Supporting children in a time of crisis – FNHA

Mar 26, 2020

A message from Drs. Unjali Malhotra and Nel Wieman, FNHA Office of the Chief Medical Officer; and Denise Lacerte, FNHA Senior Specialist, Healthy Children and Youth Wellness

In this time of crisis, children need accurate, open, honest and age-appropriate information about what is happening. Here are a few topics you will likely need to talk to them about:

• Germs/ Viruses: A five-year-old may understand that “germs can make you sick, so let’s wash our hands more,” or that “germs jump from person to person with sneezes and coughs, so let’s stay home.” And a 10-year-old may understand that “a virus is in our communities, we have excellent doctors and nurses to keep us healthy, and to help them and ourselves, we should wash our hands and stay home more.”

• Coughing and sneezing precautions: These can be described as “cough pockets” and “sneeze pockets” (coughing / sneezing into an elbow).

Read More: https://www.fnha.ca/about/news-and-events/news/supporting-children-in-a-time-of-crisis