By Vidhi Desai
Social awareness month brings light to one fact: supports, either informal or formal, are needed for members in a given community to thrive. Informal supporters can be friends, family members, or peers. Conversely, formal supports include therapists, hospitals, general practitioners, psychiatrists, help lines, and so on.
Phrases such as “it is easy to find support” and “everyone is here to support you” tend to dismiss the struggles a person may be facing when debating on reaching out for any type of aid. This type of distress is usually caused by having feelings of anxiety when social interactions are required. Throughout the pandemic, the restrictions that were imposed involved social distancing, online work, and the closures of several places that allowed for interactions to take place. Current trends in research depict feelings associated with social anxiety have risen in comparison to the pre-pandemic period. Advising a person that “help is easily found” is not entirely accurate, considering the nearly instinctive anxiousness they may face when vocalizing their struggles. This month, I feel that it was imperative to stress the fact that instructional phrases of finding support may lead to further isolation of the struggling individual – social awareness does not only address the need to form supports in a community, but rather, it also implies that individual boundaries may not be infringed upon when trying to provide the aforementioned supports.
Additionally, whilst a generalized upwards trend is observed regarding feelings of anxiety and depression in the Canadian population, it is also crucial to remember that at-risk populations such as homeless youth, immigrants, refugees, and racialized minorities do not follow the linear rise seen in research papers. In fact, at-risk populations tend to need more support than the average, privileged Canadian may need — this is not to say that at-risk individuals definitively need more support than those who are privileged. Instead, I point out that while support may be present, it is not always equally accessible. I use the term “privileged” loosely, as privilege can be indicative of financial, educational, or familial situations along with race. That is, being of Caucasian descent does not equate to being privileged in a way at-risk populations are not. Acknowledging these privileges are only the first step to becoming socially aware; what follows this are installations of different supports, analyzing the effectiveness of tool kits and resources that are being distributed in neighborhoods where at-risk populations are located.
Although July may be associated with social awareness, this month does not constrain the practice of being socially aware to 31 days. The issues mentioned above will remain, regardless of the title of “social awareness” in front of a designated month. There is a need to continue to be considerate and kind to the individuals that surround you on a daily basis.