Recently, I have been noticing some new buzzwords brought on by the pandemic. Languishing is a word that has recently been trending. It is being used to describe not exactly feeling depressed, but also not flourishing.
Doomscrolling is spending too much time at a screen, looking at all the bad news, even when we find it depressing or it makes us anxious. Pandemic fatigue is the exhaustion that we are feeling from what seems like never-ending vigilance, worry, stress, and changes to our normal ways of life.
Maybe it is just coincidence that I keep seeing these terms, while also hearing some folks express that they are experiencing some of these same things. So, last week when a family member shared a new website they had discovered, I thought that maybe, like me, others hadn’t yet heard of it. Perhaps, it is something you or a loved one might benefit from.
Wellness Together Canada is a free resource for mental health and substance use support. It is completely private and confidential. It can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is available to all Canadians. There are resources for both adults and youth.
The website has a variety of options, including numbers for immediate text support, articles and videos, wellness courses, community and peer support, and individual counselling.
The counselling services can be accessed any time as needed. They may be used one time, or working with one counsellor for multisessions can be set up. You can receive these services through phone, video or text. All services are free.
On the website, there is a mental wellness self-assessment. I checked out this survey that took less than five minutes to complete. It looks at mood, well-being and how well you are functioning. It then suggests resources that might be beneficial to you. Going forward, you can track your progress and even select an option to have assessments emailed to you every two weeks.
The self-assessment was a quick, easy, useful tool to check-in and reflect for a moment on how things are going. Being able to access these tools anytime in the privacy of your own home is a big plus. I also really liked how there are resources and supports that could be helpful to anyone, whether you are having rough few days or struggling with some bigger challenges.
We are now over a year into the pandemic. Everyone’s life has been disrupted in some way. Wellness Together Canada is a great place to turn to for ideas on getting us through.
For more information, you can check out www.wellnesstogether. ca/en-CA or call 1-866-585-0445.
-Denise Leduc
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