THE Covid-19 pandemic has caused unimaginable loss, grief and trauma, challenging our collective mental health and well-being. Many families were pushed into poverty and isolation. Mothers and children in lockdown were especially vulnerable to violence at home. According to peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, “community lockdowns can increase violence against women, and exceedingly stringent stay-at-home orders have trapped victims with their abusers.”
Aside from this, many parents have been overwhelmed with teaching their children at home, since they have missed the structures and routines of regular school days, play dates, birthday parties and sports practices. I can imagine the various effects the pandemic has had especially to younger children. Parents also needed help on dealing with their children who might have felt isolated or developed bad habits of excessive screen time, and the effects of social-media conversations. Which is not to say the internal emotional rollercoaster that some parents went through allowed time for self-reflection.
I recalled the words of Katherine Hill in the book A Mind of Their Own: Building Your Child’s Emotional Wellbeing in a Post-Pandemic World: “At the very time teenagers should be flexing their muscles of independence, they find themselves grounded and in an educational limbo, with life as we know it on hold. Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that one in five children have reported persistent stress during lockdown, which is in itself a predictor for mental health disorders.”
How are children and their primary caregivers coping? How about those with disabilities? How can we help them heal and increase the quality of their lives during this period of transition and great change through creative interventions?
With the support of Unilab Foundation, Mind You, and LFX Multimedia Studio, the Austrian Embassy Manila partnered with Kwago Bookstore and Publishing Lab to launch a children’s book with a 3D interface, titled Sala Sa Init, Sala Sa Lamig, for Austrian Literary Society’s International Literature Dialogues on November 26, 2022, 3 to 5pm at Kwago Bookstore inside Curious Coffee.
Co-created by Filipino author Czyka Tumaliuan and Austrian illustrator Amir Abou-Roumié, this book project is an intercultural literary initiative that aims to promote mental health for kids and families through arts and literature. The story revolves around a child that sees her mother as an octopus. The child thinks her mother as quite wonderful, but her mother doesn’t see herself as how her child sees her—the mother feels that she is a monster to her child and to everyone, which is a symptom of mental divergence (delusion and feeling of worthlessness). It’s now up to the child to coax her mother to accept who she is, love herself and go back to society.
“Very limited research and clinical attention have been paid to the experience of being a parent with disability. Because of this, parents are given little support in preparing for the possible adverse effects of their illness on their children,” book author Czyka Tumaliuan shared.
“This story book for children seeks to raise awareness about the experiences of parents with disabilities in a very positive and hope-based manner from someone like myself who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I am no expert. I shared it based on my experience, hoping to connect with parents who are going through the same battle.”
“We partnered with like-minded organizations because the embassy wants to promote mental health through arts and literature as part of Austrian Literary Society’s International Literature Dialogues,” Austrian Embassy cultural representative Madeleine Mitchell Diolanda shared.
Guests can come for free on November 26, 3 pm, at the Kwago Bookstore in Curious Coffee and buy the book at 30-percent off, plus register for a free illustration for kids workshop by Austrian artist Amir Abou-Roumié (bit.ly/registerforSSISSL).
As the World Health Organization pointed out in its report about mental disorders last June 8, one in every 8 people in the world live with such disorder. This may include anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, eating disorders, disruptive behavior and dissocial disorders or neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ASD (autism spectrum disorder).
As parents, we need to be more aware and accepting of this reality so when we are faced with it in our own family or community, we can be more open to prevention, and treatment and do away with any discrimination and stigma.