The March issue of Pathfinder features an in depth look at our mental health with the one year anniversary of lockdown nearly upon us.

Entitled, The Buddy Buddy Check Initiative in association with Angel Call Handling, we talk about isolation, loneliness, depression and anger management.

The entire supplement can be accessed inside the current issue of Pathfinder International for free HERE! 

Below we see editor, Mal Robinson’s introduction to the supplement for a little taster of The Buddy Buddy Check.

Incredibly, in what seems like some kind of suspended animation Groundhog Day, we have nearly eclipsed the one-year anniversary since Prime Minister, Boris Johnson called a national lockdown, a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

It has been a rough ride for us all in some instance from the loss of family members and friends to the virus through to something simple as a person’s ability to conduct normal daily life as we knew it pre-covid.

With that in mind, Pathfinder has launched the idea of the Buddy Buddy Check Initiative and a look at various elements of mental health in a bid to talk about it, get it out there and if anyone needs help, then please do so – don’t suffer alone.

We also felt charities are in need of support in these times and we have also included a small focus on them within this section too. They say charity begins at home and for us it does at home this issue within our military family parameters.

When I was in the RAF going through basic training, the idea of a Buddy Buddy check meant checking on your mate, mainly before heading into the gas chamber or should I say Respirator Test Facility, as part of your NBC training.

The Buddy Buddy check was seeing if your mate, your oppo, your mucker, your colleague, your friend, your buddy was going to be Okay before potentially leaving themselves open to the effects of the CS gas canisters that lay await.

In this instance, it means all of the above, yet swap the idea of facing the gas canisters for facing life itself and the main gist and ethos of the Buddy Buddy check remain true.

Stay safe out there and remember to look after one another.

Kind regards,

Mal Robinson, Editor, Pathfinder International magazine.