Let it out and scream, don’t replace a shower with wipes and dry shampoo, and avoid listening to moaners. These are among the humour-injected tips given by a university lecturer on mental health in her new book aimed at helping people cope with the pandemic.

While stressing that the pandemic “is no joke”, Paulann Grech believes that humour allows her to get her message across to more people who need it – to help them maintain their mental health during these difficult times.

“At the beginning of the pandemic in Malta, many people were reporting high levels of anxiety, sadness and similar emotions. Mental health challenges were evident and people were in need of support.

“I wished to share some mental health coping tips but wanted to do so in a light way since the last thing we needed was even more complexity and doom to an already gloomy situation,” says Grech, a senior lecturer with the University of Malta’s Department of Mental Health and the chairperson of the mental health NGO Hearing Voices Malta.

She started writing daily morning posts on Facebook addressing COVID-related issues by telling humorous stories and linking them with real concerns ranging from fear and anxiety to self-care. She ended each post with practical tips.

Those posts have now been put together in a book, Dealing with Coronus: Self-Help Notes for a Pandemic, published by Kite Publishing. Proceeds will go towards the Richmond Foundation, an NGO that supports people with mental health problems and their families.

“A pandemic is no joke. If there is ever a time when mental health is greatly challenged, it is when there is a threat to physical well-being and to one’s quality of life,” Grech says.

In addition to these worries, life has changed abruptly, she adds.

“My main aim is to normalise mental health and its challenges as well as to enhance access to mental health information by providing it in a way that is easy to understand and hopefully enjoyable to go through.”

In one post she writes about fear. “The situation is obviously very serious, but it is also a tad amusing to note how our fear levels ping-pong so drastically according to the information that we are given… 3 fear points for every new case, 5 fear points for a long cabinet meeting, 10 fear points when a press briefing by the Prime Minister is on the day’s agenda. And unlimited fear points when a covidiot steps into your 1-metre bubble.”

How to deal with fear? Learn to take it one day at a time and try to find something to do to get your mind off your fear since “a vacant mind is a seven-star hotel for fear”.

In another post she talks about the risk of letting oneself go: “Isolation/quarantine/a national crisis does not give us the free licence to turn into putrid lumps…. Let us avoid coming out of this era looking like a nation of Bear Grylls-wannabes after 30 days in the jungle.”

Marking World Mental Health Day

With demand for mental health services expected to rise as a result of the pandemic, the Maltese Association of Psychiatry wants the government to actively invest in mental health. 

"Investment in mental health programmes at national and international levels, which have already suffered from years of chronic underfunding, is now more important than it has ever been," the association said in a statement on Saturday, which is World Mental Health Day 2020. 

The association cited statistics which indicate that mental health issues are the leading cause of ill health among young people aged 15 to 25 and cost the world an estimated $44 billion in lost productivity every year. 

Problems have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the association said. 

"People with mental health conditions may have experienced greater social isolation than before, and may have suffered deterioration. The place where they usually access care may have changed the way it operates. This can be confusing, and sometimes slow down the process of getting help." 

It called for further investment in community services for mental health, with a focus on adolescents and youth; as well as outreach and home treatment services for all.