About mental health in times of crisis and a special Christmas campaign

Like many others at the moment, our D-LABS team is facing high stresses and strains due to the pandemic and the actions that come with it. Therefore, with new realities such as home offices, home schooling for children, and lack of physical contact with family members, friends, and colleagues, it is important that we take care not only of our physical health, but also of our mental health. Even if D-LABS employees are doing comparably well, this can be quite different for those who are already pre-stressed during this ongoing time of crisis. The extreme situation can exacerbate or even trigger mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as alcohol and drug addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and psychosis.

SEKIZ – a place for mental health

Therefore, it is important to have a place of refuge, a place to take care of one’s mental health. The SEKIZ in Potsdam offers a platform and a central place for self-help. This facility has diverse offerings and opportunities enabling people increase their self-determination, to promote health, to further develop personal as well as social skills, and to better cope with illness, disability, or other stresses.

Weekly group meetings are very important especially for those affected and their relatives. Community, solidarity and the exchange with like-minded people protect against relapses and provide support and security – especially in this time of crisis. However, group meetings and the familiar personal exchange cannot take place to a large extent at the moment. This can drastically worsen the situation of the persons concerned.

Donations help to digitalize the work of SEKIZ

Last year, D-LABS therefore felt obliged to undertake a special Christmas campaign. With our Christmas greetings to our partners and customers, we called for donations. The task was to create a small wintry craft from the D-LABS creative workshop in their home office, alone or with their families. For everyone who sent us a photo of their craft by December 23, 2020, we wanted to contribute to a charitable cause in the Potsdam/Brandenburg region. We received a lot of positive feedback and great crafts from our partners and customers which we converted into a donation for the charitable cause.

We think it is important that mental health is not neglected, especially in times of crisis. And for us as a company in the digital sector, it is just as important to be able to help with digital challenges entailed by the current situation. Therefore, we have decided to support the SEKIZ in Potsdam. The donations are needed to keep the self-help groups going and to offer virtual meetings in addition to the face-to-face meetings. Specifically, this involves licenses for digital meeting tools and new internet connections in premises with lacking access. In addition, SEKIZ is currently increasing its seminar offerings to train the groups in the use of meeting tools.
Through such support, the individual situation of those affected can be made a little more pleasant and even improved. We hope that our donation has supported this.