safe environment and to share confidential clinical problems faced in their work with fellow colleagues who are in similar shoes.
Through this specially curated 1-hour session, we hope to be part of the support network for individuals and teams who feel alone during this period. The workshops are open to all clinicians in the healthcare sector in the Asia Pacific region, and offered free as part of the APHN’s Covid-19 response initiatives.
Whether you wish to participate in the workshop, hope to volunteer as a facilitator or donate money to help us continue running the free workshops, we welcome you. Please contact the workshop coordinator, Joyce, at jchee@aphn.org or on WhatsApp +65 6235 5166 for more information.
The first session will be held on 1st June 2020, 7-8 pm (GMT+8) and facilitated by Mr Xavier Chung, Malaysia. Come join us!
*Due to limited slots, this workshop is open to APHN members only