22/07/21 Deputy Director Pauline Connelly has this message for South Australians as we grapple with the snap lockdown, and a strange but familiar reality.

This year has already been one of change and adjustment, and it continues, as we negotiate our way through this moment in time.

The challenge for us all during these times is to recognise the impact the present has on our own wellbeing, as well as those around us.

When we first went into lockdown last year, the idea was new and we were still getting our heads around the concept of a pandemic.

This year we know more. We have learned that we can do it and that even though, for many, personal anxiety was high around their own health and safety, the things we put into place worked.

We all experience these things differently. Whatever we experience is just a normal response to an abnormal situation, and there should be no judgement of ourselves or others as to how we respond.

I remember that initial adrenalin rush along with high activity at Centacare. There was a sense of novelty about people working remotely in their pyjamas or trackies, although others found it easier to dress for work each day, even though at home.

Many people expressed that they felt extra tired having to be so vigilant with daily life. There was heightened awareness about hand washing, whether they were too close to someone in a shop, or worried about touching a surface etc.

As you will all now have experience to draw upon about what best worked for you, I wonder how lockdown will be for you this time?

I encourage you every now and then to stop and observe how you are. What is it you are actually feeling? Be ok about feeling that, and have compassion for yourself as you live out this experience.

Even though there is a familiarity about what we all have to do this week, there will be circumstances in our lives that are different to last year which will shape our experience this time. Talk to your colleagues, family and friends.

Keep in touch and stay connected because normalising where we are at is very important.