According to the ‘Public Health Guidance’

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Shielding is a practice used to protect extremely vulnerable people from coming into contact with coronavirus. The Guidance states..

You are strongly advised to stay at home at all times and avoid any face-to-face contact for a period of at least 12 weeks from the day you receive your letter. Please note that this period of time could change

There is also further guidance on how to manage ‘shielding ‘ one self if they live with someone else eg not sharing a bedroom/bathrooms, others washing their hands regularly, limiting time spent together in shared spaces, regular cleaning of surfaces, eating in their own room, using separate towels etc, the list is long but all makes sense.

K lives in a home with 3 other family members, she has a learning dataset disability and she is a sociable child. All these factors makes it diffcult to follow every single piece of advice but as a family we owe it to K to give it our best effort , along with protecting her mental health.

It might be difficult to make her understand why she is unable to step out of the house for 12 weeks. She understands there is a virus around. She understands she needs to wash her hands often and change her clothes daily. She understands that she has to learn at home and not at school at the moment.

She understands that she can’t see her friends but she has to Facetime them. She understands that we need to sit a distance away from each other. She understands that once again her holiday to Florida isn’t happening.