#CaxtonCares: Crazy socks show support for healthcare workers
Feet were clad in all sorts of socks; colourful, funky, mismatched and even socks keeping each individual toe warm!
It is always good to make time to have some fun, but if you can do it while also showing your support and raising awareness for a good cause, so much the better.
This is what the staff members at the Caxton Joburg West office did on Friday, 4 June, when they donned their most colourful, craziest, funkiest and even mismatched socks in support of our healthcare workers and their mental state.
#CrazySocks4DocsDay (#CS4D) is a day on which awareness is raised of the mental health needs of all our healthcare workers. Especially under Covid-19, their already crisis-level needs have given rise to another pandemic – mental health issues – and it is happening in a sector that needs to care for us, the public.
Frontline workers, and especially healthcare workers, are not only suffering from physical exhaustion from working long and hard hours and constant anxiety, but are also experiencing ‘moral distress’ caused by having to decide who should receive and when. This, in turn, leads to fatigue and brain fog (caused by trauma, uncertainty, and isolation affecting their minds and memory) as well as burnout, depression and anxiety. In some cases, it can also lead to suicide.
#CS4D Day originated in 2017 in Australia as an initiative by cardiologist Dr Geoff Toogood after his traumatic experiences concerning his own mental health, and in 2018, the Ithemba Foundation, a non-profit that raises awareness around mental health, brought the campaign to South Africa for the first time.
Dr Toogood’s message for 2021 is simple, “With crazy socks, we want to remind everyone to walk the talk. No one should walk alone with mental health issues.” Ithemba Board member Dr Marita van Schalkwyk agrees. “Wearing a crazy pair of socks means that you are standing with your colleagues and friends in these stressful times and situations, trying to get a smile and hoping to put hope – and joy – back in their hearts.”
Showing that Caxton cares, we all heeded the call and put our money where our feet are, and displayed our crazy socks with pride, standing in solidarity with all our frontline workers.
