Brava: Psychologist warns of the need for society to take care of its mental health

The psychologist at the Brava Health Department, Adilson Bango, warned today of the need for society to take care of its mental health, even recognizing that human beings were not and are not oriented towards this.

Adilson Bango was speaking to Inforpress after an open conversation held at Escola Secundária Eugénio Tavares, aimed at the educational community, especially teachers and leaders of school groups in Brava, where he stressed that mental health is “a very important issue”.

According to the same source, the demands that society imposes on human beings are several, remembering that society went through the phase of the covid-19 pandemic, with many stressful situations. Incidentally, the psychologist emphasizes the question of the profession itself, in this case that of the teacher, considering teaching as “a very stressful profession, due to several factors”, implying therefore that people take some care with their mental health.

“Often, society is concerned about diseases such as anxiety, depression and other types of disorders, and all these issues are important, but the most important thing is to take care of mental health”, he underlined.

Asked about ways to provide this care, this professional indicated the development of strategies to work on emotional intelligence, well-being and other fundamental components.

However, he recognized and regretted the fact that society is not oriented towards the issue of mental health, revealing that there is a lot of prejudice regarding this issue, but not taking care of mental health leads to the development of neurotic and psychotic pathologies.

About the teacher, he showed that, like everyone else, he is not immune to emotional and psychological issues and this always interferes with the relationship with the student.

Taking care of your mental health, the specialist believes that the teacher will certainly take better care of the students. Recognizing that taking care of students “is not an easy task, it is demanding and you need to be mentally well to practice the profession”, defending that in any profession being mentally well is essential to exercise it and achieve the objectives.

In turn, Vergílio Lopes, interim delegate of the Brava School Delegation, explained that this activity is part of the commemoration program for the National Teachers' Day, marked on the 23rd of April, stressing that the teaching class is a class "prone" to the mental problems and, therefore, in good time it is seen that each of the presentations demonstrated all the possible problems and the solutions.

This official added that this theme was presented in different perspectives, involving specialists, doctors and the religious aspect, talking about how to manage emotions and the approach to mental health.
“I hope that the class makes good use of the conversation and information, in the sense of having more tools and baggage to be able to face what is day-to-day in the classroom, taking into account that we are living in a world where there are several difficulties and that it is necessary to manage emotions in the relationship with students, with the family, and with society as a whole”, he said, stressing that only with mental health care is it possible to build a better education and teach students to then reap the fruits and have a better society.
Eurico Barros, professor at ESET, who participated in this conversation, considered that “it is difficult to talk about this subject since it is not a routine”.

However, he recognized the importance of the subject, explaining that the teacher's career implies extracurricular factors and that within the school there is a micro society that always puts the teacher's mental health to the test.

“The teacher, in order to exercise his function, has to know himself, in the sense of knowing what his limits are and how to overcome barriers, since he deals with various feelings, at various levels, which ends up bringing to light the fragility that the teacher has”, he indicated, emphasizing that it is also up to the teacher to have the courage to feel that he does not have the capacity to solve certain problems and ask for help.

But, he recalled that there is still a social taboo that the psychologist is only for the mentally ill, "a wrong concept", because, he said, the teacher himself, when he loses control of his emotions, is also unable to understand the emotions of the student and someone needs to tell him that he is not strong up to that point, but that in his weakness he can be strong, asking for help.