How about a mental health day!
Posted on 01/02/2010 | 5 Comments
So it was late afternoon and I was chatting with some of my young, active and thoughtful research team members. And guess what came up? We need a mental health break during the “dog days” of winter. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.
We know that the winter blues are very common at northern latitudes – such as all of Canada. We know that there is a mental disorder, called Seasonal Affective Disorder that is linked to the relative lack of sunlight during our winter months. We know how long that stretch of going to work when it is dark and going home when it is dark is – especially between Christmas and the first holidays in the spring. Apparently there is even some anecdotal evidence that work and school problems peak in February. And, we know how important a good down day – preferably one in which we can go exercise outside in the sunshine- is for our mental health.
So here is my proposal (actually it is the proposal of Jess Wishart and Christina Biluk), but I am putting forward as mine. Let’s have a national holiday in early February. Lets call it mental health day. Why not? We can just prorogue for a while. I bet that it will be good for all of us. And the researchers can study to see if the two weeks after the day show less work and school stress than the two weeks before the day. Or they could do a controlled trial – one part of the country with the day off and the other part without. Hah. Maybe we should just take the day off!
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This is a great set of comments and rings very true.
I totally agree that scientists (just like everyone else) have their biases and foibles. After all, scientists are human beings too! But science is different than scientists.
The scientific method is the most objective frame that we have by which to evaluate and predict. Science is not about finding truth. It is only about being less wrong most of the time. The scientific method (experimental design and mathematics) gives us the ability to test what we believe. The scientific method is not used to prove something is correct, on the contrary, the scientific method is designed to prove that something is not correct! It is designed to test what is called the “null hypothesis”. It takes ideas that come out of left field (or wherever else they come from) and puts those ideas to an independent test.
t does not drive our beliefs. It does however challenge our beliefs. In that way it is self-correcting. Of course scientific inquiry and understanding lives within a wider social context. That is one of the great features of science.
But gravity is gravity, social context notwithstanding. And thus it is nasty, brutish and long. As Brecht said, (something like this) - the purpose of science is to save us from everlasting error.
By Christina Carew on May 11th
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What people are saying?
Daisy Jackson said...
Mental health is more important than body health, yet most people just ignores it *,~
Comment made on August 05th, 2010
Kylie Sanchez said...
in third world countries, mental health is never a priority
Comment made on August 05th, 2010
Liane Greenburg said...
Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island have all adopted the 3rd Monday in February as ‘Family Day’. The stretch between Christmas vacation and Easter is very long; too long. Perhaps our friends down east should follow in our footsteps.
Comment made on August 05th, 2010
Wellescent said...
In Ontario, Alberta and one other province, Family Day is recognized on Feb 15th. Although spending time with family might not mean sanity for parents, at least others are also recognizing the benefit of a break in the middle of the winter.
Comment made on August 05th, 2010
Cameron said...
The theme for Mental Health Day is the Great Push Investing in mental health.
Cameron
Comment made on November 01st, 2011
What do you think?