In typical fashion, Hatters help Hatters in droves
Hatters are stepping up in to help friends, neighbours and each other as the medical and governmental response to the COVID-19 virus broadens.
The societal response is widening, too.
Shona Dickie is the emergency response social services branch co-ordinator with the City of Medicine Hat. Her office helps co-ordinate agencies in the city that provide more specific help to at-risk populations.
“We’re finding that there’s a lot of things happening,” said Dickie, referring not only to her meetings with a variety of service providers, like the Salvation Army, food bank, Medicine Hat Community Housing and others, but also at the ground level, Hatter to Hatter.
Health authorities call for strict isolation for the elderly and those with respiratory conditions, as well as general separation for everyone as a societywide effort to slow the spread of the disease.
On Monday, Mayor Ted Clugston told Hatters to do their part while being responsible. That could involve making pickups or deliveries for an elderly neighbour while keeping a safe distance, or a simple phone call to check in on a friend.
“If each one of us looks after one other person, we’ll all be alright,” said Clugston.
Earlier that morning, Cypress County resident Holly Turnbull created the Facebook group, YXH COVID 19 Volunteers. At noon on Tuesday there were more than 2,000 members
“When they closed schools (Sunday night) it became real for a lot of people,” said Turnbull.
“We’re really seeing moms and families band together.”
It’s created a few connections for drop-off groceries, suggestions for children activities, or make-work projects to avoid cabin fever, potential childcare solutions.
“I wanted to create a space for Medicine Hat and area to be able to volunteer to offer assistance to those in need, or are self-isolating and for those people to put there hand up and say they needed support,” said Turnbull. “We’re trying to navigate it.” It’s also a place where people can ask questions, or swap information, but with any public social media channel, that comes with risks.
The city is preparing to launch a one-stop dedicated website for residents to find official information on a variety of fronts, such as health advisories, financial programs and suggestions for mental and physical fitness.
It is expected to launch later this week, with the goal to give the correct information out front, as well as detail the municipal and outside agency actions.
“The information is out there, but it’s kind of all over the place,” said Dickie.
She said any one of the issues that citizens are facing — potential job loss, illness, loss of childcare — would be stressful enough, but in the current climate, many are compounded together, and yet again by feelings of loneliness and confused by misinformation.
“There’s always stress; that’s always the case,” said Dickie. “This is our job on a day-to-day basis.
At Monday’s city council meeting, director of emergency response Merrick Brown told council that while Alberta Health Services is the lead agency guiding the response, the city’s social service departments have a key role in supporting outside agencies.
The Community Development department manages the Esplanade as well as seniors outreach, 9-1-1 operations, transit and social services outreach.
Most of its public facilities were closed to the public going forward, but Dickie said Tuesday that the entire department is “fully engaged” in an effort to develop connections.