Journalists in a previous protest movement in Egypt (Anatolia)
In conjunction with World Mental Health Day, corresponding to October 10, the “Your Safety Matters to Us” group, which consists of journalists and activists working in civil society in Egypt, announced the launch of the first awareness campaigns on the importance of caring for mental health.
According to the campaign’s introductory statement, it sheds light on the psychological effects resulting from the pressures on journalists, male and female workers and workers in civil society in Egypt, and seeks to raise the voices of these groups whose nature of work requires dealing with thorny issues of a sensitive nature, which affects their health Mental.
The campaign’s launchers stated in their statement that it aims to “sound the alarm about the absence of an institutional role in providing psychological care for workers in press institutions, and even the failure of some of them to provide a safe working environment, especially for women, and calls for the need to reject societal stigma, as well as the individual for receiving psychological treatment, with Providing a professional psychological service that is neither religiously nor ethically biased.”
According to the World Health Organization, mental health is “a state of psychological well-being that enables a person to meet the stresses of life, realize his potential, learn and work well, and contribute to his or her community. It is an integral part of health and well-being that underpins our individual and collective decision-making capacities. relationships and shaping the world in which we live. Mental health is a basic human right. It is critical to personal, community, social and economic development.”
The campaign “Your safety matters to us” includes five articles dealing with psychological symptoms that affect workers in the press and civil society as a result of the nature of their work. The first article is entitled “They conveyed people’s pain and did not find anyone to heal their wounds”, and it tracks the testimonies of journalists and civil society workers, and how the nature of their work affected their psychological lives. It also highlights the absence of institutional support for this type of symptom.
The second article is entitled “Experiences with the psychiatrist between success, stigma and high prices.” It conveys the experiences of journalists and civil society workers about dealing with mental health services, whose experiences ranged between some successes and many failures, as a result of their lack of awareness or stigma, and high prices. Psychological service, and the lack of readiness of some of its providers.
The third article is entitled “The absence of a safe work environment causes more mental illness for women,” and explains the impact of the absence of a work environment for women in the fields of journalism and civil society, and how they were more vulnerable to mental illness.
The fourth article is entitled “We left working in public to find relief,” and presents examples of journalists and civil society activists who could not bear their psychological pain, and left their jobs due to pressure.
As for the fifth and final article, entitled “How to be a wall of psychological protection”, it reviews successful experiences that were able to nurture themselves, and take the necessary measures and measures to overcome the psychological symptoms that result from the nature of work.
The campaign also includes five video recordings dealing with “job burnout… its causes and methods of treatment”, “the impact of the absence of the role of institutions in psychological support for their employees”, “post-traumatic stress disorder”, and “the relationship between digital, realistic and psychological security”, in addition to To a dialogue with a doctor specialized in mental health about the nature of psychological symptoms experienced by civil society workers and journalists.
And because the campaign adopts a primary goal of raising awareness of the importance of mental health for journalists, male and female workers and workers in civil society, based on their experiences, experiences, suffering and suffering, it calls on the World Mental Health Day to “provide institutional psychological care for these groups, and with the contribution of society as a whole through the need to stop Societal stigma targeting those wishing to receive psychological service, and that psychological service providers in Egypt enjoy a great deal of professionalism and objectivity, and refrain from issuing ideological, sexual and ideological judgments on their applicants.
It should be noted that the articles are published on various Arab platforms, while the video recordings are broadcast on various platforms of civil society institutions and press institutions, such as the New Woman Foundation, the Nadim Center for Victims of Violence and Torture, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, and “ARIJ Network for Investigative Journalism”, and others.