Shielding group after lockdown eases - what will happen?

[Forgetcourgettes]

I just wondered what will happen to the shielding and vunerable group after lockdown is eased?

So if some places are opening again but just partially, do people who are shielding still have to shield?

[BusMum79]

In an ideal scenario (!) - I think healthcare teams & specialists will have to look at each individual case in the shielding group and give more tailored advice as to what ppl should do when restrictions change. I was originally told to shield and the info came through when my DH & I - and our youngest child, who was 7mo at the time - had just come down with probable COVID symptoms (DH is a dentist so had been treating patients as this was the v start of lockdown). We were really worried and I couldn’t distance myself from the baby especially. I contacted my consultant and was told that the specialists didn’t agree that I should be on the list (I take an immunosuppressant for IBD but it’s well controlled), so I should treat myself as moderately vulnerable instead. Lots of people with similar issues to mine were mistakenly told to shield, I believe, and similarly, others in other groups only got their shielding letters recently. Point is, even if the advice had been for me to continue shielding, just the very fact of having spoken to someone with knowledge of my individual situation would still have been hugely reassuring, rather than the blanket letter / texts. Of course this has all had to be rushed though and dealt with as quickly as possible, so naturally it hasn’t been a perfect exercise BUT if people are going to be in a position where they have to put their lives / jobs / those of their partners/ children etc on hold until a vaccine or whatever then I think there will have to be resources set aside to check in on ppl as advice changes so it feels like more of a fluid situation, rather than a long, immovable stretch...

[Egghead68]

@Appuskidu I didn’t catch it properly but I think they talked about people on some immunosuppressants maybe not being at as much risk as they thought.

[Mustbetimeforachange]

Yes, egghead that was what was said. It was a bit unclear but the message I took away was that they would review who was really needing to shield as more information came through.

[AshGirl]

Has anyone had yet another letter this week? DS and DH have both had letters dated 30 April and 1 May respectively which say to shield for 12 weeks from the date of the letter! DS' original letter was dated 22 March and said the same thing.

We had been focusing on the end of June (probably a bit naively) and this latest letter would see us shielding until the end of July at least

[BlueBrian]

This Is The Government’s Draft Plan To Ease Coronavirus Lockdown Measures In The Workplace.

Shielded “extremely vulnerable” people will be banned from any work that isn’t carried out at home. Businesses must help non-shielded “vulnerable” people work from home where possible, or take extra care enforcing social distancing around them in the workplace. Extremely vulnerable individuals are defined as those with specific medical conditions, such as various cancers.

www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/governments-draft-plan-to-ease-lockdown-workpace-in-full

[DuMondeB]

We got a text for my daughter (8) first, then we got a shielding letter when the main batch went out (I’d already pulled her out of school, 10 days before they closed).
2 weeks later she got another letter saying (paraphrase) ‘You know that letter we sent? Well, we really, really meant it’

Two weeks ago we got a letter from a consultant followed by a call from our GP, asking us if we were managing to stick to it and reiterating how important it is.

She missed almost all of year two due to serious illness and only started back in September. She’d just about caught up when lockdown started.

She’s ok at the moment, but has some PTSD type mental distress at times. I’m worried, if she has to stay home when her friends go back, it will be really bad for her mental health. If she doesn’t stay home she could end up really sick again.

I’m mostly trying not to think about it. Will deal with whatever happens when it happens...

[MadisonAvenue]

It’s really hard isn’t it DuMondeB I’ve been struggling with lockdown as it is and then found out last week that me and my son are now on the shielded list when the practice nurse called me. I’ve never really had any mental health issues but feel like I’m definitely struggling, especially since finding this out.

Anyway, my son’s letter has arrived today and it states that he must shield for at least 12 weeks from the date on the letter which was April 29th Obviously mine will say the same when it arrives, they were sent out by our GP surgery.

[MadisonAvenue]

I hope then that if the extremely vulnerable are banned from the workplace and can’t work from home then they’ll be paid in some form and will also have some job protection put in place.

[Sorryoo]

I would like to know what the plans are for household members where someone is shielded. Seems a bizarre kind of risk assessment where (for example) I can't walk around the block as it's too risky, but family members are still going to workplaces with the risk of bringing germs home (we have no way of me isolating at home).

[BlueBrian]

Shielded “extremely vulnerable” people will be banned from any work that isn’t carried out at home.
That's all very well, but what are people meant to live off? SSP isn't nearly enough for most people.

[Anyonewannawoo]

The thing is that I don’t get is that I’m fit and healthy however my Nan who I live with and support isn’t. If I’m going out and about and get it she might as well be as well to enjoy her final years.

But then I realise I don’t want to kill a woman who survived ww2 and have that guilt on me for the rest of my life.

She picked up my cold in the winter that caused her to be bed bound and knocked out for three weeks. There’s not a hope of her getting over Covid.

I think we’re going to be bedded down until a vaccine 2021 but luckily we can financially afford too even if my relationship with my BF doesn’t. I really feel for PP who need to go out to work to keep a roof over their heads or children who can’t see their friends over the summer.

[MadisonAvenue]

That's all very well, but what are people meant to live off? SSP isn't nearly enough for most people.

I know. We’re ok. My husband is still working but has been cut down to a four day week so money is tighter. I’m not currently employed but my son is and he has car insurance (which is a lot for a 19 year old) and car finance to pay and while we can help him we couldn’t cover all of his expenses every month. I really dread to think of the consequences for someone who has a mortgage or rent to pay though.

It just all feels like an unbelievably cruel twist of fate that we’ve all ended up in this position through no fault of our own.
I’m fit and healthy and so is my son, we’re rarely ill. It’s just a stupid little anomaly with our blood which normally doesn’t have any bearing on our lives that’s put us here.

[janeskettle]

Vulnerable to severe effects (lung disease) and live with someone on dialysis - live in AU and as numbers are low here, it's back to work (school) for me. No social distancing measures at school.

For vulnerable people, it will be every man and woman for themselves, with plenty of vulnerable households forced back into the outside world for work.

No-one apparently wants to discuss the impact that has on mental health, when you are still being told by your doctors 'this illness is something you do NOT want to expose yourself to', and yet there you are on the bus, long before any vaccines or effective treatments, exposing yourself to whatever is in the community.

We don't even have any hand sanitizer at our school, and I haven't been able to buy any for about 8 weeks.

[Defaultuser]

I find it bizarre that the shielding letters are coming out at different times. They could have put themselves at unnecessary risk before they knew to shield?

However I do agree that the list will likely be revised. It seems to err on the side of caution at the mo. My oncologist didn't think I was at that high risk and I thought she would be the expert.

It really is a difficult one. There are many people for which the current situation is unworkable long-term.

[Egghead68]

I hope then that if the extremely vulnerable are banned from the workplace and can’t work from home then they’ll be paid in some form and will also have some job protection put in place

Hear hear.

[iVampire]

‘ Some people who are shielding have received another letter to shield for another 12 weeks after the last 12 weeks end...’

Did you get a text as well?

I had the original text right back on the first Monday, then the letter the day after. Nothing arrived about a further extension, and I’m s lituiee Ed surprised that they’re doing this when there is still 5 weeks of original shield to go (7 weeks until end June, which is the date they seem to be using now)

I have leukaemia (a well controlled chronic one) so have been wondering how long shielding might apply for as evidence is slight s as bad medical opinion divided.

Meanwhile, I have to decide on what to do about DD and a potential return to school

[Flossie44]

My
Daughter is shielding. She’s year 6 at school. Now there are rumours that year 6 are going back to school first. It’s devastating for her to see her friends go back to say goodbye at the end of primary. I would love her to have some kind of normal as I’m so worried what this will do mentally to her, not to get the same transition

[DuMondeB]

It’s devastating for her to see her friends go back to say goodbye at the end of primary. I would love her to have some kind of normal as I’m so worried what this will do mentally to her, not to get the same transition

If schools go back while ex vulnerable are still shielding it’s going to be hard enough on my DD, who isn’t in a transitional year group. I really feel for children like yours who are potentially missing out on peer group rights of passage 😔

All we can do is try and help them build resilience. Missing out on the last days of primary and first days of secondary seem devastating when you are 11, but need not be when our children are adults. We have to support them to see the bigger picture for themselves (just saying the words won’t help much) whilst helping them feel useful and valued at home (not just left behind) and letting them know we love them, that we aren’t disappointed in them, whilst still sharing the disappointment for them.

My DD missed almost all of year 2, starting back at the beginning of year 3, which is on a different site (technically completely separate infant and jnr schools, but they all move on as a complete class and have the same uniform). Not quite such a significant transition, but still significant in the mind of a 7 year old, especially one in recovery from a near-fatal illness (and her mum!) but for her, it actually worked out quite well, as it drew a line under the awful year and gave her a fresh start (it was harder for me as I had had a good relationship with the head and deputy at the infants and had to start over with entrusting DD to a new team). I had worried for DD unnecessarily really. I hope to learn from this and try not to worry about anything that hasn’t actually happened yet, and instead try to make (loose) plans and contingency plans

I’ve been struggling with lockdown as it is and then found out last week that me and my son are now on the shielded list when the practice nurse called me. I’ve never really had any mental health issues but feel like I’m definitely struggling, especially since finding this out.

I’m actually finding lockdown OK, but I realise it’s a false sort of OK, if that makes sense? I was struggling with a kind of post traumatic MH illness before lockdown, relating to DD illness (our MacMillan nurse says it’s normal for mums to have a mental health wobble when our children get better we tend to hold it together for the sake of our child and the rest of the family through treatment and only allow our own feelings to come through when they are in remission). I had just started to make steps to join the real world again (rejoined my old gym, had a first appointment appointment with the adult MH team, booked a hair cut) the week before lockdown.
Lockdown gave me the excuse to delay everything again. Family is all at home, DH is furloughed so doing lots of my usual chores, inc the stuff I find hard due to anxiety. I suspect I might have another wobble looming when he returns to work and I have to start doing more again?

I completely sympathise with how a late letter would make you feel, personally I would try and frame it as a positive, they are learning more about who is at risk, and it’s better to have that knowledge and decide for ourselves how to act on it.

My DDs condition is quite rare, so the nearest we have to a specific support group is a Facebook group for parents and survivors worldwide (less than 3,000 members globally). Very few countries are even attempting to warn individuals with specific risk factors, and just a handful of people have been contacted directly by their hospital doctors. Most have had to seek out information and contact doctors themselves.

Perhaps we should start a little support thread for parents/guardians of shielded children? Making decisions and modifying our behaviour on someone else’s behalf is a bit different to adults weighing up risks and benefits for themselves.

I think I might write to my MP asking her to keep in mind that ‘children’ and ‘extremely vulnerable people’ are not two entirely separate groups, and that lockdown easing decision- making needs to remember the children that overlap those two categories.

[Flossie44]

Perhaps we should start a little support thread for parents/guardians of shielded children? Making decisions and modifying our behaviour on someone else’s behalf is a bit different to adults weighing up risks and benefits for themselves.

Count me in!! I feel so isolated in terms of shielding a child right now

[NagevMama]

My 11 month old is shielded for multiple reasons. He had open heart surgery a few months ago, he has pulmonary hypertension (if he hadn't had the OHS when he did, he would have needed a lung transplant too) and he has narrow airways due to having Down's Syndrome. We had exactly one week of normality before lock down started. One week of his whole life of baby groups, no feeding tube or meds to be administered and I was feeling so much better than I had been since he was born. Now I feel like there's no end to this. We've been shut in since he was born due to his risk of infection. We're coming up on his 1st birthday and that will be indoors with no family around.
I worry how much this will affect his development, as now he won't see Salt, Physio, OT or any of his consultants for ages. All his medical checks have been put on hold for the foreseeable future.
Sorry for the rant, just feeling hopeless at the moment!

[BetsyJameson]

I wish that parents of children who are shielding would be given better advice. My son is shielding but both me and my husband are key workers so still working. I work in a school where there is no social distancing, but luckily I’m only going in once a week at the moment. But it just doesn’t make sense that we are told we are ok to go to work yet our son cant even go outside for a walk.

[Namechangervaver]

If I was in the shielding group I'd be shielding until a cure or vaccine was found. Even when the vaccine is found you would need to wait a while until it kicks in.

[Egghead68]

That’s all very well but shielding people also need an income and to
keep their jobs. Not many employers are likely to tolerate our being off work that long (if we can’t work from home) let alone pay us for the duration.