Health & Well-Being Newsletter #2
From the TES Counselors, Nurses, and Librarians
Attention! International travelers!
About 101,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in 89 countries around the world until 7 March 2020. Taiwan Centers for Disease Control has provided health management guidelines for international travelers in order to protect themselves and others.
In order to maintain a healthy and safe learning environment for our community, we would like to suggest you to minimize unnecessary travel. Please avoid visiting certain countries raised with travel notice level 1, 2 or 3. If you and your children are planing to go to these high risk areas, ensure you notify the school in advance, and actively cooperate with health management measures on your return. Such as, home quarantine for 14 days and temporary suspension.
Who is the person under the mask?
Facing the threats of COVID-19, seasonal influenza and Norovirus, we take various measures such as washing hands frequently, wearing a mask, keeping a proper distance from others and so on to protect ourselves. No one wants to get sick.
Diseases threaten not only our physical health also mental health. Fears of COVID-19 in the past few months have made people forget to be kind and respectful to each other. Unfortunately, incidents of labeling and discrimination against patients, specific ethnic groups, high-risk population, and even healthcare workers have been reported in news recently. How educators and parents respond to this situation will have a great impact on our children. Children learn from what they see and hear. We are showing them how they can deal with such issues in the future. Let’s take a minute to ponder the following questions. What would you do if the people being discriminated against today are people you know? What if the person being stigmatized and isolated at school is your child, would you like others to keep treating him or her in this way?
Patients or high-risk population are not equivalent to the virus or disease. Stigmatization of disease often leads to unnecessary discrimination of certain groups and other consequences. It prevents people who are in need of medical supports for their physical discomfort from seeking help and delaying their treatments. Evidence-based understanding about COVID-19 and appropriate epidemic measures helps us maintain our physical health. People who are carrying out self-health management or home quarantine make sure that they get immediate medical attention if needed, while reducing the risk of getting people around them infected.
It is the disease and virus we need to fight against and eliminate, not people. The person wearing a mask is still your family, friend and classmate. Preventing fear and anxiety turning into attacks and isolation against specific groups allows all of us to survive this difficult time and live in a friendly environment.
In this issue we have included a link to ”The language of kindness”, a wonderful picture book addressing the change of interpersonal interactions children observe after the outbreak of COVID-19. It includes places and scenes that are familiar to our children. We would like to invite you to read it with your children helping them make sense of the world and to remember they have the capacity to make choices with love.
How to wash your hands in 20 secs
It's Flu Season!
Reminder
If you feel physically unwell, please contact medical service for assistance. If you need professional counseling support to cope with your anxiety and fear, please email TES.health@tes.tp.edu.tw and we will get back to you soon.