With the threat of Covid hanging over the New Zealand summer, clinical psychologist Dr Sarb Johal’s new book looks at how to keep mentally well during a crisis. His new book is Steady: Keeping Calm in a World Gone Viral and it covers how stress and anxiety created by the pandemic’s uncertainty can be overcome. He joins Kathryn […]
You’ll remember exactly where you’ve been and who you’ve been in contact with over the last two weeks, won’t you? “Of course I will!”, I hear you reply. If the actual rate of use of the NZ Covid-19 app is anything to go by, lots of people think they’ll remember. The abysmal tanking in its […]
Just as many of us need to remember our bag / wallet, keys and cellphone when we leave the house, we now need to make sure that we have adequate masks for ourselves and our loved ones when we leave the house.
When thinking about another outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand spread through community transmission of the coronavirus, it’s more a question of when rather than if. And at this point, we would do well to remember that aside from better technologies to detect the virus, the only tools we have are all based on behaviour.
The spread and impact of the novel coronavirus has seen the implementation of various forms of managed isolation and / or quarantine arrangements (MIQ) around the world. This blogpost is all about the different psychological impacts that being in quarantine can have on people, what the causes might be, and what we can do to help minimise those impacts.
With the plane carrying people home from Wuhan scheduled to arrive in New Zealand later today, and the people then being screened and transported to a designated quarantine facility for 14 days. I wanted to talk about what we should be doing to protect and care for those health and welfare workers who will be working in environments where they potentially may be exposed to the novel coronavirus.
… if people feel cornered or blamed, then they’re more likely to hide away, and possibly break quarantine to try to get support, or because they feel scared and targeted.
There is a lot to think about when considering the impacts on individuals and communities affected both directly and indirectly and for those concerned about the spread. I want to look at some cognitive biases that might alter how we perceive the risk of the coronavirus, and how susceptible we might be to it, and how we might over-react, under-react, and how we can change or calibrate our reactions. But, let’s start with some background…