Pandemic has affected community spirit – panelists

While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out some level of sharing and caring for each other, some officials say they are concerned that generally, there has been an overall loss of community spirit and a higher level of family dysfunction across Barbados.

Social Analyst Elbert Ellis and medical practitioner Dr Lynda Williams made the observation on Tuesday night, while contributing to a panel discussion organised by the Barbados Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (BARAIFA) on the topic The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Barbados.

“There has been at least a loss of community in the traditional sense, but [as with] COVID-19 you tend to see that in times of difficulty when a country is impacted we tend to see that spirit coming to the fore more and more,” said Ellis.

“But there must be a sustained effort because as societies we become a bit more affluent and persons progress more to what we call the middle classes we may move out of the traditional village-type setting [and] we tend to develop a different sense of community. But the point is taken that community in its broader sense, we need to get back there and not only in times of disaster or times of impact,” he said.

He urged residents to be more mindful of the needs of others around them even more so as the economy is becoming a bit more difficult and society is on “the brink of stress”.

“We need to be able to provide moral support not only within the family setting, but the extended family arrangements, the community arrangements and even in the workplace . . ., said Ellis. He urged Barbadians to reach out to non-nationals who were living here with no immediate family support.

Williams, who is the President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP), also acknowledged there has been “some loss of community”, though indicating that “the good thing about COVID is that we have seen some of that come back”.

However, Williams said “As a community moving together, supporting each other, there has been, to my mind, a loss of community in Barbados and that impacts our ability to be resilient whether it is a healthcare situation or whether it is a hurricane or some other type of impact. So we really have to look at how we build back communities and how we help each other survive these difficult times.”

She said in addition to the physical health, the pandemic has had a major impact on people’s mental health and resulted in some change in behaviour among some family members.

“We have to look at families. One of the things COVID revealed is a lot of family dysfunction in Barbados. We will need more social workers and more people to work at strengthening families and also helping people to deal with their own personal resilience,” she said.

She also pointed to the need for countries to continue to cooperate and share with each other, while pointing to the sharing of vaccines and information during the height of the pandemic as one good example of such gesture.

“We also need to encourage our local multi-sectoral response. By that I mean government sectors need to talk to each other. So it is not just healthcare, but we also have to look at agriculture, how are we going to feed ourselves, how are we going to produce those healthy foods, how are we going to work with the transport and works to give people more outdoor spaces for exercise?” she said. (MM)