(Kari)

Good afternoon everyone! Welcome to our Working from Home During COVID-19 webinar.
We are really glad that you could join us today. My name is Kari Uhlman. I am an
EAP Counselor, and today I'm joined by Matthew Gilbert, also an EAP Counselor.
Matthew and I will be co-facilitating today’s presentation together.
(Matt)
Hello everyone! Thank you for joining us today, and welcome!
(Kari)
So first of all what we're going to be talking about today are the challenges that
come from working from home and how you can set yourself up for success and it's
clear from the number of people that have registered for this webinar this is
really a topic that's greatly needed right now. I'm so glad that we can be here
with you we want to make these sessions interactive and so some people are starting
to use the chat box and just want to let you know that you're all welcome to use
the chat boxes. We look at this as an opportunity for us to come together and build
community and to support each other.
So Matt, I'm going to turn over so you can start us off.
(Matt)
Great! And for those of you who are seasoned pre COVID-19 home offices, perhaps you
can even lean in and give some ideas and some suggestions as well. As we all know
today’s webinar is about bringing folks together in creating community.
So, you are working from home some of you may feel excited and energized about not
having to commute and working in your pajamas and spending more time with family
and fur babies and these are positive things about working from home. Alright for
many though working from home comes with its own unique challenges such as
maintaining focus, missing spontaneous you know those social interactions, feeling
isolated, perhaps there's stress around learning new technologies learning zoom for
example or setting up your own impromptu home office which can sometimes from my
understanding can be done right there in your living room or at the kitchen table.
And so even you know under the best of circumstances making that shift working from
home can take some adjustments for sure. And in creation stress so as we all
experience a significant increase and in professional and personal and global
stressors and pressures for an undetermined length of time, we need to remember to
be kind to ourselves and with others. So, you might be feeling more on edge than
usual you might feel at times overwhelmed there may be some grief and loss or
sadness there might even be anger or frustration or sense of helplessness. You know
these are these are all reactions that are quite normal as we experience
uncertainty and stress. And so, with all these stressors and related feelings we
still need to show up every day for work don't we and do our jobs in support of our
community members. So today Kari and I and the EAP plan to provide a few strategies
to simply help you cope with the challenges and set yourself up for success as you
work from home.
(Kari)
Great, thanks Matt! Yeah so during our presentation today we're going to start with
some basics and then work our way to some more of the complexities of working from
home so for some of you me you may have started working from home a while ago and
so you might kind of have a little bit more down about how you're managing it but
for some people they're currently in the process of working from home or about to
make the transition to work from home so we're going start first with some of the
basics so it starts at home first of all you may never have imagined that you'd be
working from home or you may have worked from home part time prior to COVID 19
either way it's important to remember that it's a different experience so even if
you work from the home before this is like working from home on steroids it's a
whole other ballgame and so because more of us are working online there's less
face-to-face time and of the stressors that we're all experiencing in our world
and in our own lives so let's talk about some strategies that can help you feel
grounded as you work from home so the first piece is setting up your office space
it can be really tempting to lie in bed and have your laptop there and work from
your bed but you know a strategy you know I would just offer out that you might
want to be more deliberate and have a place where you live that is focused for your
work life and to set that area up and people have to be very creative Matt
mentioned a few things but you know I know people that are they've got their
laptops on top of their bedroom dressers or they've pulled a nightstand out into
the living room area or working on the floor or from a closet or an attic or even
their car so I think the key is to have a designated area a distinct area where if
you're not able to keep all your work things there all through the evening you can
put it away and then come back to it in the morning and put it back out so if
you're not able to have your own separate area with families and such and so the
reason this is important is because it provides you with a psychological barrier
between your work life and your home life otherwise you may feel like you're never
having a break from work and we all need to have a personal life so that we can
function at our best and so having a specific work area can be really beneficial so
something to consider and then getting your work station set up with everything
that you need it might be telephone numbers that you need their post-it notes
whatever the things that you need for your to be able to you know function
productively another thought is to you know many of us are learning new technology
and for some of us it could be zoom or virtual conferencing or there might be new
software you're having to use or perhaps you're using a cell phone instead of you
know a landline from your agency or school so learning new technology and its
functionality while you're stressed and trying to get your work done I want to
recognize that that can be really overwhelming and so to remember to be patient
with yourself and that there's a lot of us that are on this learning curve.
If it's possible to find humor in to find that the other day I had a woodpecker
pecking on the steel gutters outside my house while I was on a conference call and
it was very loud and so it was just to the point of just having to for me to just
laugh and it's like I can't do anything about it at this time know that if you're
having struggles with technology that you can put in your search engine pretty much
anything and find information about it and sometimes we forget about that when
we're stressed and so just remember that you can Google pretty much anything and I
know that it could be particularly hard because it's not like someone can come show
you how to do something with technology so it takes being creative searching or if
you have zoom and are able to share your screen with someone a co-worker to help
you try and figure it out it's something like that so make good friends with all
your tech savvy colleagues out there give them lots of praise and kudos and see if
they can maybe help you out is another thing to think about and of course our
wonderful IT staff they are of course very busy in this day and time so looking at
maybe some other possibilities of people in your work area might be something that
you want to do but IT is definitely there for you as well not to mention the
gardeners and the folks that are mowing grass outside of that happened to me
yesterday as my neighbor was mowing multiple times coming by very loudly so we all
had a really good chuckle at that.
So I think in this day sometimes we're just having to be very creative and when we
can to have a sense of humor about some of the things that we just don't have
control over yeah another thing to consider is how you can set some boundaries when
you're you know working from home it can be really tricky and I just really want to
acknowledge that that this is not necessarily simple but trying to work with those
that live in your home whether that's a housemate for a partner kiddos as best you
can to create agreements you know such as you know when the doors closed and need
you to pretend I'm not here I read about one woman who with her two-year-old
luckily you know she had another person in the home to kind of help with this but
her two-year-old still think she goes to work every day because she goes out the
front door and as she comes back in thru the attic and she stays up there all day
in order to get her work done and then comes back and sneaks back outside and comes
through the front door and it's just like a regular day for her two-year-old so
people are getting very creative and that was how what she needed to do which is
that boundaries and so I think it's looking at you know what makes sense for you
and your family in your home but you know having an established set schedule you
know even when you're working out of a home your own and you don't have other
people around having a set schedule can also be really helpful time where you stop
your you know start your day you stop your day take your breaks for everyone I
would suggest you know maintaining this same work hours as best you can and setting
boundaries so that you don't get swallowed up by your workload some other
boundaries are the people that are not in your but are dropping in virtually those
might be friends or family members or I don't know became neighbors I'm not sure
you know who might be coming through texting you or you know kids playing in your
name in your yard different things like that and so these can be real distractions
that can get you behind on your deadlines that you might have so you might have to
just remind people in your life whether they're in your home or outside your home
that you're still working and that even though your work location has changed it's
really no different than you being at the office and that you really do need some
privacy in some space to concentrate so definitely lots of challenges with all of
these but we are all just I think it's just doing the best we can.
Matt do you have some idea?
(Matt)
I do. Let's take a closer look at creating structure and routines. The things that
Kari has already touched on in order to create home success and making that
adjustment. First, we want to practice and I think that's good this goes without
saying we want to practice our daily hygiene habits. Yes, it's important to shower
every day and it's tempting to change our hygiene habits while working from home so
for example continuing to get dressed from head to toe and your normal work
clothes helps it just well it just helps put you in that right headspace you know
of you know that that that mindset of going to work and you can even think about
wearing your work clothes is something akin to putting on a uniform and this could
be helpful at the end of your work day to transition also back to your home clothes
which is a great way just to kind of separate out work from your personal life in
order to promote that work-life balance. Also, continue with the daily routines
provide well they provide structure don't they and that can help us provide
consistency in a world of inconsistency so think about what routines are most
supportive and helpful to you and continue doing things like eating breakfast on
time going for a walk at lunch read and chat you know just exercising for 15
minutes can be helpful I have to agree you know getting the mail when you're done
with work things like that routine and structures they're really particularly
helpful for children and teens and these uncertain times I know a lot of children
are doing homeschooling or something similar to that where they're doing online
classes.
And so having a routine and schedule for them can be really helpful. When working
from home to forget about taking breaks having a moment to stand outside or stretch
or maybe grab some water and you know just staying hydrated can keep your mind and
body active and healthy if you have children at home you may want to set a timer
for recess right and get out and play you know have some fun with the kids during
your breaks and another idea is perhaps maybe setting an alarm to remind you to
take breaks. Personally I try to put those on my calendar just as a mental
reminder that it's okay to get up push back from where I'm sitting at home
incorporate time for myself and just yeah give myself permission to have those
breaks and I would encourage you to do the same also whenever possible try to
eliminate distractions when you can I know Kerry you mentioned some of those things
already but just yeah just to reiterate for many this is a it can be a big
challenge when working from home you know you might notice the laundry pile or
things out of the corner of your eye that needs to get done maybe house maids or
family members it could be a wonderful distraction access to social media and video
games or easy access to food can be distracting to or that you know as I mentioned
I have two small fur babies and they're small lovable family fur babies can be
wonderful distractions you know in addition to or apart from our children so notice
what's distracting you there's anything right now if you know as you sort of do a
self-assessment or something that could be pulling your attention away if so you
know think about creating a plan you may need to sit in your car for an important
call if the kiddos are distracting or remove easy access to food or your personal
phone or make a to-do list you know things that that you can do to manage those
household chores or things that you can come back to later on and finally create
that plan and organize your day you know creating a simple checklist for example
for the things around there your home may be some activities or things to do with
the kids or for yourself for the day can be helpful you know just being organized
having a plan in place can really provide some structure and it can help you be
more productive it can help you feel a greater sense of accomplishment throughout
your workday and so make sure that you continue to be consistent with those
structures and routines and I would be remiss if I didn't mention Michelle's
comment there continue to be consistent with medication continue to be consistent
with attending if you if you have a mental health counselor many are moving towards
telehealth it's important to stay connected and also to stay connected to your
primary care physicians or your medical team as well.
And so, with that, I would like to invite you Kari back to you talk a little bit
about communication.
(Kari)
Yeah great wonderful. So yeah when we're working remotely we have to kind of
increase the volume on communication you know we're having to physically distance
and because of that we need to increase the communication which can seem kind of
odd but definitely is needed and so one thing to do is to check in with your
supervisor to make sure you understand what's expected of you know and what the
goals are because goals and our changing and shifting and priorities as things in
our world are changing and shifting and so having regular check-ins with your
supervisor can be really helpful and so you can always ask if you know it could be
a ten-minute Huddle's or team meetings in the morning over the phone or through
another like a virtual platform those types of things so staying connected is
really important because whatever you were working on may need to slightly chip
shift as we're all shifting and adjust during these times also you know it takes
time but learning to use the virtual tools that are available to you whether that's
zoom or Skype or Microsoft product or you know whatever virtual tools you're
needing to use and work with your supervisor in your team to also kind of learn
kind of the guidelines that you all want to use for those for some groups you know
they want to make sure to have their cameras on and for other teams they want to
mute while other people are talking or some people want it all unmuted and so
working with your team or the your supervisor people that you're working with to
kind of work through all of that and I want to let you know that DES on their
websites Department of Enterprise services has lots of information about
teleworking and information and so we will be putting this presentation up on our
website and the very last slide of the presentation will have links that you can
click on that will take you right there if you're unsure of how to find that
information when you're working from home it's going to be different of course for
everyone that's on the webinar today so I'm really aware of that but you may need
to communicate your availability so I know that if you're using Skype there's a
place to put on there do not disturb like I have that on right now as I'm in a
webinar so you may do something like that for key things that you're working on
you may want to use to communicate your availability especially if you're
transitioning from working in the office to working from home you might have a
period where kind of going back and forth so you may want to put that on your
calendar that's visible to everyone on your team if that works for your team and if
that's appropriate for your team maybe time where some areas are really in crisis
response and trying to really help people so you may have to you know talk to your
supervisor about if it's appropriate but be able to let the team know hey I'm
working on this project you know team can you can I have you know some
uninterrupted time so communication and really trying to work together and you know
we don't have the same cubicle walls or office walls if you had those before and so
we have to find ways to communicate and create communication and boundaries at work
and we're all learning new and different ways to do that so there's going to be
some fumbling around and adjusting but I think that we can all sort it out and just
we'll take a little bit of time and patience with the transition yeah so those are
a few ideas about communication Matt I think you were going to talk about
connection.
(Matt)
I am! This is about connection what we're doing right here right now in this moment
and so staying connected to avoid feelings of isolation and loneliness is so
important we've talked a lot about ways to stay connected using technology virtual
technology and other tools and strategies even with these strategies the abrupt
nature of having to transition from an office to a home environment may leave some
of you struggling to get accustomed to the change and we're really in an extreme
work-from-home situation with so many workers throughout the state suddenly working
from home and living with the uncertainty of when we'll be returning to our
worksite I know governor Inslee just had a news announcement where there was an
extension of stay at home through I believe May 4th and who knows if that date will
change or not but you know research shows in particular from the National Academy
of Sciences it shows a link between social isolation and a variety of significant
health concerns and the meta study showed that there is a consistent relationship
and meta study for those of you that's not familiar with that terminology is just
the study of several studies right so they found a consistent relationship between
social isolation and things like depression and anxiety up to and including
suicidal thoughts or ideation so you know be aware of the impact and if you're
feeling lonely or if you're feeling isolated you know some of us or some of you may
not have friends and families nearby and so if you're feeling particularly lonely
or isolated just know that you're not alone and that there are many others out
there that are feeling something similar in fact there's some incredible groups
that are forming whether it's [Link] or on Facebook where you can check in and
virtually meet new people online and so you know I would just say check in with
yourself throughout the day notice if you're feeling isolated or lonely notice if
you're experiencing anxiety or depression or just a general sense of malaise or
unrest you know it's as simple as a morning and maybe even an afternoon check-in it
just takes a quick second just think about what am I feeling what am i telling
myself how do I physically feel not just emotionally but physically feel once we
increase our awareness around these things and we can we can create a plan you know
and should you notice or you're concerned about let's say a colleague maybe
somebody that was normally a social butterfly and mom said they're sort of dropping
off the radar and you know speak with your leader speak to your supervisor and if
you can if you have that equity of trust your you know the boundaries are such that
you're able to reach out to your colleagues and do that reach out to them and
sometimes it's as simple as just asking and open into question like hey how are you
doing and of course you want to create a plan you want to be proactive you want to
find ways to create connection throughout your day whether it's a daily team
virtual hello team meeting check-ins personal check-ins are really nice too not
just sending an email but you know picking up the telephone and reaching out to
someone our Director, Cindy Guertin-Anderson, she does an incredible job at just
checking in with everyone on the team on a regular consistent basis and for me it
helps it really is a tremendous support so you know other things to consider like
having that virtual lunch with coworkers you know facetiming a friend your family
member perhaps it's somebody that's long distant they haven't connected to in a
while well this could be that opportunity for you to do that and if you're really
feeling kind of silly or you just want to have some fun you know engage in a three-
minute virtual dance party with family or friends you know could be on a break it
could be you know after work and the point is to stay connected or any other kind
of creative ideas that you can come up with some teams are starting meetings early
with time to have that sort of quote/unquote water-cooler conversation some teams
are doing things like happy hours after work where everyone brings their own snacks
you know find out what helps you get the conversation and connection going. Kari
did you want to talk a little bit about managing exhaustion and I'll probably jump
in on this one as well.

(Kari)
Yeah definitely! So you know what I'm hearing from lots of people as if they're
feeling really exhausted right now and of course there's a lot of stressors going
on in our world but you also might be wondering you know like I'm working from home
so why am I feeling so exhausted when I I don't have a commute anymore I am just
sitting here on video conference calls I can grab my snacks whenever I want them
and you may still feel really exhausted so we wanted to spend a little time to talk
about that and what are the things that might be contributing towards that beyond
kind of the things you might first think of so the first one is you know one of the
fundamentals of good mental health is autonomy self-expression and having a sense
of control and right now we're faced with not having control over many areas of our
lives including for many people working at home might not have been their first
choice and really you know this is more of our requirements for all of us so when
we feel a loss of control that can weigh on us so you know a simple thing to do is
to find ways to infuse choice in your day so you know we do have some choices even
though you may not have the choice about working from home we may not feel like
it's a choice that you know you can decide perhaps within your job is different for
all of us but maybe the sequencing of how you complete your work throughout the day
maybe you can you know plan your break times plan your day at the beginning of the
day plan what tea or snack you're going to have like to find the things that you do
have choice around can be really helpful and you might just even create a list of
the things that you have choice around and make it specific to work your work time
and when you think about work what are the choices that I could make and that might
help you feel a bit more empowered rather than something happening to you another
thing that's been really taxing and tiring is that you know things were more on
autopilot your brain didn't have to do a lot of thinking about the flow of your day
in many ways you know you show up for a team meeting you kind of have a sense of
how it's going to go you know the technology that you're going to work with of
course there's you know little things that can happen along the way but you were
you know able to operate a lot of your day on an automatic pilot and not have to
give a lot of conscious thought to what you're doing so our brains are really tired
right now because even simple tasks are now requiring lots more conscious thoughts
so an example in my world is I have a cell phone a work cell phone now that I'm
using and it's an Apple phone and I use an Android at home and so it's a very
simple thing but it's like wait how does this it's not intuitive when you're used
to using a different type of phone so when you add up all those things like that
that you're having to do every day in a different way your brain is just been
working so hard so it's a good reminder to give ourselves a bit of a break and
that as we you know keep working at learning the new technology the new ways you
have to do things your work from out of your home as you know continue to learn and
figure that out it will become more automatic but it will take a little bit of time
there's a learning curve that's just to be expected with all of this change so to
be kind to yourself and to be kind to others during the transition and my
experiences people have been very generous and very kind because we can all relate
to how challenging that this can be so another thing to think about are you know
the social missing social interactions may even be that you know it was a co-worker
you didn't even really chat with but you saw them from a distance or like Mathew
and I we used to say hi at the coffee machine and have like informal chat which is
just kind of normal life but you know there's not like opportunities to do that
Matt and I are communicating in such different ways now and we're having to like
create new space and time and ways to be able to have those little moments you know
how's your day kind of thing and so you might be missing those social interactions
and you may not even be aware that you're missing them and with that you might be
experiencing some feelings of grief you know around all the changes that have
happened all the plans maybe that you had had before that you're not able to do now
and so for many people social connections in the past you know we're energizing and
helpful but right now it takes a lot more effort to connect it requires a lot more
of our brainpower conscious effort to connect with each other so just using the
technology to be able to talk to somebody that's taking some brain power to do that
yes so again it's just right now it's just being aware of that can be helpful and
then realizing that we just have to find different ways to connect and it's just
going to take us a little time to get used to that yeah the last one I would point
out here is around distractions and you talked a bit about that earlier and there's
so many possibilities being distracted now that when we are in our workplaces
before there were distractions there but there were different types and there are
ways to kind of contain those and all of a sudden you have you know children
running across the room or see you know a dust bunny over here there your laundry
piling it and so those can be these constant distractions food can be a huge
distraction for folks when it's so easily accessible so if you can find ways to
make the distractions part of your day instead of trying to fight with them all day
long and kind of contain them in some way I think that that could be helpful so
that might be scheduling a time like say you have housemates and that you schedule
a time to have lunch with them or your children or people that are in your home or
someone you have lunch with them virtually on someone that maybe keeps texting you
and so you can say hey let's have lunch together at 11:30 or whatever it might be
or if your brain is distracted by all the things that you need to do when you look
around the house just have a list a piece of paper next to you and write down like
oh I need to get that from this door next time or order that from this door or I
want to make sure to do you know tell this person this thing and just keep a pad of
paper there to easily write them down what if your distractions are really getting
overwhelming it might be time to take a break and it might be your brain in your
body letting you know that it's time to take a break and maybe it's going for a
walk outside or doing something else for a little bit – then get refocused so all
of these things that I'm talking about here are things that can make you feel more
tired but there's things that you can do to help support you around that and that
Matt’s going to talk about some more things that might be causing some more
tiredness.

(Matt)
So there may be some new pressures in your job right but you might also be
experiencing new pressures such as cooking more meals cleaning more often
homeschooling or planning activities to keep those in the home entertained you know
one of the things you might just continue to work on and I'm sure many of you are
doing this already is just to stay positive and focused on what you're grateful for
you know there's been a lot of research that shows if you look through the great
grateful lens that it generally improves mood and energy focus and concentration in
order for us to you know to be able to manage the daily stressors for me personally
I'm grateful that I get to save a few extra dollars on gas I don't have to commute
as much but it does mean that as Kari mentioned I don't forget access to my friends
and colleagues at work not in the same way so you know but it's important to you
know think about like what are the what are the things are we grateful for during
this time of adjustment and change because a lot of what we're experiencing what
we're experiencing there's plenty of positive impacts that we could be grateful for
in that those things and focusing in and identifying those things not in this we're
a radical happiology kind of way but just to appreciate what we do have as opposed
to what we don't have can go a long way to and have a positive impact on our mental
and physical health you know I refer to this as the fixed filter and prioritize
information get clear on what you really need to stay up-to-date on and what is
unnecessary give yourself permission to not follow up on every non-critical email
you know there there's a lot of flowing information right now so try to set those
boundaries and limits on when and what you want to access to avoid becoming flooded
with information and the same thing goes for them the media it's easy to get
flooded and overwhelmed by the 24-hour news cycle and so you know as Kari mentioned
setting boundaries is important so think about doing that even with your news
outlets as well you know also I just want to add there's an increase in intensity
over all right now but also think about the increased intensity of video
conferencing so when you look in a video webcam for hours at a time it can be
pretty stressful so and so every time you take a sip of water or you notice
somebody else on the team taking a sip of water I mean you you're constantly
pulling in information and so again it can be socially and physically exhausting so
one technique I think Kari you may have mentioned this when you are looking into
the video camera occasionally just look off to the distance you know just give
yourself permission and look away from the video camera and that can be a mental
break for you as well lack of movement can be another source of exhaustion so we
all know that movement staying active is important to our physical emotional and
mental health most likely you're not moving as much as you did while in the
workplace that speaks true for me from time to time so I have to be very purposeful
I have to give myself permission to get up and walk around and and stay active and
do my stretches and you know just maybe even during break just sort of walk around
my community a little bit and get to a green park which is still open so me and the
dogs complain and so just staying active can increase your overall mood and energy
and help sort of come combat or mitigate some of the some of the exhaustion that
we're mentioning here when you grab a cup of coffee tea or water you know take a
lap around your home your apartment your house maybe do it a few times do some
jumping jacks stretch if you can you know touch your shoulder blades together pull
your shoulders forward move your head from side to side many of us are inspired by
some of the stories that are coming out of Europe in particular China the
Netherlands and even Italy there's a I think a story of a gentleman who ran a
marathon in his tiny apartment. And to look through the Grateful lens try to find
those moments those pockets have things that you can do to take good care of
yourself because you are a person of worth and value and apart from the incredible
work that you are all doing every day it's important to reserve a little bit at
that time your energy just for you right and Kari is going to shift gears a little
bit and talk about navigating some of the difficulties and stressors in your
personal lives that can impact you during your work day

(Kari)
It's been a while but some of you may have remembered the video clip of Robert
Kelly who's the political science professor that was living in Korea and he was
hilarious hilariously interrupted by his young playful children during a live BBC
broadcast. So for those of you who haven't seen this he was live on the air and his
young daughter you know entered the room and then next we see a toddler in the
background. And then you see a woman sliding in and scooping up and dragging the
children out of the room and during the whole you know time the professor is doing
his best to stay presence and continue his broadcast but I think we can all kind of
notice the underlying core that he's experiencing and it's really a humorous
glimpse into working from home and what it can truly be like that clip has been
shared by millions and watched by millions and I think we enjoy that in some ways
because we can all relate to it in one form or another maybe children it may be
dogs it may be something else that you know we are wondering you know either we've
experienced or we're hoping that we don't experience in the future and so working
from home can add a lot of different stressors and I want to let you know that in
the next few weeks we'll have a webinar around family dynamics around parenting and
around challenges with couples that couples are experiencing and talk about some
tips and strategies to help support families with emotional health and well-being
so that's something that's coming up in the future and so I want to highlight just
a few areas from that presentation they're very high level and then we'll talk more
about it during that particular webinar but you know suddenly living in the same
area with your partner your housemates your children family members for 24/7 for
an indefinite period of time really add some chaos and some stress so it's being
together for much longer periods of time than we're and to and it can create
stressful conditions that really create more opportunities to amplify both positive
and negative dynamics so according to the Global Times there's been a surge in
divorces in China as a result of the pandemic with couples needing to stay home
together for 24/7 for long periods of time it's created it created more conflict
and more of a desire for divorce and so some couples and families are finding that
the current challenges are bringing them closer together and creating a deeper bond
but for many the additional stressors related to COVID-19 have really created a new
level of stress and resulted in an increase in conflict and distress in the home
and with these increased pressures there's also the potential of the increase of
domestic violence and so I just wanted to speak to that for a moment and I just
read this morning that in Seattle they are experiencing a 20% increase in domestic
violence calls and I've also seen that in Oregon they've had a significant increase
in these calls and so you know there's an increase in the domestic violence as
people are put under a lot of stress also stress from stressors of social isolation
alcohol and substance issues and financial pressures that many families are
experiencing we want you to know that we're here for you if you're struggling with
family issues our dynamics and it could be parenting concerns or relationship
struggles or other personal or professional challenges and we'll talk about in a
few more minutes we'll talk about the services that your EAP provides and the
resources that are available and how to connect with us but I just wanted to touch
on some of these family dynamics that many people are experiencing and let you know
that if you're wanting more information around domestic violence we on our webpage
have more information and support resources to support around that and you can find
that information by going to [Link] clicking on our COIVD-19 resources webpage
and then there's a section under domestic violence support which has the
information about the national domestic violence hotline and other information that
could be very helpful as well as a wide range of other topics and other webinars
that are available and up and coming so there's much more to talk about here but
I'll turn it over to you Matt.

(Matt)
So we've talked about multiple strategies to help you navigate working from home
with COVID and the related stressors and challenges I think we need to look at this
situation as a marathon and not a sprint as this we need to you know just take
time to take care of ourselves and do those small simple things right just to take
care of ourselves and take care of yourself in particular with all the additional
stress and pressure it's even more important than ever for you to find ways to
provide yourself with self-care to find grace not only for yourself but for others
in your line if it goes back to that analogy of putting the oxygen mask on
yourself first so that you can help others and right now you may feel like you're
too busy or overwhelmed for self-care. Kari and I just want to remind you that
self-care can it could just take a few moments throughout the day and it can have a
real long-lasting effect so if you haven't seen it yet we have a webinar on self-
care we're going to continue to plug our webinars because there they're out there
and we want you to help us spread the word if you wouldn't mind and so we can get
this information out and you can again you can access our schedule for webinars on
our EAP webpage and whether you're able to attend the self-care webinar or not you
know I'd suggest that you just maybe create a self-care plan based on what you
already know which helps soothe you it can help ground you and just really connect
you to important people in your life you might think about when to take time to
unplug or maybe even just create a list of some activities that will generate
excitement and enhance your ability to unplug and relax. so just to wrap up I want
to talk a little bit about if you do need more help if you or a loved one are
experiencing any of these symptoms that you see on this particular slide associated
with trauma anxiety depression things like experiencing flashbacks or just feeling
a need to avoid again not to avoid due to excessive blame or fear or due to a
reaction beyond your normal ability to cope but avoiding to promote health and but
staying connected socially if you're really struggling or if you know somebody
that's struggling and you need maybe an objective person that you can connect with
and talk to and take a look at maybe creating a strategy or plan or perhaps finding
resources I would encourage you to give us a call you can consult with us you can
consult with your EAP it's always private and confidential and you can always
please always circle back to your primary care physician as well so sometimes just
doing taking the time to do those little positive things for yourself can as I said
earlier can go a long way in promoting your overall health and helping mitigate the
stress in lieu or in response to the adjustment issues that we're all facing today.
(Kari)
Great thanks Matt! We want to let you know that and you know we are here for you
and we are free we are confidential we're here for you we're here for your family
members that live in your household and so if you are if you have people in your
household that are 18 or older they can certainly call us as well if you have
kiddos or teams that are under the age of 18 we can still help but what we would do
is a little different process we would talk with the caregiver you as the
caregiver or your partner is the caregiver and then help you with a come up with a
parenting plan or get you connected to resources that are appropriate for kids and
teens and so we are here for you and your family we're confidential easy to access
you simply call the number that's on the screen which is the 877-313-4455 our
great intake specialists will take your call they need to gather a little bit of
information from you just to have a better understanding of what you're hoping to
get support around so that they can get you connected to the right person or to the
right resources and so they will help get you set up we have expert professionals
who are then are also able to help you and assist you and we can help you with
things that are everyday concerns and things that are much bigger concerns that
you're facing right now and we have our website you can go to [Link] for tons
of information you can sign up for our newsletter to receive a monthly employee or
supervisor newsletter find more information if you click on COVID-19 resources that
will take you to the page where you'll find out other webinars that are coming up
in the future we'd love to have you join us other links and information it's being
continually updated so you'll want to bookmark it and come back to it again and
again if you haven't come to participate it in our self-care webinar that's another
one I would really suggest that you participate in if that's of interest to you and
we are just ready to support you and we're here for you wherever you are in the
state we can help you and we have professionals throughout the state that will be
able to help and support you. Thank you everyone.