 Hello again, this is the last presentation of the day and another one. I think you'll enjoy a lot Fred Cardenas is with Family Service Association and he is the manager of the early childhood well-being program and very active in early childhood and infant mental health So I will turn that over to Fred All right Well, good afternoon or good morning depending on where you are at this moment. My name again is Fred Cardenas Thank you, Kathy for the introduction. I'm a social worker and I was overseeing a children's mental health program in San Antonio, Texas I hope that all who are watching are taking care of yourselves during these challenging and sometimes very stressful times We have all been affected by COVID-19 in some way or another And I understand that we have an audience from all over the place from San Antonio, Texas even around the US and the world so Glad to glad that you're joining us And then we have people from different backgrounds from Education medical personnel social workers counselors parents and many others. So we're excited to have you all participating so again, welcome to this particular presentation That's going to be a focus on early mental health of children and the role that interactions and relationships play in healthy development Especially in helping to mediate the effects of crisis just such as the crisis that we're going through right now So I'm gonna go ahead and get the slide started here and a nice little slide here that we prepared. So in this opening slide Excuse me, I included a picture of one of our graduate social work interns Leslie We just had a celebration for her yesterday because she's gonna be graduating with her master's in social work very soon And it's amazing that she went through the semester two semesters Having a baby and having gone through the pandemic. So a significant accomplishment of getting a graduate degree with all this is going on so in this picture Leslie is With calquat demo her baby who's just a few months old He was born right in the middle of her internship and has lived half of his life with this pandemic around us Thanks to Leslie for sharing this beautiful picture and of course I wanted to emphasize the initial connections or attachments that babies make with their moms or their first caretakers You can tell that quote demo our little guy there is already in love with his mom and that and that love and mom's continuous interaction helped to build the social emotional and brain foundation for all other learning and development for the rest of his life and Their interactions can create that healthy attachment that also helped to mitigate or to reduce the effects of stress So just a beautiful picture of Leslie and well demo So again, I'm a social worker. I've been working in nonprofit organizations primarily in education and child and family mental health for over 35 years And of course, I'm still very excited to learn and to serve children and families in our communities I've worked a lot with schools head start programs childcare centers Providing mental health services and other services I also serve on the board of voices for children and I also teach graduate social work classes at the University of Texas in San Antonio I'm also a father of an adult daughter who happens to be working in a grocery chain in San Antonio And I have a father who was recently placed in the nursing home. So of course, they both are being significantly affected by this pandemic While this pandemic presents its challenges Some which we have never faced before it is forcing us to increase the ways that we deal with things it's helping to Make us be more creative and build our resilience in many different ways that we've not done before So many of us so many of us may be going through grief in this time of extreme change Thanks to voices and as supporters for putting this together and while we have partnered with voices over the years This is the biggest response that I think we've had With this type of training. So again, thank you for being present and wanting to collect more information That can help you meet the needs of children and families you serve The program I oversee the early childhood well-being program again an early childhood mental health program and family service here in San Antonio Family service has been around since 1903 and our mission is to empower people to transform their lives and strengthen community We continue to become a trauma-informed organization and to address the social determinants of health. So that's kind of who family services And again our early childhood well-being program or ECWB has been around in San Antonio for and in some rural communities for about 11 years It's a comprehensive program that we work in different settings in classrooms. We provide child mental health consultation We visit families in their homes We work in our offices And we work primarily with kids zero to eight Their parents and their families teachers and their caregivers and we have lots of partners in the community like voices for children But we also partner with specialty courts child protective services We work with the university health system here locally With school districts head start and early head start programs and of course childcare shelters child advocacy programs and lots of other early childhood and family programs We're kind of all over the place anybody anywhere that you can find a play a child zero to eight We probably have some presence or we're working with others who have that presence So we're gonna start off with a little story that I want to go over the agenda We're gonna read the story of Georgie in a minute Just pieces of it and we're gonna talk about how all of us are going through things that Georgie is going through We're gonna do a little bit of a review of Development and the importance of relationships attachments and interactions and how that relates to social distancing that we're being required to do And then we're gonna share a few resources and strategies and hopefully we'll have some time for some quality some questions and answers at the end all right, so This is the story it's actually a coloring book that was created by tender press books and We want to thank our friends at tender press books for allowing us to share this beautiful book to promote the importance of addressing this crisis With children from a child's perspective But which also helps us to understand what our kids are going through and relate that to what we are going through as well I'll only read a few selected pages from the book and leave you in suspense So that maybe you can look it up and read it yourself And it's available online and you've got the website are on the screen there tender bro tender press books calm This book will help set up the tone for this presentation Thanks to the people at tender press books from zero to thrive from the University of Michigan and from Arizona State University Who created it so the book is entitled? Georgie and the green the giant germ created by Julie the bowdo page safer And I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing the names Sarah Stein Kate Rosenblum and it's illustrated by a 12 year old Maja Rosenblum music. So Thank you for sharing your book So again, I'm gonna read just a few pages Georgie woke up excited to go to school as he bounced down the stairs His mom said Georgie no school today a germ is going around that makes people sick We have to stay home until the doctors make sure the germ is gone When he went to the kitchen for breakfast his mother said Georgie with this big germ we're gonna need to be really careful to wash our hands before we eat And when we come in from playing outside also Georgie looked at his hands for a long time, but he couldn't see anything on them at all This was all very confusing Not going to school made Georgie feel sad at first. He missed his friends and Mrs. P his teacher Then he got to spend the whole first day with his mom and she even let him play some extra video games But then he stayed home from school the whole week and the week after that too And it started to feel like a really long time He wasn't even allowed to play outside with the kids in the neighborhood Everything felt different Why can I go back to school? He asked his mom the germ is still out there Georgie She said every everyone has to stay home until it's gone Even though he still couldn't see the germ on his hands. The germ had started to feel really big Bigger than his house and bigger than his school. He wanted it to go away as the days went by Georgie had a lot of feelings Sometimes he felt happy that he didn't have to go to school But most of the time he was sad and mad and scared Probably a lot of feelings that we're going through a lot of people are going through I want to see my friends. He cried. Why won't the germ just go away? His mom was acting grumpy. Stop complaining. She huffed in a loud voice This made Georgie worried What did I do wrong? He thought his mom was busy a lot She used to spend a lot of time reading to him giving him hugs and helping him feel safe But now she always seemed grouchy And told him go play I wish he was like she used to be he thought His tummy ached and he felt like crying A lot of things that our kids are experiencing these days A lot of things that we're experiencing ourselves So i'm going to skip a few pages again. I'm not going to read the whole thing I'm going to go to this page While we we are at home this is mom talking while we are at home Doctors and nurses and scientists are working hard to get rid of this term Georgie nodded, but he was still sad. I miss grandpa and mrs. P and my friends at school I know you miss them Georgie his mom said It's okay to be sad and to talk about it with me Since we are missing them. How about we let them know that we're thinking about them I know they really miss you too Georgie's stomach stopped hurting and he suddenly had a lot of energy. He jumped up excitedly I'm going to draw a picture of mrs. P to show her when I go back to school And off he ran to the crayon box Georgie drew the doctors and his mom fighting the germ And in his picture his mom was so big And she almost filled the whole paper So there's a couple of pages after that page But I kind of again, I'm kind of going to leave you in suspense To let you look up the book find it and finish reading it yourself and to share it with others, of course And again, our friends are at tender press really want this to go out And to share it with as many kids and families and people as you can so so Let's see The book the book focuses on the feelings or the emotions that Georgie is experiencing through this pandemic But it also helps us to relate to those feelings When you consider that as adults we typically have some control over our lives What we will eat today when we go to sleep What job we might seek or who we will talk with or connect with today But for young children infants toddlers preschoolers and even elementary age kids Their lives and what happens day to day moment to moment is largely controlled by the adults around them Their parents their teachers their family We ourselves are experiencing this sense of loss of control Some of us don't know what our job will look like in the coming days Weeks or months or if we will even have a job or maybe we already lost our job We don't know when we will reestablish our face-to-face connections with our friends or families or co-workers Or even when we don't have to worry as much about getting close to people We don't know when the world will start getting better and healing from this pandemic We may not know but i'm glad that you want to learn more to help your kids Your families and yourselves Part of helping ourselves to deal with stress and crisis Related to the unknown is to inform ourselves to educate ourselves and to continue to learn and grow There are still things that we don't know and what we can and that we can't control But we can focus on those things that we can And do and can do in a healthy way and help us feel better Overcome stress and be better prepared to support those kids and families Giving us and them a sense of hope So based on what we're going through that georgi was also going through Excuse me. What are some of the what are some of these feelings? Remember recognizing those feelings Acknowledging acknowledging that they are affecting us and then figuring out ways to manage those feelings leads us to be Leads us to leads to us being able to help others So these are some of the things that we're going through some of the things that we're feeling that georgi was feeling So sometimes we think I don't know what's going to happen, you know, the news tells us all kinds of things and things change every day Are we safe? Telling us to wear masks to do social distancing to sanitize everything Does my family still love me? Sometimes our people around us are acting different or weird Other things we're feeling Sometimes we may be feeling very scared Sometimes we may put some of the fault for what's going on on ourselves Is all this stress my fault? Am I adding to this stress? Maybe people around us or family or friends seem so upset just like georgi's family or mom And finally we miss seeing some of our friends and family Hopefully we're using other ways of connecting with them, but we miss that face-to-face connection and doing things with them So again, these are things that we're going through to imagine These are things that children that we serve are also feeling And with a sense of with a less of a sense of control over their lives than adults So these are some of the other reactions to children Zero to six that are exposed to traumatic stress And definitely what's going on fits within that category. And this is a really good website NCTSN the national child traumatic stress network They have lots of resources that deal with trauma and children So I encourage you to look at their website and again just a tons of information But again, this is a list of some of the symptoms that children may have when they're experiencing this kind of stress And i'm not going to go through all of them, but i'm going to highlight some of them So for the most part some kids may regress Maybe they had a certain level of language or potty training Or social skills and they may be regressing back to a younger age because of the stress They may maybe they may have They may be experiencing a set excessive temper lots of temper tantrums They may act out in in situations. They may even be aggressive or verbally abusive with others And sometimes they'll imitate some of the some of the traumatic events or situations Some additional Symptoms of traumatic stress. They may cry a lot. They may be super hyper vigilant. They react to things very easily They may be very irritable irritable or sad or anxious Or they may withdraw. They may not want to play or talk or do anything with anybody else Their appetite their weight may be affected And they might their sleep might also be affected Or they might be experiencing nightmares or sleeping problems And again, although these are symptoms for kids 0 to 6 Older kids and even adults are going through some of these things given the situation that we're going through So of course one of the things that are that's going on in our world Is the emphasis on social distancing? So i want to emphasize that social distancing when we look at it It should be about physical distancing not about Staying completely isolated human beings need social connection. We need other people And healthy development, especially for kids also requires social connection and a healthy attachment So yes, we need to keep a safe distance and watch for our health But it's important to remember it's about physical distancing And again mental wellness requires that especially for young kids That we maintain that connection and some level of interactions with others We've had to be creative in how we do that But it's crucial that we support children and families and stay connected To others in a healthy and safe way Today is a good example and these you know, everybody's watching hundreds of you are watching and still keeping our social distances But we also have social media We have zoom the internet FaceTime and so many other ways with good old and even good old ways of writing letters like george Was drawing some things for his teacher And a really simple example. I mentioned leslie our intern is graduating. We actually had a celebration for her yesterday We drove to a nearby park Parked in the parking lot and kept our distance and sat in our the trunks of our cars or trucks or suvs And we brought lunch. We brought our own lunch and we shared some time together. So we celebrated leslie's Graduation that's coming up soon in that way So these are some of the feelings that we may be going through That george is going through so we're thinking about fear survival Blaming ourselves or other people for what's going on may feel a lot of anger guilt We may feel rejected. We feel that our family might be isolated or is isolating us We're afraid of the unknown. There's a lot of change unpredictably unpredictability And for those of you and that work with very vulnerable or high-risk families or kids These are things that they may have felt before in a chronically If you work with kids that have gone through domestic violence or child abuse Or family problems All these things are are things that they've already experienced before so imagine A young child a toddler or preschooler not only continuing possibly to go through those traumatic situations at home But now all of this it's affecting their parents or their families or caregivers Is adding even more stress on them And keep in mind that young children Rely on us on the adults around them to develop those healthiest attachments To understand their feelings to self-regulate to build self-confidence to build some independence So again, the kids are really looking at us at their parents that their families Very closely and see how we're reacting So this slide is just a reminder of some Some things that you may have studied before Developmental stages and also Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I'm just going to touch on them very briefly very quickly So again, these are just a couple of reminders of development for children and for human beings In reviewing Maslow's hierarchy of needs We have to remind ourselves that all those levels of needs are being affected by our current crisis For people to become self-actualized, which is at the very top of that pyramid That is becoming successful in whatever way that that means to us Uh These are all levels of needs that have to be taken care of we cannot survive without food or air or water We need shelter. We need to feel safe and loved and respected The pandemic is causing some populations to feel insecure to limit Some families are limited have a more limited income. They've lost their job Maybe they're insecure about food or shelter And we may feel a weaker sense of love and belonging And connection to others because of our social distancing and drastic changes with school and with work to remind ourselves of basic Psychological development psychosocial development According to Eric Erickson, I want to point out how many of our children may experience some sense of regression the first stage in Eric Erickson is that of trust versus mistrust so typically from zero to 18 months Babies are counting on us. They're relying on us when they're hungry when they cry when they need to be changed Are the adults in their lives responding to them? And when that happens consistently then kids tend to develop a very healthy sense of attachment and trust in the world around them Uh, and I'm not going to go over the rest of the stages because I wanted to emphasize That stage of trust versus mistrust and the this pandemic is causing a lot of regression in children To the point where we're not sure about things and we may feel a Sense of mistrust or distrust in the world around us and adults ourselves We may be feeling a a level of distrust in our And in society and the people around us let's see All right, so one of the Processes in child development that we look at is attachments And that's typically the bond between usually the mom and the baby or the mom and the primary care take her And that's becoming a super important concept for us to remind ourselves of how children Are really needing that sense of connection right now people in general are needing that But just a reminder how attachment happens Uh for children, it's an adult who spends consistent time with the children with the child So again, you tend you develop that trust in people ongoing but changing relationships with a small number of people So right now that's difficult to do because we are we are stuck We are Unlimited to being around our family or our household and aren't having those connections with our peers at school Or with our co-workers or work as much as we used to Uh attachment happens when there's a sense of safety and security and of course that's being challenged these days When there's stimulation encouragement for growth right now a lot of children are not receiving as much stimulation Or not consistent or structured stimulation that they were getting in child care or hit starter schools To have reasonable expectations reasonable right now has changed What's reasonable six months ago for a five year old Has changed and that is changing given all the circumstances that's going is it reasonable for kids to be Showing regression and some of those symptoms that were reviewed. Absolutely. They're they're going to regress And it's reasonable for us to expect that they're going to be doing those things Kids need experience in identifying and expressing emotions to have a healthy attachment And the last item on the list that kids need support in times of stress So obviously this is a crucial time that kids are getting that support from the adults around them I also want to connect all these needs Related to attachment to the needs that we as adults might have We need a lot of these things. We need to feel safe and secure We need our bosses and people around us should have reasonable expectations of us and we should have reasonable expectations of ourselves And then we also need to connect and find that support to To to help us address that stress and to help us overcome that stress and deal with it So this comes from the center on the developing child at harvard university Now these are typical strategies that you can use in child development if you're working with young children, especially that helped to develop that healthy sense of attachment and connection to others and relationships and Communications and again, it comes from the center on the developing child at harvard university This is another website and you'll get a list At the end of this presentation of all the resources that i'm using that are really helpful to connect with So they have a wonderful website with all these kinds of videos. This is actually a video A short video. We're not going to watch it. I'm just going to go over the key points of But it's five steps for brain building and it's called serve and return And that is serve when the child communicates with us and when then when we return or we respond to them And these are five recommended strategies to build brains and to again build that healthy attachments and communication and relationship So these are the interactions that are recommended So notice the serve pay attention to when kids are making an attempt to communicate with us verbally or non-verbally And also pay attention to what they are paying attention attention to and then share that child's focus of attention If a child's paying attention to a particular book or looking at a Tree or a plant or an insect or an animal or a show or a book be with them Number two return this the serve or respond directly by supporting and encouraging So if they ask you a question if they communicate to you in some way Of course respond as quickly as possible So that you can have that healthy interaction their positive interaction Give it a name. So young children especially are still learning and developing their vocabulary learning language So provide labels to things and provide labels to emotions as they go through those emotions That helps to support language stimulation and provides attention that you're giving that child's attention that they're important number four take turns and wait So in early childhood education, especially we are taught that it's important to follow the child's lead It's not about having teacher directed education all the time It's about also following the child's lead and their interests, but keep that interaction going back and forth And then five is practice endings and beginnings. So when you finish something Go over what was accomplished go over the success and the challenges And do that over and over for kids Okay, some some recommendations Particularly in classrooms or interactions or those of you that may be parent educators Things that you can recommend for parents And again, I I recommend that you look at the website and access this video. It's a really good short video All right So the one of the main things one of the main things I want to get across with this presentation It's how important it is for us to soothe ourselves So that we can then soothe others those children or families or individuals that we're working with So again, this represents a father holding up the child So right now kids are really depending and relying on their mom their dad their caregivers And to some because of the work that you're doing Those families and those parents are sometimes relying on us But in order for them to for in order for us to be present for them We have to make sure that we're taking care of ourselves So I want to just talk a little bit very briefly about co-regulation and the importance of co-regulation So you see the definition of co-regulation on the screen, right? So one again, this is a possible takeaway from today's presentation Whatever role you have whether you're a teacher a nurse the social worker counselor friends sister parents It's urgent in this time of crisis that we maintain our strength Maintain or strengthen our ability to regulate our own emotions to get a handle of those emotions and and accept them and acknowledge them We can be there for others for the children and families that we serve in a stronger way When we are there for ourselves So it's important to remind you that self-care is important. It's crucial Um a couple years ago as was going through a difficult time And I found a video and actually it's easy to access on youtube. There's several videos Uh, and I started doing a 10 minute yoga So if you enter a 10 minute yoga on the search for on youtube We'll find a really easy simple way Simple exercise to do yoga And one of the things that our program is doing is also we're promoting Children's yoga in classrooms and in child care settings and in other settings And we've actually one of our staff has um Created with the help of other staff some yoga videos for children so, uh That's one thing that we can do but of course there are things like meditation prayer Exercise breathing exercises. Those are things that we that are important for us to exercise. So again, so that we can be present And healthy for the children and families that we serve So these are some tips that we used to do a presentation earlier Uh a couple of months ago and we found them to be very helpful and I've included all the resources Where to get them from? So when kids are very anxious Sometimes parents or the adults of them we actually Contribute to that negative cycle of anxiety And we sometimes without meaning to Add to it. So it happens when parents Or adults anticipate a child's fear And we try to protect them and we inadvertently sometimes may add to it So these are some pointers for helping kids escape or get away from that cycle of that anxiety As parents teachers or individuals who work with kids. We have to again address our own anxiety as well So these are some of the tips for addressing anxiety. Again, I'm not going to go over all of them But uh the goal isn't to get rid of anxiety. This pandemic isn't going to go away for a while So it's to help kids to manage it um Also, let's see just to highlight a couple of other things Uh express positive but realistic expectations. We can't promise kids. Oh, yeah, this is going to go away by Christmas Or this is going to go away so that you can go back to school in the same way that you were going to We can't make those promises But we can set we can talk about our hopes and our dreams And be realistic about what we expect might happen um Respect kids feelings. Sometimes it's easy for us as it also says. Oh get over it All your feelings scared. Don't worry about it, but we have to acknowledge those feelings and um But we have to be careful not to empower those Scary feelings in other words the more we focus and talk about don't be scared Nothing's going to happen. Nothing's going to go wrong You're not going to die the more of those negative terms that we use the more we empower those feelings So make sure that we're also redirecting some of those feelings and highlighting the strong positive feelings that we're feeling That we want to share with our kids Let's see Try to keep the anticipatory period short. So whenever there is a change in kids lives Be careful about preparing Way too much in advance before that change occurs. So for example, I'm working with a child who will be Returning to mom because mom is getting out of prison Uh, and I talked to the caregiver and we talked about making sure that as we prepare her to reconnect with her mom That we start doing it pretty pretty within a short period of time Not three months ahead of time or six months ahead because telling a four-year-old Oh, your mom's coming out of prison in three months to them three months means tomorrow So we've got to be careful about preparing for changes not too far in advance Um And then of course as adults we need to try to model healthy ways of handling its anxiety And again the conversations that we're having With the clients patients or consumers that we're working with or the kids or families That they be about positive things asking for the good things that are happening in people's lives and sharing the good things that are happening in our lives Be open not to hide away from the difficult topics Be open to listen to those difficult situations, but don't dwell on them and focus on them too much So these are some tips again another really good website on How we do talk to kids about the corona virus? So there at the top of the screen you see use your judgment based on the child's age The younger Child is probably the more limited the conversation is going to be because of their limited understanding So expect Explanations should be short and simple if kids are asking of us about the corona virus or about all these changes But again, don't be afraid to discuss Whatever questions they may bring to you Take the cues from your child Deal with your own anxiety and one thing to be careful about is All of us are interested in the progress that's being made to address this corona virus So we may be checking our phones constantly. We may be watching the news looking at tv Reading up on the progress be careful because if your kids are sitting right next to you We are adding to that anxiety because there must be something wrong that you're always having to look that information up I know we're trying to come to the conclusion and to a resolution Or to fixing this problem or to healing this world But if the kids are around us it it can contribute to them worrying more than they they probably should Stick to a routine. So again routines these days are different So as an example, we have a child that we're working with who's four years old Who was diagnosed with autism and we just had a meeting an art meeting an arv or an iep meeting Where we discussed strategies that mom can use at home to help them because he's not going to school And they're getting lessons from the school district to implement at home Well, mom was really stressing out. First of all, he's four years old second of all He's been diagnosed with autism third of all we're going through a crisis So the expectations can't be real high for this child the new normal for him And this is what we recommended from mom that you take five minutes in the morning To do a little lesson to learn something simple Maybe something that the teacher has sent and maybe another five minutes later on Do the same thing in a relaxed way and then maybe in the afternoon do another five minutes So breaking things into small chunks But then being consistent every day with when the timing of when you prepare those lessons So again, it's a different routine. It's not school. It's not the teacher But it's a new routine within the home within the new normal All right So you can look at the rest of those tips and then there's a really nice comic strip that was developed To explain the corona virus and you can access this website. It's very developmently appropriate And I don't think I can I won't click into it because I may I may lose the power point I don't want to do that But it's really good because it explains the steps in keeping sanitized washing our hands covering our mouth when we cough Stay keeping social distance. It's really a neat Tool that you can use with kids and with families and something else I have to say about a lot of these tools that we use with with children including the comic book this one And and other resources that you'll see they actually also help us as adults to understand things Because we are empowered When we get a handle on things when we understand things better when we have information that we can share with others So going through this with kids Reviewing these things with kids actually sometimes helps us So helping parents to go through these things to get providing guidance for parents to Explain these things to kids empowers us and it empowers the parents as well And then this is just another book that we recently purchased Already books are coming out the day my kids stayed at home Uh, and it's having to do the with cobit 19 as well written by adam wallace All right, so this is these are recommendations more for ourselves on rewiring our own brain to deal with the stressors related to coronavirus So in times of stress or crisis Our brain goes into this emergency mode Our full fully working Uh, logical brain kind of goes offline And we revert back to our emotional brain that emotional brain takes over And so think in terms of when we get into a deep heated argument with a co-worker or with our spouse or with our friend It's like sometimes we forget logic and we start throwing out Um, just emotions without really thinking things out. So, um Um, so these are some tips on getting us back to the to the, um To the thinking brain Um And usually when we get into that stress or crisis mode We experience either fight. We want to fight what's going on Or we or flight. We want to escape. We want to get away from things. We want to isolate Are we free? We have no idea what we do and we do nothing So there's those are the typical three reactions to stress or crisis So these are five ways to rewrite rewire our brain to deal with this crisis So notice when you get triggered, are there certain times or things that trigger us watching tv watching the news um Talking to somebody that's constantly talking about the coronavirus sometimes can trigger So watch what things are triggering you focus on your sense Your senses or your breathing. So sometimes doing a little bit of meditation or deep breathing or yoga or things like that Helps us to concentrate on our bodies and our breathing our our reactions of the body And it helps us to kind of get away from from thinking those stressful about those stressful things Reach out to a family or a friend or family member. So again connecting through FaceTime Facebook The phone whatever ways texting whatever ways we can connect with family and friends So make a wise choice. So how much do we isolate ourselves and how much do we interact? Interacting with people is a healthy thing. We want to have Social interactions, maybe not physically right now, but we want to have those written. But how much do we do that? Versus isolating ourselves. So for example, I can go into I can stay at home And for the next three months not interact with anybody And i'm pretty sure that I wouldn't get infected But that's not the most that's not the best mentally healthy thing that I can do for myself or for people around me Or I go to the other stream and go the other extreme and go and socialize with everybody And expose them and expose myself to possible infection. So you have to kind of figure out what the balance is for you What's the level of risk that you're willing to tolerate and accept? So luckily i'm we're still open. We're considered an essential business. So we're still going to the office We're still able to connect from a distance with our co-workers And we're still seeing and visiting families either virtually on the phone or sometimes in person with some distancing all right so Just a reminder about the importance of self-care. I'm just going to Check on the time. I want to make sure I don't go over time here All right. I've got a few minutes So again connect to people some recommendations on maintaining your resilience reducing your anxiety care taking care of yourself So connect to people to people in whatever safe way you can Maintain whatever routines you can so or develop new new adjusted routines Continue to do those things that make you happy that make you healthy Stay connected to your goals your purpose your dreams And think about what you do for self-care. What's your purpose in life? So I'm going to show a little slide Just as a reminder of some of those things Excuse me for a minute here so This is a little graph That emphasizes components of resilience and resilience is basically the strength that we have That helps us to overcome Adversity or stressful or difficult times So you hear stories of people that have gone through poverty and abuse and all kinds of things But yet they're doing really well in life So this is just a reminder that all of us have those strengths within us and around us to help us overcome and survive through these stressful times so Stay connected to these things to keep us strong. So meaning and purpose in life is one of those items So mine is to continue to help children and families And this pandemic is not holding me back from doing that. That's sort of my I've been a social worker for 35 years And my purpose has been that to continue to besides taking care of my family to be there for others And again, this pandemic is not holding me back from doing that. I'm having to adjust And I feel bad that I can't connect in the same way with the people that I work with But I'm still doing it I want to make sure that I express my gratitude every day for the good things And the people around me and for the hope that I still have so something to think about is what positive emotions can you connect with? And make sure that you reach out to friends that you're still maintaining those positive social supports Family co-workers and others And I have those connections with people around me when I need their help I need help sometimes I'm stressed out even though I do I provide counseling and mental health services for others I need some of that support as well. So I need to reach out when I feel that I need that Uh And then of course I do what I can to eat right Exercise stay active in a healthy way. I've been doing more bicycling Walking the dogs a little bit more and just watching what you eat even though it's difficult because we're we're kind of stuck in home a lot but Make sure you're taking care of yourself And then I wanted to share this last slide or one of these last slides With words to consider from brunet brown and brunet brown is a well-known author. She's a researcher She does a lot of lectures storytelling and she shares these words of wisdom Sometimes we feel like we're stuck We hit that wall and it feels like we can't Get past it and this coronavirus feels like that wall sometimes Hard days will happen But good days will also happen. It's important to watch for those and pay attention to those good days Take care of ourselves and yeah Things are going to be okay as difficult as stressful as it may feel sometimes Things are going to be okay and the more we're connected and stay connected The better for us and the better for the kids and the children and the families that we serve All right, so stay connected in healthy ways With the hope that our new normal will be even better than before of course not recommending that you do this But there's a hope that we will return to this in the future And again, just the list of the resources I'm not sure if we'll be able to share these resources With y'all or if y'all are getting a copy of this But you can certainly contact me at Family Service in San Antonio And I can send information Or can do additional training For anyone in RLR services are at no cost To families and child care centers and other providers. So feel free to read All right. Well, thank you. Hey, thank you friend as always Very helpful very practical very sensitive information For those who care for children Answer a couple of quick questions. I'll take the first one. Many people asked do we believe that San Antonio is ready to open gradually? And part of my graduate training is in public health I would not begin without day to day looking at the data seeing what's going on Begin to make that kind of a decision. However, I know enough About public health to know that our public health in this city and county is excellent Our current assistant city manager dr. Colleen bridger came from Being director of metro health our new metro health director Dr. Don emmerich is excellent And what makes it even much better Is that our city and county leaders listen to the public health experts So I feel confident in listening to them About when it is safe to return to a more Normal open time In terms of Resources as much as we can possibly get to you we will get to every one of you So you don't have to worry about Taking notes and all of that we will get slides to you. We'll get the resource list to you Fred another of the question and one is For a child or children who are who look at the information on the coronavirus and are afraid of dying How do you deal with that? And how do you deal with when you've got so many children? Children who are exceptionally anxious or who are having some Some issues when there's so many So absolutely so kids that's a difficult question to address with young children, especially if there's Your pet dies or grandma passes away or things like that happen But it's important not to run away from that question to address it and acknowledge All of us are going to die someday. That's part of of earth the world human beings That's some it's a natural experience and then answer the questions and have that discussion as as as as much as you can but then also Talk about the good things that are happening before we die Before we get to that point the good things that are happening us around The people that love us the people that are around us So concentrate and focus on the good things in our lives that are going on And and again not to take away or to distract from from the fact that we're all going to die someday But emphasize the good things are going on tomorrow We're going to go to the park or tomorrow We're going to do this activity or tomorrow. So there's a sense of hope that you want to project for young children okay Well, I think we're at the end so Before we go I want to thank So many people that made this happen our political leaders and we're so grateful for their support and their understanding of what we're all concerned about Our marvelous presenters who do this continuously with us On their own time no charge and are always always willing to help and to To educate so we're very grateful to all of them to now cast s.a charlottan and susan and to Miranda kushman on our voices staff they made this happen because I certainly Cannot and have no idea how it all happens And then to all of you who sat through this and listened and who care enough to continuously Try to learn more to take care of the children that you are so important to So we will be doing this again We hope before the end of may And we will let you all know when that happens. So Thank you very much. And I think that's I think I just say goodbye Thank you. Thank you