[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1m_YUGVVaU?feature=oembed]

The Richmond Foundation has been an invaluable resource for mental health since 1993, and as its located in Malta, an important touchpoint for the gambling industry. To get a better understanding of how this pandemic has affected the sector mentally, and get some tips on how to manage it better, Becky Liggero Fontana spoke with Dragan Donkov of the Manager Learning and Development Team.

With so many people working remotely, Liggero Fontana began by asking how managers can look for signs that employees might be in trouble with their mental health. “What we notice is, the first thing we see a change from what was in the past,” he said. “We can see things like reduced productivity, the person is feeling overwhelmed with simple tasks, there’s lack of motivation, and when they participate in in team meetings or individual meetings, they’re not really looking forward for things to happen. They feel a bit helpless and you can’t see any signs of hope. You see the lack of energy they would present, some people are going to have pure physical experiences, like complaining they have pain, because even during stress and depression and mental illnesses there quite a lot of physical symptoms that we notice. I mean, very often mental illnesses are diagnosed through physical experiences than the psychological experiences are coming into place. They would change the way how they appeared, the way they come, and they can say, ‘I sleep late, I can’t find a routine.’ They might share that they’re drinking a bit more wine just to relax. So alcohol becomes as a way of relaxation and spending time and dealing with problems. So the quite small things that you need to pick up from your interaction with your colleagues and employees. One symptom might not be enough, in in this case.”

There are ways to mitigate the potential of these problems cropping up, but it might require a bit of diligence, and a lot of communication. “The companies needs to look into how to increase the way how people socialize as much as they can, even like by organizing individual reach outs for people that they think potentially will be alone,” he said. “When we’re talking about HR, most of the HR people know who is alone in the country, who has lack of support, especially like we’re talking about expats, being in other countries.”