{"id":13815,"date":"2020-04-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=13815"},"modified":"2020-04-01T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T10:00:00","slug":"column-mental-health-resilience-and-the-covid19-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=13815","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: Mental health resilience and the COVID19 crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By: Marybeth Fleming<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am an Occupational Therapist with over 25 years experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a private occupational therapist, I am not involved in the direct patient care initiative to deal with the corona virus. As an OT I am unable to prescribe a medication, unable to set up and operate a ventilator or complete a test to determine if you are a carrier of the virus or not. However, I am qualified to speak on an issue that is likely affecting us all: mental health and wellness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a self-employed OT with my own business, I found myself with no work, no pay, and considerable familial stress including two 82-year-old parents living four hours away, a son located in another province, and two cancelled graduations. Needless to say, this pandemic is affecting me greatly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>  [adrotate banner=&#8221;43&#8243;] <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite not being able to help on\nthe front lines of health care, I decided to write an article on how to\nmaintain good mental health.&nbsp; I believe\nit has been stated lately that it is <em>unprecedented times. <\/em>&nbsp;Just as I am, I imagine many others in the are\nexperiencing additional stressors and could benefit from tips and tricks in maintaining\nnormalcy and increasing resilience.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until I spent 5 days with\nmy 82-year-old parents, helping them to prepare to remain inside and away from\nothers in their community for an extended period, that I realised their routine\nof retirement would drastically change.&nbsp;\nI questioned how they would be able to weather the storm and maintain a\nsense of purpose while isolated.&nbsp; How resilient\ncould they be not only to the contagion itself but also the mental stressors\nresultant from the significant upset in their routine.&nbsp; I wondered whether they would maintain a\nsense or purpose given their shrinking connection with community. For once they\nwould not have a routine: no church, no chair yoga, no volunteering at the food\nbank.&nbsp; All gone.&nbsp; As each announcement and cancellation became apparent,\nI could see the impact on my parents: Increased concern, and heightened anxiety.\nIt was at that time that I began educating my parents on the power of\nmaintaining structure and purpose in their routine. I educated them on how this\nroutine can positively impact their resiliency to the turmoil around them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resiliency\ncan help protect you from various mental health conditions, such as depression\nand anxiety. Resiliency can also help offset factors that increase the risk of\nmental health conditions.&nbsp; Resiliency\nhelps you bounce back from the turmoil in one\u2019s life. Being resilient improves\nyour ability to cope. &nbsp;Below are some of\nthe strategies I shared with my parents and I now share with you to remain\nresilient during this public health crisis:&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Stay connected. <\/strong>&nbsp;Reach out to those whom you have a strong,\npositive relationships with loved ones and friends. Face time, skype, plan this\nconnection into your routine.&nbsp; Make it\npredictable and planned.&nbsp; Something you\ncan look forward to and rely on. <\/li><li><strong>Maintain structure. <\/strong>Maintain the same wake and sleep\npatterns, eat lunch at lunch time supper around the same time and substitute\nwork hours with other tasks like reading, trying to learn a new task playing\nmusic.&nbsp; Consistency of a routine is\ncritical.<\/li><li><strong>Make every day meaningful.<\/strong> Do\nsomething that gives you a sense of accomplishment and purpose every day. Set measurable\ngoals to help you look toward the future with meaning.<\/li><li><strong>Learn from experience.<\/strong> Think\nof how you&#8217;ve coped with hardships in the past. Consider the skills and\nstrategies that helped you through rough times. You might even write about past\nexperiences in a journal to help you identify positive and negative behavior\npatterns \u2014 and guide your future behavior.<\/li><li><strong>Remain hopeful.<\/strong> You can&#8217;t change the past, but you\ncan always look toward the future. Accepting and even anticipating change makes\nit easier to adapt and view new challenges with less anxiety.<\/li><li><strong>Take care of yourself.<\/strong> Tend\nto your own needs and feelings. Participate in activities and hobbies you\nenjoy. Include physical activity in your daily routine. Get plenty of sleep.\nEat a healthy diet. Practice stress management and relaxation techniques, such\nas yoga, meditation, guided imagery, deep breathing, mindfulness or prayer.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p> In a time of self isolation and physical distancing I hope this information if of some use to some and of great use to many. It sure made a difference in my parent\u2019s self isolation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See you on the other side of this. &nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;6&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Marybeth Fleming I am an Occupational Therapist with over 25 years experience. As a private occupational therapist, I am not involved in the direct patient care initiative to deal with the corona virus. As an OT I am unable to prescribe a medication, unable to set up and operate a ventilator or complete a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,997],"tags":[975,2,471],"class_list":["post-13815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-columns","tag-covid19","tag-fall-river","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}