During the current COVID-19-19 crisis, much has been made of the need to stay away from people who are sick. The term commonly used in public health to describe this is ‘social distancing’. However, to stay healthy this is about physical separation, not social segregation and it’s an important distinction, says Raafi-Karim Alidina
Current health guidance is to stay at home as much as possible, but if you have to go out for things like groceries or a doctor’s appointment remaining at least two metres from others. Sneeze into a tissue, cough into your elbow and wash your hands as often as possible for 20 seconds with soap. (As an aside, washing your hands while singing the chorus of Oops… I did it again by Britney Spears is exactly 20 seconds).
Wear a mask when going outside, use hand sanitiser, and wipe down all packages you receive or purchase. This is about physical separation and physical health. All sensible.
However, some of the most vulnerable people in our society are already socially distanced. They may be elderly, disabled, or simply live alone. They may be mobility restricted, socially isolated – or simply can’t drive to the shops.
Advocating ‘social distancing’ could isolate already socially isolated people even further. When people who are able to drive to the shops take all the toilet paper, the one elderly person is not going to have any to buy on her one weekly shop.
We know that the best way to build inclusion (and reap its many benefits) is through social contact. People who know people that are different from them are less likely to be fearful and therefore racist and subject to stereotype and bias. However, when ‘inter-group contact’ is not possible, we need to double up on tech solutions to progress – and to avoid getting worse.
Leveraging technology
One way tech is being leveraged is that people are forming social-media groups on platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook to support each other and share ideas for working from home more easily and effectively. Musicians are holding virtual concerts where their fans can interact over chat like they would in an actual concert venue. People are holding virtual trivia contests to replace the fun of the pub quiz, where teammates can be on a video chat with each other and answers can be sent directly to the quizmaster.
While these may seem like somewhat trivial events, they actually have a tremendous impact on people’s ability to interact with others outside of their immediate in-group because of the cross-cutting nature of these interests (music, trivia, and working from home). Without tech contact and other forms of non-physical contact, fear could increase. It could increase in incredibly unhelpful ways, as we have already seen with racist attacks in central London on people who ‘look Chinese’.
Maintaining mental health
This is also important for maintaining mental health. While physical distancing helps us with not becoming physically ill, social contact can help us with difficulties that come from being alone for long periods of time.
Even before the Coronivirus outbreak, rates of depression and anxiety disorders have been staggering. In the UK, one in every six people aged 16 to 64 have reported a mental health issue like depression or anxiety. And this has steadily increased every year since the 1980s. In the US, suicide due to depression is the tenth leading cause of death among all people, and is the second most common cause of death among people aged 10 to 34. In 2018, 74% of UK residents report feeling such high levels of stress that they have been unable to cope, leading to an increase in unhealthy eating habits, alcohol abuse, and smoking.
The pandemic has only made things worse. Recent surveys show that the pandemic has led to nearly half of the US population reporting that their mental health has been negatively affected. In the UK, 80% of those who already had a mental health issue report that their symptoms have worsened during this crisis.
Being alone or feeling lonely directly contributes to this increase in mental health issues. And while the tech based social solutions described above like online pub trivia or virtual concerts could help, these are activities that a lonely person would have to opt into. One of the most difficult things about having severe anxiety or depression is that during low points opting into anything just isn’t realistic. We need an external push.
Reach out
It’s because of this – the fact that the very nature of the disease stops people from being able to do anything on their own – that social inclusion is more important now than ever. We can use new tech to help with this – video chatting, telehealth for therapy, and mental health apps like TalkSpace and BetterHelp – but in the end these are just new conduits to an old hat idea: Reach out.
More than anything, we just simply need to reach out to each other. Maybe we can’t physically drag someone in the middle of a severe depressive episode out of bed, but we can overwhelm them with messages of love and support. We can’t physically sit with someone having a panic attack and hold them to help them calm down, but we can call them repeatedly to check in and sit on a video call with them to help them slow their breathing.
Elderly folks are particularly at risk in this crisis because they are both the ones at greatest risk of contracting and having severe symptoms and complications from COVID-19 while also being ones who had been filling their days with social activities they can no longer participate in.
Even for those living in nursing homes or assisted living facilities instead of living alone at home, this can be an awfully lonely time. Geriatrician and Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco described the plight of the over 1.3 million Americans (5% of those over 65) in an article for Vox: ‘They are on lockdown, shut into small rooms or apartments, the able-bodied with few or no direct human interactions, and the disabled restricted to care-related interactions with aides.
‘That many risk hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 does not negate several other truths of equal import: that some would choose death over lockdown; that even those who continue to drive, vote, and read have not been given a choice in whether or not to shelter in place; that almost all will suffer adverse health and longevity consequences if such physical and social restrictions are long-lasting, as it seems it will be; and that some will sacrifice their lives, in quality, quantity, or both.’
The opposite of social distancing
At a time of crisis, at a time of fear we need the opposite of social distancing. We need a sense that we are in this together, that people are not facing this alone. We need social inclusion, not distance. Call on your elderly neighbour, message your residents association and offer help, speak with your friends who may be alone or have suffered from mental health issues in the past, consider what volunteering you can do for people who are most at risk.
Physical distancing is the right term. ‘Social distancing’ makes people distrusting and unhelpful. We need to physically separate, not socially separate.
Raafi-Karim Alidina is a consultant with global diversity and inclusion consultancy Frost Included and is the co-author of new book Building An Inclusive Organisation, published by Kogan Page.
