COVID-19 Wellness Resources
The COVID-19 pandemic can contribute to anxiety for many reasons – concern for your own health and that of your child, financial stress, or the impact of current restrictions. These resources may help you or your family members.
The COVID-19 pandemic can contribute to anxiety for many reasons – concern for your own health and that of your child, financial stress, or the impact of current restrictions. These resources may help you or your family members.
General
- SA Health: Help and advice on COVID-19 for South Australians
- COVID-19 Global ONLINE SAFETY ADVICE for parents and carers
eSafety Commissioner, Australian Government - Parent Helpline SA
Counselling, information and referral service for parents and carers in South Australia.
Mental health and wellbeing
- SA Health: Mental Health Support - COVID-19
- SA Health: Information for parents, carers and children about COVID-19
Mental health and other resources for people in South Australia.
Mental health and wellbeing
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) is WCHN's free community-based mental health service for infants, children, adolescents and perinatal women. - SA Health: Mental Health Support - COVID-19
- SA Health: Information for parents, carers and children about COVID-19
Mental health and other resources for people in South Australia. - Regional Access
Free professional telephone and online counselling 24 hours a day, seven days a week for people 15 years and older living or working in regional South Australia.
Mental health and wellbeing
Pregnancy can be a joyful time for most people but it can also raise anxieties with a new baby about to arrive and the worries this may bring with changes to family life.
It can also be a time where tensions increase between partners.
The current COVID-19 pandemic could add to the anxiety for many reasons – concern for your own health and that of your baby, financial stress or the impact of current restrictions.
Things you may wish to consider for keeping yourself well include:
- Minimising you intake of COVID-19 news and only viewing trusted sources.
- Keeping some structure in your day.
- Staying connected to family, friends and work colleagues through phone and internet connections.
- Trying some gentle meditation or yoga.
- Get your partner to give you a massage.
- Keeping to a healthy diet.
- Getting enough rest and sleep.
- Exercising – find somewhere outside in nature where you can walk safely and can keep the appropriate social distance.
- Find sources of support, such as the COPE (Centre of Perinatal Excellence) website, which provides updates on perinatal anxiety, including some general COVID-19 information for pregnant and postnatal women:
COVID-19 updates for pregnant women, children and parents
Also view the following fact sheets:
- Pregnancy and new parenthood – You and your partner
- Pregnancy and new parenthood – Mental health
- Pregnancy and new parenthood – Family and domestic violence
- Mental Health & Wellbeing after the Birth of Your Baby
Information for new fathers
It is a challenging time for partners as many hospitals have access/visiting restrictions in place, which can be very distressing. Support for your partner in labour may or may not be possible in the postnatal ward, there may also be other restrictions as social distancing rules are implemented.
When you go home life as a new parent will be different because of COVID-19, which includes restrictions on family visits and may mean you have to provide more of the support than usual.
In infant mental health, it is well known that it takes a village to raise a baby but at the moment it has to be an extremely tiny village and you may be it but you are not alone!
Associate Professor Richard Fletcher from Newcastle University in NSW has been working with fathers for a long time and runs a program called SMS4dads. SMS4dads provides new fathers with information and connections to online services through their mobile phones. It provides great ideas for men about pregnancy, their partners' feelings and connecting to your new baby.