This week it’s Mental Health Awareness Week and in conjunction with Wellbeing Wednesday and other positive changes – with new Office Rules as we emerge from Covid restrictions – it seems timely to draw attention to the positive benefits of social contact.
It is likely many of us will relate to deterioration in mental health in some way during periods we were restricted on our social contact during 2020 and 2021 – whether that was a drop in mood, loneliness, fatigue, stress, or worsening of a longer standing condition.
This Study on the Effects of Social Isolation, using the unique opportunity the pandemic presented, backs up how important social contact is to people.
Surveying hundreds of adults between May and July 2020 it found that attention, learning ability and working memory were all impacted by isolation. However, the good news is that this improved rapidly as lockdowns were eased and people were able to begin socialising again, concluding that mental fatigue is rapidly reversed by social contact, and that:
“psychologists are only now beginning to recognise just how integral social interaction is to every aspect of our wellbeing and mental ability and how isolation …. can affect our mental health and aptitude across so many measures”.
You will now find it easier to meet your colleagues as we have further unwound the Covid restrictions in line with Public Health Advice.
A day in the office may be just the tonic you need!
Please make sure you read the NEW Office Rules before you come in.