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For Business, the potential mental health crisis stemming from Covid-19 is serious, and will be with us for some time to come.

What is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of South African business, their leaders, managers and employees, and why does this present such a significant challenge for business in the current environment?   

Mental health impacts can be cumulative; business owners, managers, employees, workers and their families are absorbing a disproportionate amount of stress and anxiety from a combination of financial and business sustainability and job security concerns, isolation from family, friends and colleagues, together with the toll of the actual or perceived risk of infection.  

SADAG recently conducted a survey amongst South Africans, which found that during lockdown, 55% have feelings of anxiety and panic, and 46% are under financial stress and pressure.  

Business for South Africa’s (B4SA), in partnership with SADAG and the Psychological Society of South Africa invite you to a webinar media briefing to provide insight into the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of business owners, leaders, managers and employees, and to provide information and access to resources for business to help manage this impact.

Speakers:

• Judi Nwokedi, Business for South Africa (introduction and moderator)
• Professor Garth Stevens, President of the Psychological Society of South Africa
• Cassey Chambers, Operations Director at SADAG
• Dr Colinda Linde, Clinical Psychologist, and SADAG Board member

There will be a short Q&A session following the briefing.

Date:                     Thursday, 7 May 2020

Time:                     09h30 to 11h00 (please log in a few minutes before the start of the event)

Dial in:                  Zoom:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4459725244 (no password required)

R.S.V.P.:               Dani Cohen, dani@prologconsulting.co.za / 082 897 0443

                              Sandra Sowray, sandra@prologconsulting.co.za / 079 167 6863

Journalists attending will be provided with the following:

• Guidelines on managing business mental health
• Resources on where companies, CEO’s and employees can seek help

Let’s approach this topic with compassion, honesty, and openness. We will emerge from this as better leaders, better people, and better companies

We sincerely hope you are able to join us for this important briefing.

Dear Colleagues,

We are currently in the midst of a global pandemic associated with the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). The virus has rapidly spread around the globe, and health authorities have been struggling to slow the spread of infection to protect people and healthcare resources.

The Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre (www.mbmc-cmcm.ca) – which is affiliated with the University of Quebec at Montreal and Concordia University in Canada, has assembled an international team of over 100 researchers more than 25 countries around the world to assess public perceptions and responses to the various measures put in place to prevent or reduce the spread of COVID-19.

To do this, please complete a short 20-minute online survey about COVID-19. Your participation will contribute to better understanding the global and collective response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which may be used to improve current and future preventive strategies. Your participation is voluntary and your responses will be completely anonymous.

To complete the survey, please click on the following link, which will take you to the survey’s main website. The survey is available in a number of different languages: www.mbmc-cmcm.ca/covid19.

In the future, you may receive another invitation to complete this survey, as it will be sent out every month until health authorities and governments remove the preventive measures (e.g., social distancing).

Please share this email with as many of your personal and professional contacts and networks as possible. The more people that complete the survey, the more we learn about how to reduce the spread and impact of COVID-19.

If you have any questions about the study, please contact the team through the project email: covid19study@mbmc-cmcm.ca.

The current study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the CIUSSS-NIM (Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal) : approval # 2020-2099 / 03-25-2020

Stellenbosch University Collaborators: Bronwyne Coetzee, Rizwana Roomaney, Ashraf Kagee, Leslie Swartz, Jason Bantjes

Ethics approval number: PSY-2020-15174