The outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) late last year in China and later to the rest of the world has left economies devastated, and millions of people frustrated. The frustration of living in fear of contracting the deadly disease, lacking what to eat during lockdown and losing your job/business has left many stressed and could have lasting effects on their mental health.
In times like these, such people would need someone to talk to, someone to tell them that things will soon be back to normal, someone to give them a ray of hope, and hold the torch for them in this seemingly dark time.
It is because of this that the President of the ‘People’s Government’ Dr Kizza Besigye has decided to launch a platform that distressed people can use to call in and air out their frustrations and get expert help through counselling and psychotherapy.
Matooke Republic reached out to the People’s Government Deputy Minister of Health Dr Wakabi Dominic, and he told us that currently, they have assembled a team of 30 qualified doctors, counsellors, and psychotherapists, all volunteers, that will be on the other end of the line to offer these services.
“The consequences of the pandemic are quite grand especially in matters of economy and unemployment, there is basically economic distress impacting people’s psychology in a number of ways. So we came up with a team of doctors, counsellors and psychologists to offer counselling services,” Dr Wakabi said.
Wakabi also said that they can arrange to meet the affected person for a physical interaction but if that is not possible due to current precautionary measures, they are ready to handle the matters online via a phone call. This will depend on the magnitude of the challenge that person is facing.
According to Wakabi, this service is free of charge, and that they are ready to have more volunteers if need be.