Mental health issues growing in business community due to COVID

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Restaurant owners have more to worry about than finances during the pandemic.

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With each passing wave, the mental health impacts they face grow.

Many are now dealing with their own heightened anxiety and stress about money, planning and the future, but also have the well-being of their staff front and center.

“It’s impossible,” said Ernie Tsu, president of the Alberta Hospitality Association and co-owner of Trolley 5. “There’s nothing worse than listening to owners who are on the edge, not just mentally but more importantly financially. . That’s where things can get really taxing, physically and mentally.”

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He said the AHA is doing everything it can to keep all restaurants and their staff moving forward during the pandemic.

Due to restrictions and Omicron, they are at a point where they can’t plan, they can’t get the right staff, and there’s a constant diet of stress, anxiety and depression on the menu.

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Much of their staff is made up of students, and they are getting a double dose of the shocks, often living on the edge financially, while dealing with all the stressors of school, while trying to figure out how to make rent and eat.

The holiday season, which should have given these businesses a break, only offered their owners more heartbreak.

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health orders which came into force on Christmas Eve, caused the cancellation of parties and events and scared the dinner patrons. Live music venues, in particular, hit it hard, killing bookings for weeks and, in some cases, months into 2022.

The cushion that the last six weeks of 2021 was supposed to provide for the slowest months of the calendar, January to March, did not happen.

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The effect on the mental health of this community was almost as severe as the impact on the finances that feed it.

“Mentally, physically, it’s exhausting,” Tsu said. “It is difficult to wake up every morning wondering what will happen in this industry with this government, which has actually been less restrictive than other provinces, but at the same time it is always the hotel industry that takes the restrictions, first of all. ”

Bar and restaurant owners are not alone in these challenges. It has been a layer of the pandemic that has affected everyone in the business community, as well as much of society.

The oft-used statistic that one in five Canadians will experience a mental health or addiction problem in a given year can be ruled out in the last two years.

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Recent studies by the Canadian Mental Health Association in conjunction with the University of British Columbia show that the mental health of eight in 10 Canadians has been affected by the pandemic, with CMHA Calgary Executive Director Sara Jordan saying that the actual number is likely to be even higher than that. .

Mental health has become a central focus for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce as it seeks to connect its members with the right supports.

Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the chamber, said it doesn’t take much for the contributing factors to add up. Mental health has only become more of a challenge with people working remotely, blurring the lines between work and life balance.

“Everything is out of control and the barriers between home and office are gone,” he said. “That creates other problems, whether it’s working too much at night or not having time to spend with your kids or your spouse.”

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The economic impacts of mental health on business are also becoming clearer. Yedlin said mental health costs the Canadian economy about $50 billion a year in social services, income support, health care and other services while productivity falls.

Yedlin said the problems are further exacerbated because men are often unwilling to talk about their mental health issues to the same extent as women and, depending on the line of work, it gets put off even more. He pointed to industries that are performance-driven, such as investment banking or even the hospitality industry, which often have problematic working conditions just because of the nature of the business.

“But I don’t think it matters where you are, to be honest,” he said. “Mental health affects us all in different ways, it lives in the corners of society.”

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CMHA Calgary said anxiety has eclipsed depression as the number one mental health issue they’re seeing, though depression remains high on the list.

Jordan said the UBC study also noted that 50 percent of adults reported no feelings of happiness at all, 10 percent had recent suicidal thoughts or feelings, and as many as 54 percent reported a decline in their health. mentally since the onset of COVID-19.

One of the manifestations of this is in the addiction crisis, as we are seeing an increase in opioid overdose deaths, and not just in marginalized populations. As of October 2021, there were 390 deaths from opioid intoxication in Calgary; there were 392 in all of 2020.

“When you look at the statistics for Alberta, and specifically for Calgary, the people who die from fentanyl overdoses are middle-class residents of suburban Calgary,” Jordan said. “That was an epidemic before the pandemic and we have only seen those numbers continue to rise.”

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She said the compounding effects have to do with what people were experiencing as pre-existing stressors in their lives. Job loss, financial stressors, and isolation now overlap. Jordan said that having physical connections in your life is almost more important than eating well.

Meanwhile, the Calgary Counseling Center has seen a 20 percent increase in service requests, compared to a three to four percent annual increase due to population growth. At one point this summer, they had a waiting list for help, which goes against their basic tenets of connecting people within 24 hours. Between March 16, 2020 and the end of 2021, they provided 81,920 counseling sessions.

“I think for me the overarching theme here has been all the uncertainty that COVID has brought into our work lives, into our home lives, into our friendships and relationships, and the fact that the trajectory of the virus is unknown,” he said. Dr. Robbie Babins-Wagner, Executive Director of the CCC.

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However, she is encouraged by one thing: this indicates that people are now getting help much sooner, they are not waiting until a crisis event. Before the pandemic, people waited an average of five years before seeking help for an individual problem and seven years for a relationship problem.

“COVID has been an instigator for people to seek help earlier than normal,” Babins-Wagner said.

While the numbers for mental health problems have risen across the board, Babins-Wagner, in particular, singled out the 25- to 40-year-old demographic. She said these are often young families with people in first or second jobs, which is already the height of stress in their life without a pandemic.

He also noted that those who are more isolated, such as the elderly or single people living alone, are also experiencing high spikes in anxiety, stress and depression, as they don’t have as many contacts to turn to for support.

The CCC has been working closely with the chamber to provide support to its members.

There are many programs available through both the CCC and the CMHA, but business leaders have a responsibility to know their people like never before: communicate regularly with everyone, be available if there are problems, and connect them with the help they may need.

They are also encouraging people to take care of their physical health with regular exercise, even to escape the walls of their house or apartment.

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Twitter: @JoshAldrich03