Report from I.W. Councillor John Nicholson

Posted by Admin on 25 June 2020, 2:01 pm

COUNCILLOR JOHN NICHOLSON

Ward Member for Northwood & Cowes South
Chairman of Policy & Scrutiny Committee for Adult Social Care & Health

SUNNYSIDE

PALLANCE LANE

NORTHWOOD

PO31 8LT
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Tel: 07918 757843

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Email: cllr.john.nicholson@btconnect.com

See the I.W. Councillor’s section

WARD REPORT – JUNE 2020

The Report appearing in the July/August 2020 edition of Northwood News:

Is Return to Normal Possible?
We keep hearing phrases advocating return to normal, restarting the economy, as though it is just like flicking some switch, but is it really that easy? Could it ever be the case, given the extent of the effect of shutdown, some of which has yet to come out, that we can just resume where we left off, as though nothing happened? It is true that in many sectors jobs that needed doing before shutdown will still need doing, and in that respect it brings different problems, associated with risk of overload, as demand exceeds capacity. In other areas what demand there was will have simply passed, and may take a very long time to build again, if ever at all (you only have to look at the airline industry to see an example of this). The same may apply to the holiday and leisure industries. All the fear embedded over the last few months may reside to make people reticent to venture afield, especially where risk has been broadcast during the shutdown, and many would say, such a cautionary approach is understandable; it is the instinct of self-preservation, in the face of the unknown.
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Psychological Side Effects
The other side effect that I think we need to be aware of is the psychological effect this whole episode may have on some people, not through their own doing, but just because of the way that they are made and their circumstances – their human condition. The effect I am concerned about is that of PTSD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder happens when someone is put under severe emotional strain, either in a single massive (traumatic) experience, or drip-feed repetition over an extended period of time. The mechanics of PTSD creates new neural connections that establish a new behavioural circuit, triggering reflexive emotional and physiological states in reaction to the perceived conditions. That is how we all work, in any direction, whether it be stress, joy, love, fear.
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How you react to circumstances, though, can be very personal. That is why some people remain unaffected by something that has caused someone else to go into trauma, burst out laughing, lose their rag, swoon, etc. These reactions are mainly involuntary, so telling someone to just snap out of it, is as much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot. One person who has done a lot of work in making the understanding of emotional states and how to manage them to enhance performance or avert detrimental states is Professor Steve Peters, in his brilliant work that goes under the very Brutishly named Chimp Management, where the chimp bit is playfully aligned to the emotional brain and its responses, some of which can be very serious as outlined above. His portrayal and explanation of the complex mental processes that drive us is so brilliantly simple that it can be understood and utilised by almost anyone ranging from Olympic athletes to primary school children. In fact, our very own Northwood Primary School embarked on a Chimp Management programme, such was the enlightened vision of their head-teacher.
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What professor Peters illustrates is that when the emotional brain engages, and it is the very first intelligent sense to do so, it quickly looks for a reference point in our memory bank, and if it finds a similar situation that says it requires urgent action, as the perception returned, it goes into auto-pilot, cutting out the far more deliberate and slow rational part of the brain, a part of the brain, incidentally, that does not fully develop in most human beings until they are in their early to late 20’s. Such reaction cannot be directly countered, because it is too strong, too instinctive, and it is important to realise that the emotional brain is not rational, it is reactionary only. What has to be done is to find a way of changing that reference point – the beliefs, values, perceptions that are held. Some do this through skilful interventions using hypnosis, NLP, CBT and other neuro-programming systems. Some by humour. Yes, humour is a very powerful tool, and can break and create neural connections, as can letting off steam, group activity, song, poetry, etc. It is all very personal, and it is whatever reaches out and touches you that counts.
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Over-Estimation?
Some may say that our reaction to the Virus was/is disproportional, and I have questioned this with the Leader. He says, and I agree, that there is no rule book for dealing with this issue – you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t, but a responsible government hierarchy must always err on the cautious. So, it is better that we were prepared for the worst that never happened (yet, touch wood) than be dismissively unprepared (like Brazil, say), and be overwhelmed by the onslaught. I really am not sure, though, if anyone had the time or forethought to consider the repercussive consequences of our protective actions that we all joined in. I just hope that they are over-estimated.

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John Nicholson

Ward Councillor for Northwood & Cowes South
Chairman, Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Adult Social Care & Health

See the I.W. Councillor’s section