Working from Home, Parenting & Wellness Resources
Among the many, many changes we have all experienced in recent weeks, some are easier to get used to than others. Most of us find ourselves working from home and parenting in the midst of an unprecedented public health emergency. So while we keep up with policy changes and government guidelines, we also wanted to offer some resources on working from home, parenting, and taking care of your personal wellbeing to help you with your new day-to-day life.
Working & Working from Home
Working From Home
Working from home is awesome… until the cat throws up on your computer and your neighbour starts firing up all sorts of power tools and noisy machinery to build what you can only assume is a time machine. But the good news is that many people have been working from home and surviving such calamities for years. Here are 20 tips on working from home from people who’ve been doing it for a while.
Working From Home… With Kids
Having kids can make you more productive – except when they’re there all the time. So how can you meet work obligations now that schools are closed? This is a great article on working from home with your kids during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Easing the ‘Work From Home’ Burden
Working from home on a normal day can feel challenging. And it gets exponentially harder for single parents, kids with special needs, families experiencing homelessness, and parents who have to work outside of the home. Add financial worries, annoying/confusing technology, distracting pets, a lack of space and it can all feel downright paralyzing. So here are even more tips and resources on getting through the mess we find ourselves in. My key takeaway? This situation is unprecedented, so go easy on yourself.
Wellness and Mental Health
Self-care for Educators & Caregivers During a Pandemic
Self-care at a time like this is key. We can’t be available for our children if we don’t have the energy or bandwidth ourselves, worse still if we get sick. For this reason, Morningside Center has pulled together resources and tips to help you take care of yourself in the coming weeks and months.”
CMHA Resources
A pandemic is a very stressful event for individuals and communities. It’s normal to feel some stress and anxiety. It’s also very common for people to display great resiliency during times of crisis. CMHA has put together some great resources and suggestions to help support your mental health at this time of uncertainty.
Taking Care of our Communities
In collaboration with the FNHA OCMO and Chief Nursing Office, Nursing Services, the UBC Learning Circle is launching a new collaborative Wellness Series. Throughout the course of this series, guest speakers and experts will tackle topics around ensuring the wellness of ourselves, our community members, and caregivers during this time of physical and social distancing.
Mental Health Commission of Canada
In times of high anxiety and stress, it’s more important than ever to safeguard your mental wellness. The Mental Health Commission of Canada suggests that doing so includes stemming the tide of non-essential information and paring down your news consumption. Learn more by visiting the MHCC resource hub.
“The Power To Play To Take Care Of Us”
In this webinar, Neufeld Institute faculty member Deborah MacNamara Ph.D. talks about why play—for children and adults alike—is critical to our survival in times of stress. Dr. MacNamara explores why it is in our nature to play, how play can heal and restore us, and why we will need to lean on play more than ever in the days and weeks to come.
COVID-19 Stress, Distress & Trauma Series
This series of videos with Dr. Bruce Perry from the Neurosequential Network (an organization that develops and disseminates innovative programs and practices to improve the lives of children, families, and communities) goes over topics like patterns of stress, understanding state-dependent functioning, regulation, and more.
Mental Health Videos from the Conference Board of Canada
The Conference Board of Canada has created a resource page full of insights and analysis on COVID-19 including a series of videos with Dr. Bill Howatt on Mental health and COVID-19 (you can find them halfway down the page) as well as recorded webinars and interviews on advice for employers and best practice standards for return to work and disability management during COVID-19.
Parenting
Parenting During a Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended family life around the world. School closures, working remote, physical distancing is a lot to navigate, especially for parents. To help parents out, UNICEF teamed up with the Parenting for Lifelong Health initiative to bring caregivers a set of handy tips to help manage this new (temporary) normal.
Sharing Custody During a Pandemic
With public health officials urging people to quarantine in their homes, divorced or separated parents who share custody of their children are faced with the unprecedented challenge of settling on a new arrangement in the midst of a pandemic. CTV spoke with family lawyers to get insights on how to share custody while staying safe and healthy. For more information on co-parenting during COVID-19, visit the Government of BC family justice legal questions page.
A guide to parent self-care during COVID-19
Keeping ourselves healthy and safe is a tall order and is further compounded by the challenge of maintaining our values and goals as parents. And it is vital that we remember to support ourselves as individuals because maintaining our mental and physical health is the foundation from which we support our children during these trying times. This guide to parent self-care can help you tend to your needs so that you continue to be able to tend to the needs of those around you.
How to do School at Home
Many parents have found themselves in the position of homeschooling their children. While this may be familiar and welcome for some, others may be navigating new and uncharted territories. In this webinar, veteran homeschooler Tamara Strijack explores the important things to consider as we attempt to maintain some normalcy in the midst of a world crisis. She also looks at practical ideas around what learning at home under these conditions might look like—whether our children are 5, 10, 15 or 20.
Active Coping Calendar
With the world is in crisis, it can be hard to keep calm, stay wise, and be kind to ourselves and those around us. This Active Coping Calendar has daily actions (like “call a loved one” or “revisit a game you enjoyed when you were younger”) that can help us look after ourselves and each other as we face this global crisis together. You can also sign up to get future calendars.
“It is only natural that we and our children find many things that are hard to talk about. But anything human is mentionable and anything mentionable is manageable. The mentioning can be difficult, and the managing too, but both can be done if we’re surrounded by love and trust.” – Fred Rogers