The psychological impacts of an event such as the coronavirus pandemic will be seen much later than the physical impacts, said Amer. "It's only now, so many months since the beginning of the outbreak in Asia, are we starting to see the impact of Covid-19 on our mental health. It's almost like collateral damage. In the clinical practice, we're seeing people who've never had mental health issues start to become a bit despondent, a bit tired. And this could be because some of us have been working from home all this time and are really feeling the effects of social isolation."

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A report by the World Health Organisation stated that countries are spending less than 2 percent of their national health budgets on mental health, which raises the question if we're ready to deal with the long-term, psychological impacts of the pandemic. "Investment into mental health has been really slow in the last few years, where we're at the critical period of not being able to cope with the mental health situation during this pandemic", said Amer. He attributed this to several reasons, including a lack of understanding of mental health and the cultural stigma that still surrounds the topic in most parts of Asia.  

"People don't often associate the term 'mental health' with themselves," said Dowding-Young. "It used to be characterised as a clinical condition rather than a feeling like stress or anxiety. The challenging thing is that stress can manifest in different ways, from anxiety, depression, fear, all the way up to extreme cases such as suicide.

"I think changing the narrative around mental health is really important before we do anything. I don't just mean reaching out to friends and family, but also trying to understand why our bodies react to stress the way they do."

He also added that rethinking the terminology used could also help bring more attention to the issue of mental health. "It's been very difficult to get mental health across, so we use terms like mental fitness instead. We're seeing a trend of 'working in' [as a term being used] rather than 'working out'. It's very much a branding exercise of how do we get people away from the stigma of mental health towards the mindset of performance, productivity and growth."

Recognising how we are feeling is not always easy, but there are some signs to look out for that will indicate how you're doing mentally, said Amer. "Changes in your sleeping patterns could be a first sign of poor mental health. Changes in behaviour as well, particularly when it comes to emotional control, where you may find yourself getting excessively angry over a small matter, for instance. Lower productivity at work could also be an indication that something might be wrong, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you have a mental health issue."

See also: The Next Normal: Life After Coronavirus

For leaders who want to make a more conscious effort to tackle employee mental health, Dowding-Young shared that a good way to start is to create an open channel for people to speak about mental health. "One of the challenges I saw in my old career was that nobody wanted to show weakness, nobody wanted to be the person to say 'I'm struggling', because they may think that's going to affect their chances of a promotion or so on. But creating an open forum for people to discuss mental health at work helps to take away the stigma around the topic."

At the same time, he said leaders should also advocate for the cause and lead by example. "At Silentmode, we regularly do breathwork exercises in the morning as a team, we have flexible lunch hours to allow people to take naps, we give them areas where they can lay down and take naps."

"It's just taking a pragmatic approach to human nature. Let's come together as humans to help each other."

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