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Old 29th Jun 2020, 22:31
  #29 (permalink)  
PilotLZ
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Europe
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On the subtopic of mental health, does one necessarily need to test positive for the dreaded lurgy to get serious mental health issues under the present circumstances? Many of our brethren are out of their jobs or waiting for the axe to fall. Most are on a severely reduced income. Confinement, lack of social interaction, uncertainty over the future, fear for the health of self and loved ones and all the other "joys" coming with this pandemic can lead to mental health problems even without actual infection. How's that going to be tackled? For now, there's nothing in place to mitigate the psychological impact. Airlines in their vast majority don't give two pence about the welfare of those who made the shareholders rich. AMEs don't perform any psychological screening other than casual chat; even if they did, it's questionable whether they will defer someone for counselling. To make matters even worse, after Germanwings and Lubitz many pilots simply fear to admit to having coping difficulties out of fear of being stigmatized (not that schizophrenia and coping difficulties are anywhere near the same, but the general public doesn't put too much thought into it). In all honesty, I find this sort of problems far more likely to cause long-term trouble with someone than a mild case of COVID-19.
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