A Quick Update: Current Events Support Room
Hello Community,
I hope everyone is well and staying safe.
I am writing this post to share that we are opening the Current Events Support Room to offer our support on the stressful situations surrounding Hurricane Ian in Florida and the Iran Hijab Protest.
We have been through various challenging and stressful events together, and we will continue to face it head-on. You are not alone. You have our all support.
In order to maintain a safe and therapeutic environment for everyone, a reminder to please keep discussion of politics out of the room and focus on your emotions, experiences, and feelings during your share. And in the interest of inclusivity, we ask everyone to be mindful of giving one another an opportunity to share.
We hope this room offers your solace during these hard times. We are thinking of you, your families, friends, and loved ones and sending beams.
@ASilentObserver
Great update, thank you, Obziee!
Sending love and strength to everyone coming across! ❤
hey obs💜 thanks for both Acknowledging this in behalf of cups and for the try to offer support
personally as an Iranian tho, I have no idea what I could share and how I could talk about all the mess going on in my country without it becoming graphic/triggering, nor political…
what should I exactly focus on
cause if skipping events and focusing on feelings my share would be done by saying I’m devastated, very angry, so so worried, and I feel lost…
@Listeningsarinn I struggle to think of 7 cups member rooms being the right place to receive the full potential of a group/peer support setting for trauma intertwined with politics.
Probably a 1-1 chat with a listener would offer you a safe space to fully explain your feelings and it's causes.
Another option coming to my mind is not going into political details in a group setting.
E.g. "in my country we currently suffer from suppression. I'm worried about the future of my people and my country." Anonymize the events and refrain from statements that mention a political party.
I see how not being able to openly talk about the events can add to the trauma. I wish I had a solution.
@Listeningsarinn
You and the people of Iran are in my thoughts ❤️.
@Listeningsarinn I agree it's hard to take the political aspects out. Thinking of the disability room I can see being upset in areas with dropped masks rules due to risks and then others upset with masking rules if they do not allow for reasonable exemptions for those who cannot wear them, or people who use lip reading to understand others.
Most rooms have political issues tied to the broad topic. In the past we allowed it as long as it was about support plus relevant to the room. Ie. Just venting about the politics not ok. Complaining about a policy because of the affects on someone's life is. Avoid wider political statements in general for group rooms ie. Politician/party is awful.
I tend to think the last part as the general intent of the rule, but sometimes it gets implemented much more strictly.
@ASilentObserver It is good to see 7C with such chat room, as I see the increasingly urgency for. Life is not as such about emotions, Emotions are being triggered by life circumstances, and here politicis kick in ...
We have seen a tremendous increase in the number of mental stress issues since years:
- Covid-19 / global pandemic ... nationwide curfiews and lockdowns since end of 2019 with tremendous impact onto all segments of life
- increasing living costs by inflation (e.g. up to 17% in September 2022 in NL), either its food, energy costs (e.g. Gas prices for heating / industrial production, petrol, electricity)
- increasing interest rates in 2021 as counter reaction to inflation with increasing effects onto the real estate market
- recession (since beginning of 3rd quarter in USA)
- Russia-Ukraine war since 24th February with the increasing risks for escalation and use of tactical nuclear weapons) and now a huge stream of war refugees also in Russia since the national mobilization
The WHO (World Health Organisation) had a critical wake-up call on 2nd March 2022 that it is urgent governments have to step up mental health services and support as an increase of 25% in prevelance of anxiety and depression worldwide has been triggered.
The negative impact of the upper named events onto the mental health and well being of humans as multiple stress factors is tremendous:
- Loneliness
- financial worries
- suicidal and self harming thinking
- exhaustion
Against these steadily growing needs the integration of mental health and psycho-social support in the WHO member states isn't moving forward adequately. As we can read from the WHO Mental Health Atlas, the national budgets had been in 2020 at an overall average of only 2% of the total health budgets being spent on mental health issues.
Related to business reports (e.g. growjo.com), 7Cups has an annual revenue of estimated 30 Million US dollars, with around 195 employees. It is still very small, compared to some bigger organisations like Crisis Text Line with an annual revenue of around 300 Milion US dollar and 2,715 Employees.
Hopefully the 7Cups management can strengthen its services by extending its funding channels, e.g.
- tax exempted donations (with linked NGO/Foundation)
- social and technical sponsorship
- community oriented crowd funding
- sales revenues from merchandising
- strategic partnerships for content delivery (media productions) and syndication and more
... to support individuals and/or families (A) who do not have the financial resources to pay privately a therapy program, (B) who live in countries who lack the infrastructure (technically and financially).
There is plenty of money out there which is waiting to be invested into health care services.
In my understanding such "Event support room" shall not mainly focus on events on the North American Territory, I understand 7C as a global platform, which should extend with its organisational structure to ensure it can adapt specifically to regional requirements.
Keep the room steadily open pls ! - Put some qualified listeners and Community Mods on the pay role. Every single cent is it worth.
Tks from Netherlands for all your efforts
L.
As much as I love to listen, I wanna be listened to also and not feel like what I say doesn’t count
@magicallyJet5031 Not sure what you're referencing specifically, but if you want to seek support many listeners also have member accounts.
@AffyAvo would u b able to maybe direct me to 1
@magicallyJet5031 Hello. If you were to log off your listener account, you would be able to create a member account and then find yourself a listener.
@magicallyJet5031 You can use this link https://www.7cups.com/member/BecomeMember.php
@AffyAvo Thanks, i actually have 1
@ASilentObserver
Awesome. So glad you've made a space for supporting those suffering right now.
My heart goes out to all those affected by these events. You're not alone. ❤️