Chinese Emotional Support Hotline Volunteer – Super Stars of the Month April
It’s the once-a-month volunteer interview. This month, the hotline has selected two volunteers. hotline listener Maifang and hotline Supervisor Coco.
Maifang came to Canada in 2005. She was engaged in nursing work in China and had worked in a hospital for more than ten years. In China, I had experienced with SARS, and when I came to Canada, I encountered the Covid-19. When I was working in a university hospital in Beijing, I had been exposed to the psychology health care of college students, and now I work in a nursing home. This is a unit dedicated to taking care for Alzheimer’s, ranging in age from 50 to 100+. Maifang became a volunteer through a friend. Lei is a senior volunteer of Ecssen Career School, and has been friends with Maifang for many years. At the beginning of the epidemic, Lei gave the volunteers a lot of support. Maifang is very happy to be part of this big family and Maifang feels like she has learned a lot since joining the Chinese Emotional Support hotline.
Maifang believes that mental health is very broad, in people’s daily life, physical bodies, unexpected events, etc., may cause the mental distress. It may be temporary, or it may be gradual. In her experience, while facing people and things with mental or emotional distress, she shows empathy to listen, and by doing so our patience can gain the trust of the caller.
Maifang achieves self-cherishing by distracting herself and doing something different. Maifang doesn’t have much expectations for 2022, she just hopes to have the opportunity to go out more with her family. Because for the past two years, our travel has been restricted due to the epidemic.
Coco studied media in China. After graduation, she worked as a social news reporter, automobile and fashion page reporter and editor in charge of a large local media, media activity planning, and then responsible for the operation and management of media brand advertising. Later, by chance, she came to Canada and went to Manitoba with her friends. After completing the two-year professional study of mental health / disability and community support, she got the diploma and immigrated to Canada. After moving to Calgary, completed a degree in social work at Calgary University.
When talking about the volunteer hotline, Coco felt that it is the pride of our Chinese community that Ecssen Career School can set up the Chinese emotional hotline project. The Chinese hotline is the spiritual bond and life assistant of Chinese immigrants. In her opinion, the hotline has been in place in just over a year, from technical support to job setting, training and management. The dedication of all volunteers day after day is invaluable. What impresses Coco is that the hotline team can effectively communicate and solve any problems in the first time, never delay, deal with, or miss any call for help. The management team is also very experienced, and it is not easy to manage the volunteer team well organized.
When it comes to mental health issues, Coco admitted that she has experienced many downs in the past few years of living in Canada. She can describe her inner feelings with a song by Pu Shu’s “The Ordinary Road”. She said that in fact, the vast majority of people will experience more or less mental troubles in their lives, and Wang Sicong may be no exception. Coco used an example. We need to take medicine when we are sick, go to the doctor when it is serious, and have surgery when it is more serious. But our soul is also an invisible body. Under the stimulation of stress, accidents, setbacks and other external environments, it will also catch a cold, have a fever, bleed, and even develop chronic diseases. It needs to be taken care of and treated, but unfortunately we are often unable to realize it, your own mental health is giving a warning.
When it comes to Self-care, Coco thinks it’s very personal. Although many people recommend very healthy methods such as meditation, yoga, painting, and fitness, she believes that what is suitable for others may not be suitable for her. Even these methods are more self-disciplined, and some may add extra pressure to herself. On the contrary, some casual ways of self-cherishing, such as sleeping, watching online dramas, playing games, eating and drinking, and writing down the uneasiness in my heart are also very relaxing.
