‘I knew I had to take a break but I didn’t think that was an option’

Five years ago, a special projects officer at a social service agency found himself consumed by the very kind of crisis he helped others navigate.

Then 36, Mr Justin Loo worked with youths to guide them and prepare them for the future with meaningful careers. But, overwhelmed by prolonged burnout, he felt trapped in a painful irony where seeking help felt like a betrayal of his responsibilities.

“I felt like I had to be responsible to my job, my colleagues and the people I was helping, and that if I were to seek help myself, it would mean me stepping back,” he says.

Watch this video to learn about how support from companies helped Mr Loo through his recovery.

At home, employment changes within the family brought financial uncertainty, compounding his burden. The pressures mounted from all sides.

“I was stuck between a rock and a hard place with not many options, and I felt a sense of hopelessness and helplessness,” says the 41-year-old. “I knew I had to take a break and step back but I didn’t think that was an option.”

Each day blurred into the next. In his lowest moment, Mr Loo contemplated drastic measures to escape his circumstances, to end his pain.

What pulled him back from the edge, both literally and figuratively, was a mental image he had of his wife left crying alone with their two dogs at home.

Moved by that vision, he put the thought aside and made the decision to confide in her. It was her response that started his journey to recovery.

“She said it doesn’t matter if we don’t have jobs or struggle financially; she would rather have me than the luxuries,” Mr Loo shares.

“That was a huge burden off my chest and that was what finally made me seek help.”

Getting help and giving help

With his wife by his side, Mr Loo consulted a psychiatrist. Drawing on his psychology degree and experience in rehabilitation and youth counselling, he already had a sense of what he needed to do.

“I was in such emotional distress that therapy would not be effective for me. I needed to stabilise myself first,” he explains.

With professional support, Mr Loo started to better understand how anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were affecting him, and how to manage them

The prescribed medication helped stabilise his condition, giving him space for reflection while he took a break from work.

Eventually, Mr Loo made the intentional decision to step away from work to spend more time with his wife and relearn what it meant to rest.

Two months later, he reconnected with a former colleague who asked if he would join him to work at a mental health charity called Resilience Collective.

“I believe very much in the work of Resilience Collective, which empowers peers to take ownership over their own lived experience and mental health condition, and support others in that process,” says Mr Loo, who is now the head of youth support and engagement.

As it turned out, working there became a big part of his own mental health journey.

“Being in a safe environment, working with people I feel safe with, doing new things, building a sense of identity and purpose again, were key to my own recovery,” says Mr Loo.

Earlier this year, Resilience Collective merged with Caregivers Alliance Limited to form Mindfull Community, a non-profit that now supports some 10,000 caregivers of persons with mental health issues, and 2,000 persons in recovery.

The expanded organisation can now offer a broader range of services, including crisis intervention, self-care tools, peer support, training and resilience-building initiatives.

For Mr Loo, a community-driven approach to mental health is not just logical, it is personal. “When you’re struggling with all your negative thoughts, you need to have people around you to anchor and support you.”

Community support

Behind Mr Loo’s recovery story is a larger network of support — one built by the community. Many of Mindfull’s peer support programmes, like the ones that helped him, are free, thanks to funding from donors, including those who give through Community Chest.

Among the donors is EU Holidays, a 15-year-old travel agency that survived the pandemic lockdowns and economic downturn with the help of various government schemes, and later decided to pay it forward.

The company, which employs around 230 people, signed on to

Community Chest’s Change for Charity initiative

last year as its way to give back, explains founder and director Mr Wong Yew Hoong.

In June this year, EU Holidays went further and encouraged its full-time staff to participate in SGShare by pledging a fixed amount of their salaries each month to Community Chest.

Tour operations manager Diana Tan signed on without hesitation, contributing $10 a month to SGShare.

“Community Chest distributes the money to different social service agencies and I trust that they will give the money to the people who need it,” she says.

Agreeing, Mr Wong adds: “Most of us only know the more well-known charities but there may also be others who really need the help too.”

Making mental health recovery accessible for all

Donations like these reach further than donors may realise and actually make a real impact. They help organisations like Mindfull keep programmes free, making mental health care accessible for all.

“If we didn’t have these types of financial contributions, there would be another barrier for people seeking mental health support,” says Mr Loo.

Out of the some 2,000 persons-in-recovery that Mindfull has helped, around 30 have gone on to be trained as facilitators for peer group sessions, proof that recovery can turn into resilience.

With continued and sustainable funding, individuals stay on Mindfull’s programmes for an average of eight to 12 months.

Being the head of the family himself, Justin also feels that such support groups are beneficial, especially for males. “There’s this belief that it’s awkward for guys to talk about things like emotions and mental health but we’ve found that it may not be the case. They just struggle to find the right place, a space to talk and share,” says Mr Loo.

Having lived through that struggle himself, Mr Loo wants others to know that mental health is not a burden they should carry alone. Organisations like Mindfull are evidence that help – and understanding – exist.

He says: “Mental health is meant to be a shared responsibility, and mental health recovery is a societal responsibility.”

Keen to help people like Mr Loo? This SG60, find out how you and your company can also contribute. Join the companies and organisations giving back monthly through the auto deduction scheme at

SGShare

, and help build a more inclusive and caring Singapore.

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