The loneliness pandemic

andrea espiñeira Healthcare Manager Sanitas Healthcare Funding When the pandemic started our colleagues in the 24-hour telephone service were overwhelmed with calls, so we started to work together to provide support. My Regional Director asked if I was interested in helping and I never thought twice about it.

GIJÓN — SPAIN

I have always loved being a nurse and working in insurance, I continue to do that, just from a different angle. I started to work for the 24-hour service, gathering information about how the whole system worked. To start with, we knew it was a virus that showed itself in flu-like symptoms, then there were more and more protocols, which I would put up on my kitchen wall near my computer.

I have a daughter of 10 years old and live in Avilés, Asturias. My ex-husband lives really nearby and she has been able to live alternate weeks with each of us. That has been good for us all.

One of the calls that touched me was from a young married couple. The wife was really afraid and anxious. She put her husband on and he told me he had to work a night shift and she would be alone in the house. I told him we were a 24-hour service and your wife can call us at any time of the night and we will look after her. That calmed her down and her husband thanked us for being there.

Another patient asked me if we could do some sort of test so that she could go back to her family in Madrid. She was grieving for her father, she hadn’t been able to be with him and was alone during the lock-down. She was quarantining alone. They were all sad stories. Without a doubt, one of the biggest tragedies of this lockdown and this pandemic is the loneliness and isolation felt by those who get infected and by their families.

There were particularly stressful moments, but we were lucky because the company gave us internet gym courses and psychological support via video call. They also did a series of conferences by a psychologist. Those were fantastic.

I have felt fully supported from the start. I have never felt worried about not having a job and I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with the Sanitas 24-hour service. �