How Can We Handle Returning to "Normalcy"? VANCE P. FARRELL, CPS SUPERVISOR, PENNSYLVANIA MENTOR
At the beginning of the pandemic and throughout the shutdown, there have been constant, sometimes instantaneous, changes that have caused confusion, fear, dismay, and various other strong emotions to be present. A majority of these changes caused the unfortunate upheaval of what was considered routine and normal and replaced it with questions and uncertainty. Living in an environment such as this has been shown to have disastrous impacts on an individual's mental strength and ability to cope with various situations, but that was the "new normal." It has now been 16 months since many locations implemented the "two weeks" shut down in order to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 global pandemic. As the government, businesses, and individuals are looking towards the future and getting things back in order, there 24
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are a number of factors that need to be considered and a lot of questions that need to be asked. One such question includes: How will the transition back affect people's mental health? This is an important question to ask as there was a sudden and sharp decline in people's mental health when the shutdown started and throughout the pandemic. However, many people and companies have termed this existence the "new normal." They have made adjustments necessary to survive in this environment because they have had to. When planning the return to "normalcy," one thing that needs to be kept in mind is a slow return to previous ways of doing things that then hard, abrupt changes. Slowly changing things back to how they were before allows everybody to readjust to these changes and get used to them without forcing people to completely uproot www.MyNetworkMag.com
