 Global Integration UpdatesCommon Ground for the Common Good Be the people we need--Build the world we need
Special News--February 2021Covid Care
Reflections and Resources for Wellbeing  Image courtesy and (c) ENOD 2017
Covid Care
Promoting and maintaining mental health and wellbeing for all persons and peoples
(ranging from informal to formal services, guidelines, policies--local through global)
during the multi-faceted challenges of COVID-19 and beyond.---------- In this Update we continue to present perspectives and resources for covid care to help address the challenges of the protracted pandemic. Along with our recent Global Integration Updates, we feature several resources for supporting the mental health and wellbeing of individuals, communities, and countries.
On a personal note...
This month marks one year since Kelly first donned a mask, receiving it as he stepped off a plane in Addis Ababa, arriving from Bangkok. Little did any of us know what was unfolding...nor do we know what may be en route in the future.
We continue to experience the ups and downs of coping during covid, coupled of course with the "normal" ups and downs of life. Discouragement and dark days are not atypical. We are grateful for good friends and close colleagues--our telecom companions--with whom we are weathering this unpredictable storm. Probably like most of us, we are more than ready to catch a glimpse of that elusive, heralding light at the end of the dark covid tunnel. In the meantime, we seek to deepen the foundations of our character, faith, and compassion, as we sojourn through this short life with fellow humans around the world.
Amo neniam pereas. Love never fails. Warm greetings,
Kelly and Michèle
MCAresources@gmail.com --Share your comments and resources on our MCA Facebook page
--Forward to your colleagues and networks (link to sign up is at the end).
Featured Resources
Covid Care
Reflections and Resources for Wellbeing
The first lock down at our home in France, 2020.
Staying sane, persevering, working remotely, collaborating with our team.
😊
--------- Reflections
Like it or not, pandemics, like most crises, bring out people's best selves or their worse selves--our selfless and our selfish qualities. The reality of the uncertainties and anxieties of life, and indeed survival--existential risk--is heavy upon the world. Positively, the current COVID-19 pandemic certainly provides plenty of opportunities for us all--individually and collectively--to reflect on the types of people we want to be, the types of societies we need to build, and the types of changes we have to make. Courage and choice can not be conquered by corona.
We join together in solidarity to make the world a better place, locally through globally, on behalf of covid care and in hopes to stir up the best selves in all of us. We also note that the many overlapping problems in our world continue unabated--pandemics themselves--even as this covid pandemic dominates the center stage globally: multi-dimensional poverty, protracted violence, conflicts, forced migration, human rights violations, gross inequalities, racism, mental ill health, environmental degradation, corruption, etc. (for example, review 10 Humanitarian Crises and Trends to Watch in 2021, New Humanitarian).This is the ongoing, cascading context which challenges us daily as we seek to practically support the wellbeing of all persons, all peoples, and the planet.
Resources
--Another Side of Technology, Kathleen Pike, Five on Friday: Musings on Mental Health (29 January 2021). "“We are all zoomed out. We are fretting about the negative impact of all this screen time on our own and our kids’ mental health. Our worries are real and reasonable and will be the focus of another Five on Friday. But there is another side of the story. An upside. This pandemic has catapulted us into a new era of leveraging technology to support our mental health. And it is much needed.” Dr. Pike shares five concise paragraphs of perspectives and resources, from teletherapy to online support groups.
--The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Mental Health: A Briefing (2020). United for Global Mental Health
Global Insights, Office of International Affairs, American Psychological Association. Various short updates on mental health issues/responses to COVID-19 in different countries (e.g., Uganda, Nigeria, Korea, Singapore, Ukraine, Macedonia)
--2020 Year in Review: The Impact of COVID-19 in 12 Charts, World Bank (5 languages)
--WHO COVID-19 Resources and Guidance, World Health Organization
--Helpful Thinking During the Coronavirus Outbreak. National Center for PTSD (USA)
--A Self-Care Guide...during COVID-19. Mary Hoch Center, George Mason University
Upcoming:
--Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Certificate Program--Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, Harvard Medical School (19-30 April 2021, online)
--Psychology Day at the United Nations: Building Back Better--Mental Health in a Post-Covid World (15 April 2021, live streamed, more information soon on website)
Global Integration Updates We compiled the covid care materials below over the past year to support colleagues and organizations across countries and sectors. Some of the issues and resources: anxiety, trauma, depression, confinement, loneliness, loss, grief, relationship strains, coping for children, work insecurities, spiritual struggles, uncertainty/concerns about what is going on, compassion, courage, mutual support, faith-based strengths, etc.
--Grieving Well--Healing Well: Resources for Growth through Loss
Global Integration Update (November 2020)
--Tough Times: Tougher People. Best selves--Better world
Global Integration Update (October 2020)
--Solidarity for Covid-Care: Being Real-Life Heroes
Global Integration Update (September 2020)
--Keep Persevering: Stories and Strategies in the Pandemic
Global Integration Update (August 2020)
--Managing Stress and COVID-Distress: Faith-Inclusive Resources
Global Integration Update (June 2020)
--Staying Sane During COVID-19: Mental Health Resources for Ourselves, Others, World Global Integration Update (May 2020)
--Confronting COVID-19: “Be smart. Be safe. Be kind.”
Global Integration Update (April 2020)
Image courtesy JMLOD 2021 Amo neniam pereas.
Love never fails.
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations across sectors (e.g., mission, humanitarian, peace, health, and development sectors) as well as global mental health and integrity/anti-corruption, all with a view towards collaboratively supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, resource development, and publications.
Global Integration (GI) is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). GI encourages a variety of people to be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action for all people and the planet. It intentionally links building the world we need with being the people we need. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability;
it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God,
and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 1963)
Global Integration Updates |
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