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UN On Covid 19 effects those with disabilities 

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UN On Covid 19 effects those with disabilities 

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Talking to children and young People about COVID19

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Talking to children and young People about COVID19

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The Department of Education and Skills has released some advice for parents and schools on talking to children and young people about COVID-19.

They suggest letting the child or young person's age and questions guide you as to how much information to give them. Young people are very aware of the recent restrictions to their lives and it is important to discuss the reasoning for this, with them.

Some actions the article suggests include:

Very young children need brief, simple information and reassurance that they are safe and that the people they care about are safe.

Reassure them that the Government is working hard to ensure that people throughout the country stay healthy.

Tell them that not everyone will get the virus and that the vast majority who get it recover fully.

Older children may need help to separate reality from rumour and fantasy. Either provide or direct them to where they can find accurate and factual information about the status of COVID-19. Having such knowledge can help them feel a sense of control.

Encourage children/young people to continue with their schoolwork and extracurricular activities, but don't push them if they seem upset or overwhelmed.

Maintain a normal routine as much as possible, keeping to a regular schedule can be reassuring.

Remember factual and reliable information about the virus can help reduce anxiety.

Maintain a normal routine as much as possible, keeping to a regular schedule can be reassuring.

More information and links to downloadable posters here

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Talking to children and young People about COVID19 - Mental Health Ireland

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The Department of Education and Skills has released some advice for parents and schools on talking to children and young people about COVID-19. They suggest letting the child or young person's age and questions guide you as to how much information to give them.

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Fostering alcohol-free healthy coping tools that will last beyond COVID-19 

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Fostering alcohol-free healthy coping tools that will last beyond COVID-19 

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Mental Health Ireland

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We have worked with Alcohol Action Ireland to share a set of advice guidelines to help people understand the risk of turning to alcohol during these tough times.

This advice comes at a time when the alcohol off-trade business is reporting exceptional sales as people look to stock-up with excessive amounts of alcohol at home.

The current public health pandemic COVID 19 is understandably causing many of us stress and upheaval. We are worrying about ourselves, our loved ones, our very way of living. For many of us the current stresses are bringing to the fore earlier traumas and collectively we are also absorbing the multiple anxieties of those around us.

During times like this, it might be difficult to stay on top of how much we are drinking, or indeed there might be an inclination to drink more heavily and more frequently as we reach out for something to numb the tension. Unfortunately, this leads to a corresponding rise in anxiety, depression and irritability and so to greater stresses. Relationships may be also be coming under pressure as the drinking is increasing.

However, this can also be a time when we can develop healthy coping tools that will last long beyond Covid19. Here are some ways to mind our mental health while observing a low-risk relationship with alcohol.

Stay within the weekly low-risk alcohol guidelines

Low-risk drinking reduces the risk of alcohol-related problems. The recommended weekly low-risk alcohol guidelines are less than:

11 standard drinks for women

17 standard drinks (SD) for men

Drinks should be spread out over the week -no more than 2 SD/day for men, or 1 SD/day for women. Have 2-3 alcohol-free days per week.

For more on these guidelines and what is a standard drink check out the HSE site askaboutalcohol.ie The Ask About Alcohol drinks calculator also provides fact-based non-judgmental information about how drinking affects health, wallet and weight.

Look after your mental health & wellbeing

This is a difficult time, but it doesn't have to be as hard as we might think. Physical distancing is different from social isolation. The increased time spent at home can be tough for some families but it can also be an opportunity to reconnect with loved ones. Connecting with others can help us regain a sense of purpose and belonging. It's also important to get out and about and connect with nature - while maintaining a physical distance of course. If possible, we should include activities in our routine, such as walking, running, cycling or gardening. If we can, spend time in green, natural space, this can benefit both our mental and physical wellbeing. It can improve mood, reduce feelings of stress or anger, and help us relax a little. These are healthy coping mechanisms that, if fostered now, will endure long after this situation is over.

Alcohol can pose a definite risk to our mental health and can make the symptoms of mental health conditions worse. However, your mood can improve when you cut down or stop drinking. For more on this see Ask About Alcohol's information on mental health and alcohol.
Stick to routines
It's not the Easter holidays (just yet) so try to stick to routines including eating well, staying active, going to bed on time and getting up at the usual time. Sticking with routine will help to ensure a sense of normality. So even though life as usual has been interrupted, we should try to maintain structure to our day. Be aware of sleep patterns and the things that might help to get a good night's sleep, for example having a bath, winding down screen-time, and avoid drinking alcohol. If the uncertainty of the current situation is causing you to lose sleep, talk about your worries with friends and family rather than trying to cope alone.
Find alcohol-free ways to manage in these tough times
For those of us working from home or self-isolating, we likely have more time than usual to fill, and sometimes it is tempting to use alcohol to fill this void, but be wary as this will easily become an unhealthy habit, or way to cope. Rest assured, there are lots of other beneficial ways to spend your time. Reconnecting with hobbies or interests; connecting with loved ones, learning a new skill or engaging in some mindfulness, meditation or relaxation techniques.
Help is available
There are useful self-help strategies at Ask About Alcohol which go through the steps of deciding to change, planning to change and actually changing drinking behaviour. If you are currently in recovery or indeed would like to access individual help for the first time, you may be concerned about how you will receive it under 'physical distancing' conditions. There are lots of great options for receiving support online or over the phone:

The HSE Drug and Alcohol Helpline and email support service is open Monday to Friday 9.30am -5.30pm and is available at 1800 459 459 and at helpline@hse.ie.

Some AA meetings are still going ahead and you can check them by calling the contact number for your area as listed on the Alcoholics Anonymous website www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie

There are also online meetings through www.smartrecovery.org

Al Anon helpline - For people troubled by someone else's drinking is open every day 10am - 10pm, Call (01) 8732699 Email info@alanon.ie and online at www.alanon.ie

For mental health support, the HSE's new phone service gives information about different supports and services available and how to access them. The number is 1800 742 444. Samaritans can be contacted 24/7 either by phone on free to call 116 123, or by email to jo@samaritans.ie.

Take a break from the 24-hour news cycle
The links between anxiety, depression and alcohol are well established. Logging off from social media and the 24/7 news cycle will ease anxiety and help us avoid using drinking as a coping mechanism. While it's true there is a lot of positive help online, take care to stay away from negative social sites and comments that are whipping up fear and worry. Get your facts from trusted Irish sources such as the HSE and the department of health and the World Health Organisation. Find out more about how to disconnect from negative digital spaces here. Also, beware of fake news and always get your information from reliable sources. RTE is providing easy to access information for young people - and parents, giving factual information and tips on how to keep young people entertained.

Dr Sheila Gilheany, CEO, Alcohol Action Ireland said, "While we are all adjusting to our changed circumstances it is worth holding on to the knowledge that this is a temporary situation and at some point will end. Normal life will resume. We might be able to use this time to help ourselves develop new skills and coping strategies that will have long term benefits well beyond this immediate period."
These guidelines were compiled by Mental Health Ireland in partnership with Alcohol Action Ireland, and aided by Alcohol Change UK.

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Fostering alcohol-free healthy coping tools that will last beyond COVID-19 - Mental Health Ireland

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We have worked with Alcohol Action Ireland to share a set of advice guidelines to help people understand the risk of turning to alcohol during these tough times. This advice comes at a time when the alcohol off-trade business is reporting exceptional sales as people look to stock-up with excessive amounts of alcohol at home.

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Video on 5 ways to wellbeing

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The Five Ways to Wellbeing - Mental Health Ireland

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5 ways to Wellbeing

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Video: How to handwash? With soap and water

Video: Teach your children how to hand wash properly

Training resources

COVID-19 training resources are now available on HSELand for staff and volunteers. You will see these resources on the home page of HSELand when you log in. HSELand access has been broadened allowing volunteers and others to register and undertake programmes online and to access the hubs and resources without needing a personnel number.

Courses specifically related to stopping the spread of COVID-19 include: hand hygiene, infection control, personal protective equipment (PPE).

Compulsory course 'An Introduction to Children's First' is also easily accessible to all from the HSELand homepage. Staff and volunteers will have access to i-START (online staff Induction programme) to assist them in adjusting to their new roles.

Workplace Health and Wellbeing posters and resources
COVID-19 PPE Poster resources Read about the HSE's recruitment campaign Be on Call for Ireland COVID-19 Coronavirus Posters and Resources Coronavirus homepage

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COVID-19 training resources are now available on HSELand for staff and volunteers. You will see these resources on the home page of HSELand when you log in. HSELand access has been broadened allowing volunteers and others to register and undertake programmes online and to access the hubs and resources without needing a personnel number.

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HSE Library resources on COVID 19 responses

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HSE Library resources on COVID 19 responses

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News - COVID19 - Library Closures & Online Access

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Health & Social Care Professionals eHealth  

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Health & Social Care Professionals eHealth  

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The HSCP office have set up another resource you can access

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I can distinctly recall the date of the first Covid-19 patient that was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny. Ironically, it was on Friday, the 13 th March, 2020.

It was so rehearsed, systematic, an ideal scenario in fact - the patient was calmly examined in a dedicated isolation room. 'Recent travel from China' read the clinical indications on the X-ray order.

We have come a long way since then. Now we are led by daily algorithms and HPSC updates have dictated new work-flow operational practices for Primary Care centres, ED staff and in turn, radiographers.

Referral criteria for chest X-rays and CT scans have been modified in line with best international practise. Operational workflow arrangements to deal with both COVID and non-COVID work streams have been organised so that the care streams never meet, in order to minimise infection crossover risk.

Digital mobile radiography is the new standard to reduce the transfer of infection. Strict infection control measures are adhered to - "donning and doffing" are the new buzz words for radiographers. We have also introduced a Buddy system to minimise cross infection whilst X-raying COVID patients.

Many patients, either intubated or on admission to the Medical Assessment Unit, appear agitated as the infection takes hold. This makes the whole event of performing a mobile X-ray tense as conversation with the patient is limited. These conditions make it difficult to empathise with the patient.

I am a well-seasoned radiographer and I have found it heart-breaking to work in these circumstances, only to find that, in some cases, the patient has unfortunately passed some days later.

I'm now an expert in PPE. I can discern the quality of good PPE from a mile off. I spend much of my day in a whole white body suit that was not so long ago commonplace on media images we saw from Italy and Spain. Where initially there was one patient, now there are often four to five portables to be performed in a COVID ward.

The suits are hot and difficult to move in but a necessary evil. I keep telling myself that I will never take another free dessert from the canteen again, but my willpower is shocking.

It has been six life-changing weeks since the crisis took hold and there is no sign of it abating any time soon. My physical and mental well-being is tested on every shift. Equally though, valuable lessons have been learned and strong work friendships formed in the face of hourly adversity and crisis.

There have been many days and nights since this crisis started that I have questioned why I ever become a Radiographer. I lost a good friend just last week and discovered this awful news by casually looking up RIP.ie whilst I was on call.

I was not able to attend her funeral or pass my condolences to her family. There is no longer a vent to express the normal phases of grief. I have lost work colleagues and the realisation that I too may succumb to COVID 19 is never far from my mind.

I am not a great cook or champion organiser but since the crisis has begun, Nigella, Kevin Dundun and Nevin Maguire are strewn across the kitchen table. Blobs of flour and egg shells mark my attempts at becoming the next Nigella.

My teenage children can sleep for Ireland but they have, on a couple of occasions, acknowledged what I do for them on the frontline ... and that has brought a tear to my eye. I realise I am a radiographer because I worked hard to be one and that example is what I want to impart onto them.

The weeks do pass and I have a diary noting the dates that Occupational Health have phoned to say I was either a close or casual contact. Little else goes into it. My social diary is clear. However, the weather outside is getting better and with that brings hope ...
This blog was written by Kate Murphy, Radiation Protection Officer, St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny with support from all the Radiography team in St. Luke's Hospital.

This has been the most challenging 4 weeks in my 20 years of practice for many reasons.

Looking for certainty at a time of complete and utter uncertainty has led us to reach out and make meaningful connections locally, nationally and internationally which has been a double edged sword. It has brought a lot of meaningful discussion but has also given us a thirst for knowledge and evidence that is emerging but may take months to be conclusive.

In the meantime, we question ourselves relentlessly; trying to reduce our clinical worth to what is deemed essential and non-essential has been exhausting and, at times, a little degrading.

The endless debate on PPE has allowed us to fear our patients. We fear the risk we pose to them. We fear the risk they pose to us. We have also been asked to question our worth to the patient's care. Do you really need to do your job?

The reality is that rates of under-referring to the HSCP group was prevalent pre-COVID-19. This is not a time to exacerbate this situation. This is a time to come together to prove the integral role we all play in a comprehensive holistic pathway of care.

For the first patient I went to see 4 weeks ago, I was so dysfluent in the process of donning and doffing the PPE, I arrived a little distracted. The discussions on how far to stand away from the patient made it harder to do what has always been a fundamental part of my assessment. To look someone in the eye and apologise that they are in Hospital, but reassure them that they are in the right place.

The second time I went in, it got easier. It has also become easier to offer constructive help to my colleagues; can I schedule my assessment at the same time as they need to be turned? I can help. When do they need oral hygiene done again? I can do this. Are they taking meds? I can assess whether they can manage these orally.

There is a debate raging that oral hygiene may no longer be part of our essential role. I cannot agree with this. Not when I have assessed and treated multiple patients in the last few weeks; some extubated after prolonged ventilation, some on NIV hoods, some on airvo, some self ventilating.

COVID-19 requires a very different approach to normal respiratory conditions. Humidification is not necessarily part of the treatment. Dehydration is common and sometimes life threatening. Oral xerostomia and risk of candida are common.

An essential part of my role has been to ensure that all patients are entitled to oral hygiene via suction toothbrush. It is more common practice to administer oral hygiene via small pink sponge swabs. I'm not sure how this ever became normal. An ex-patient likened it to Christ on the Cross and the sponges of vinegar!

It is undoubtedly more comfortable for a patient to have their mouth cleaned with a toothbrush, and when they are unable to manage their own saliva, the risk that this oral care poses to the lungs is significant and life threatening.

It is essential to raise insight into this and help people understand that the suction toothbrush not only saves the patient from aspiration but also protects the person completing the oral hygiene as it is a closed suction system. Being able to support the Nursing Team so that it can be provided every 2 or 3 hours prevents the build-up of candida on the tongue. This is vital to prevent another source of aspiration and pneumonia.

I have now completed an episode of care with a person who was admitted, although within the younger age category, with multiple comorbidities. He was intubated for 10 days, experienced seizures and delirium as a result of severe dehydration and had not been able to see or speak to his family for 35 days.

What did a week in that pathway of care look like?

Working with my Nursing colleagues to provide oral care, to commence cautiously on oral intake and to determine how to enable the person to communicate basic needs

Working with my Medical colleagues in Infectious Disease, Renal Medicine and Neurology to define delirium versus neuropathy, confusion versus cognitive change and to determine capacity to meaningfully participate in decisions on delivery of care. All of whom are interpreting the diagnostic results analysed and reported from my HSCP colleagues in Medical Science and Radiography.

Working with my Physiotherapy colleagues to minimise risk of aspiration from oral secretions and oral intake, and to enable the best expiratory flow for voice, cough and swallow.

Working with my colleagues in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics to enable the best regime for nutrition and hydration in the context of a severe oro-phayrngeal Dysphagia.

Working with my colleagues in Pharmacy to ensure the right consistency of oral medication.

Working with my colleagues in Occupational Therapy to enable positioning for therapy and self-feeding.

Finally, the icing on the cake at the end of an intense week, was enabling my patient to have a cup of hot (modified) tea, while we whatsapp video-called his family as I interpreted, so they could understand his dysarthric speech. The joy in the reunion, after 23 days of not seeing each other, was immense.

All in all, not a bad week in the office.
This Blog was written by Aideen O'Riordan, Deputy Speech and Language Therapy Manager, Cork University Hospital

Recent weeks have seen massive disruption to healthcare services as we grapple to meet service need in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past six weeks, the SCOPe Directorate* in St. James's Hospital has pivoted from primarily in person assessment and review to a teleHealth model. This Blog will set out the key enablers that made it possible to achieve this change at pace.

* The SCOPe Directorate is the HSCP clinical structure in St James's Hospital consisting of the five departments of Medical Social Work, Speech & Language Therapy, Dietetics, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy.

Our SCOPe team is no stranger to digital developments having led the digital transition from paper to electronic patient records (EPR) with all documentation transitioned by end of 2016. This improvement project was highly structured and a SCOPe EPR QI team managed implementation and governance.

The vision has always been to progress patient engagement, teleHealth solutions, shared records, patient portal etc. in structured phases.

Looking back, our experience and vision laid the foundation for digital readiness in the HSCP workforce, giving us a big head start when news of COVID-19 emerged.
Our Journey to a teleHealth Model
In early March, the SCOPe eHealth QI team had a brainstorming session to explore the potential of teleHealth to support patient care as the situation evolved.

Services identified as potentially suitable for transition varied as HSCP staff work across all episodes of care including ED, in-patients and outpatient clinics.

Over the course of the following week, the SCOPe directorate moved to provide urgent assessment and review to all OPD services using a generic teleHealth platform.

Electronic appointments and an EPR are already in situ in St. James's Hospital so the immediate need was to provide a safe, secure substitute for the face-to-face component of the therapy assessment.
Colleagues in the IMS department provided invaluable support including:

organising app demonstration

enabling of infrastructure

provision of licences for staff

Concurrently, the SCOPe team worked to develop:

the processes

clinical guidance

flow around implementing the teleHealth application

mechanisms for measuring activity while supporting staff in the introduction of the teleHealth app

Our Learnings So Far ...
Feedback has been positive as the teleHealth model allows ongoing contact with patients who require HSCP input.

There is an acknowledgement that it is not ideal for all patients. However, staff report that they are getting better at identifying those patients for whom a virtual teleHealth clinic will work best and at adjusting their communication style to aid rapport development.

In some cases, the teleHealth clinic exists alongside a telephone clinic depending on the patient's technological abilities.

There have been teething problems with Wifi /4G availability on the patient side and clear instructions are required on how patients can best manage their device for camera visibility.

This use of digital solutions to facilitate ongoing patient management is happening in parallel to the use of virtual tools to facilitate department communication and training.

Where social distancing cannot be observed, significant value is added by the inclusion of virtual video conferencing for education sessions on clinical preparations for the COVID-19 emergency, in-services, journal clubs and meetings.

There is a learning curve with using this technology ... a need for collective understanding that technology may fail, cameras may freeze and small visitors may make an appearance in the feed of those working from home!

While it is not always as successful as a group face-to-face meeting, it is a very acceptable alternative when staff can't all be present in the same room, at this time.

As well as this, a campus-wide staff communication tool has been implemented in the last two weeks. This has also proven very beneficial for urgent communication from the hospital leadership team and this secure confidential messaging service can also be used to support communication in relation to clinical information.

Most of all, it is clear that the well-plotted transition to EPR created the conditions for readiness amongst the HSCP workforce in the following crucial areas:

Final Thoughts
While teleHealth developments in St. James's Hospital were already under development, COVID-19 greatly accelerated implementation! By far the greatest asset has been the staff who were required to be 'early adopters' of change, learning as part of the doing rather than ahead of implementation.

It has been a huge undertaking and SCOPe HSCP have adapted admirably, motivated by the fact that these changes would lead to effective alternatives to direct patient care for service users.
This Blog was written by Joanne Dowds on behalf of the eHealth HSCP Advisory Group. Joanne is a clinical specialist physiotherapist working in the ICU of St James's Hospital.

Over the last few weeks, I have seen first-hand the vital role HSCP are playing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

HSCP are carrying out diagnostics and disease monitoring

HSCP are delivering specialist treatment and rehabilitation

HSCP are providing psychosocial and practical supports to patients and their families

HSCP services are needed at each stage throughout the patient journey and as such, it is incumbent on us to ensure we have the necessary information and resources to undertake our roles.

In my last Blog (on April 5 th), I focused on general resources available to HSCP in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, I am sharing more resources, relevant to specific professions* within the HSCP group.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to represent all 26 HSCP disciplines in one blog post. Therefore, I have included a sample of professions from the therapy, diagnostics and social care domains of the HSCP group. If your profession isn't included and you would like to share resources, please do so in the comment box below. We would be delighted to hear from you.
Clinical Measurement Physiology
The Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology also has a collection of guidelines and resources while the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has guidance for sleep labs and clinics.

The European Heart Journal recently published recommendations for cardiac imaging during the COVID-19 pandemic which may also be of interest.
Dietetics
INDI has provided learning resources on COVID-19 to assist dietitians being redeployed to hospital wards and ICU clinical roles. These resources are accessible to members and non-members of INDI (via the guest login). The INDI website also has a range of resources on healthy eating for all ages, from older adults cocooning at home to young children and families. These are for the public, carers and health professionals.

Abbott Nutrition has shared a webinar, recorded in 2018 with Irish ICU dietitians entitled ICU Nutrition Made Simple. A range of pertinent questions are addressed including: the nutritional requirements through the different phases of critical illness, the requirements of the obese critically ill, refeeding syndrome in ICU, indications for parenteral versus enteral nutrition and how best to monitor to monitor patients with complex needs.

Clinical Dietetics online provides a course on Mastering the Nutrition Care Process which can be accessed via the free 1-month trial (membership is $5.99 per month thereafter). Registration with this site also includes updates, blogs and discussion fora, accessible via the dedicated app.
Medical Science
The ACSLM provides links to information and guidelines for their members as well as highlighting relevant podcasts and other resources. See https://acslm.ie/?p=3756 for details.

The Royal College of Pathologists also has a COVID-19 resource hub, while the HSPC and HSE have issued guidance for specimen handling for laboratories.
Occupational Therapy
For OTs considering telehealth, there are links to relevant guidelines and a webinar. OTs in the acute sector may find the webinar on skin integrity and pressure care useful. Both webinars are free to AOTI members (€10 for non-members).

WFOT has developed a repository of COVID-19 resources from member organisations and have made the online module on Disaster Management for OTs free for a limited time. WFOT's online forum also allows OTs around the world to discuss practice and share resources.

Lorrae Mynard and OT Australia have a guide for managing disruption to daily life caused by COVID-19.
Physiotherapy
The ISCP and WCPT provide general information and resources on COVID-19.

For physios in other specialities who wish to refresh their respiratory skills, the CSP have free e-learning modules for respiratory oncall. Physio Matters has a podcast on COVID-19 for musculoskeletal physiotherapists, while the Breathe Easy Podcast on ' The Physiotherapy management for COVID-19 in the acute hospital setting ' is a worthwhile listen.

The newly released Oncall Buddy app, developed by Consultant Respiratory Physiotherapist Stephanie Marshall and Physiotherapist Iain Loughran is another great free resource for those working in respiratory.

Finally, Physiopedia offer a free Coronavirus Disease Programme on their trial account. However, caution must be exercised due to variances in terminology and policies between the UK, US and Ireland.
Psychology
The Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) has created a Covid-19 resource page for Psychologists, healthcare workers and members of the general public. They also have guidance on the use of online therapy and telephone therapy for practitioners transitioning to telehealth.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has a COVID-19 resource centre with general resources, student resources and resources for practitioners and healthcare professionals. The APA's podcast, 'Speaking of Psychology', also has a special episode on Coronavirus Anxiety.

The British Psychological Society publication, The Psychologist, has developed a dedicated page for collecting and linking psychological perspectives on the Coronavirus.
Radiography and Radiation Therapy
The Royal College of Radiologists has resources for managing both clinical radiology and radiotherapy services during the coronavirus pandemic.

The American College of Radiology has published guidance for radiology departments to support adaption of work flow practices, particularly in relation to infection control.

Other educational opportunities are available on Radiopeadia and on MRI Online, the latter providing a free course on COVID-19. This course demonstrates the typical CT scan findings of COVID-19 pneumonia and how the findings progress over the course of the disease.
Social Work
The IASW has produced a video message for social workers regarding the Coronavirus. Their site has resources on the available support services, how to talk to young people about COVID-19 and the social work role in supporting communities affected by the virus. Direction on best practice for social work teams during COVID-19, derived from the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) survey, is also provided.

Further resources can be found on the BASW site and at the UCC School of Applied Social Studies padlet.
Speech and Language Therapy
* Please be aware that information and guidelines in this area are changing rapidly. Although these resources are up to date at the time of writing this blog, they may be superseded by new guidance in the coming days and weeks.

This Blog was written by Éadaoin O'Hanlon on behalf of the eHealth HSCP Advisory Group.

"The best part of learning is sharing what you know" Vaughn K. Lauer, Author

Introduction
What does COVID-19 mean for me?

How will COVID-19 affect my clinical practice?

How can I best support my patients?

And protect my own health?

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, my head has been filled with many questions. As a physiotherapist working in an acute hospital, I am used to caring for patients with respiratory conditions and am accustomed to working in a critical care setting.

However, that does not mean that I am any less daunted by this novel disease. From speaking to HSCP working in other settings across Ireland, I know I am not alone. The outbreak of COVID-19 is without a doubt a massive challenge for all HSCP, especially for our many colleagues who have been redeployed to unfamiliar roles in unfamiliar settings.

Thankfully, there is help out there! HSCP can and should harness the potential of online education and resource sharing to enable rapid upskilling.
General Resources
A video on the correct donning and doffing PPE is presented and is essential viewing for all frontline staff. This video can be found on hseland.ie along with further guidance on hand hygiene and infection control.

The WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control also provide excellent general guidance and updates at an international and European level, while the Cochrane library and research journals listed below have COVID-19 resource centres with up-to-date and emerging research evidence.

For those HSCP deployed to manage patients in critical care and ICU, the Society of Critical Care Medicine provides a free online education programme: ' Critical Care for Non-ICU Clinicians '.

The HSE Critical Care Programme has resources available online for staff being redeployed to Critical Care. These include an orientation manual and free online education modules. While these are designed for nursing staff, some sections are applicable and valuable to HSCP.

The Health Education England (HEE) e-Learning for Healthcare site also has a Coronavirus Disease Programme, which is now free to access without registration.

If you are looking for further clinical guidelines, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has released a number of rapid guidelines and evidence reviews to support healthcare staff.

Of particular interest is their rapid guideline for managing adults requiring critical care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, the HSE has launched a Clinical Guidance and Evidence repository for COVID-19. This provides a repository of the latest research evidence to equip clinicians in Ireland to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. It includes clinical guidance, evidence summaries and an online facility to request a rapid evidence review in relation to specific clinical questions regarding COVID-19.

Another central repository to be launched this week is from the National HSCP Office. This will enable a sharing of COVID and non-COVID resources with the intention of reducing duplication of effort for HSCP at this time.
Learning from the Italian COVID-19 Experience
As COVID-19 is a novel disease, there is huge value in connecting with countries like Italy, in the peak of the pandemic, to gain from the emerging learning there.

The Pediatrica Intensiva podcast gives a great insight into the Italian experience. It includes interviews with intensivists about the realities of managing the COVID-19 outbreak and caring for critically ill patients.

The International Society for Quality in Healthcare also has a webinar and podcast which shares the experience of Dr Francesco Venneri, a clinical risk manager and emergency front line worker in Tuscany.

These recommendations are not exhaustive and we welcome any suggestions you have on general resources that could assist HSCP at this time. Please share using the comment box below.

Stay tuned for our next Blog on profession-specific on-line resources.

- this blog was written by Éadaoin O'Hanlon on behalf of the eHealth HSCP Advisory Group.

"Just as Penicillin was the wonder drug to emerge from WWII, perhaps we'll look back on the COVID-19 Pandemic as the inflection point for teleHealth."
Dr Mark Lewis, MD @marklewismd
Introduction
eHealth is a broad term which refers to the use of information and communication technologies in healthcare. In late 2018, digital leaders, representing the HSCP group and the National HSCP Office, came together to lead eHealth developments for the health and social care professions.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems are looking to rapidly expand the use of digital solutions across a number of different care areas and settings.

In this, the first in a series of eHealth-related blogs, we will set out the starting point for those of you currently grappling with deploying this complex service change at speed and, in particular, we will explore teleHealth considerations.

These unprecedented times  require disruptive thinking and innovation.

* * * * * * * *
Digital Solutions - the Starting Point
Digitally enabled services offer huge opportunities to continue to provide high quality care, reaching patients in the community. In addition, for those HSCPs in isolation, digital tools can enable them to continue to work effectively.

Digital solutions always begin as well thought-through quality improvements, underpinned by sound Quality Improvement (QI) principles including a) being clear on the intended change and b) establishing how it will be determined that a change is indeed an improvement.

Technology serves as an E nabler, not the disruptor. It is important, too, to consider measures which will demonstrate improvement.

From our experience, keeping the service users at the centre of the plans is vital to ensure any change ultimately improves experience and outcomes for them.

HSCP are well versed in QI methodology with large numbers now trained and routinely leading QI projects in their work environments.

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Our Top Five Considerations for teleHealth Solutions
Prior to COVID-19, the need for teleHealth was outlined in Sláintecare action 10.3.3. 'To provide teleHealth solutions to support delivery of care in the community closer to patients and their families'.

Aligning with this action, the HSE Service Plan 2020 has prioritised the adoption of a  telehealth strategy.

Many HSCPs have already begun to design and implement teleHealth solutions and there has been a definite acceleration in the past fortnight.

So, what are the top five considerations for teleHealth solutions?

Telephone vs Video consultation. Consider what is actually needed. Not all clinical interactions will need or can be delivered via video consultation, while a combination of both might be needed in some areas.
What use-cases are appropriate for Video consultations?
When should Video generally not be used?

Potentially serious, high-risk conditions needing extensive physical examination

If internal examination (e.g. gynae) cannot be deferred

Co-morbidities affecting ability to use the technology (e.g. confusion)

Serious anxieties about the technology (unless relatives are on hand to help)

Some hard-of-hearing patients may find audio difficult but, if they can lip-read or use chat, video may be better

Credit to Professor Trisha Greenhalgh on behalf of the IRIHS research team, University of Oxford https://q.health.org.uk/event/video-consultations-how-to-set-them-up-well-fast/

Choose a solution that meets privacy and security requirements, and ensure that you have a secure network/wifi connection. The quality of the connection is also important - better connections mean better consultations!

Liaise with your ICT department about requirements for set up - do you have a laptop or PC with speakers, microphone and webcam? Will you need a headset to keep hands free for writing or interacting with patient resources?

Ensure that you design and plan the QI process for your teleHealth clinics before you start. Don't jump in to making calls. Consider:

Where will clinics take place? Is the environment set up appropriately?

How will teleHealth clinics be scheduled?

What information will the patient need in advance to prepare them for the appointment?

How will consent be obtained and recorded? Measures taken in response to Coronavirus involving the use of personal data, including health data, should be necessary and proportionate. Decisions in this regard should be informed by the guidance and/or directions of public health authorities or other relevant authorities. See https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/blogs/data-protection-and-covid-19 for further information.

How will you document the consultation?

How will follow up be arranged?

Consider what the patient will have to do to take part, you should aim to minimise the set up requirements on their part as much as possible as digital literacy can vary.

Ensure that HSCPs delivering clinics have appropriate training on use of any new technologies.

* * * * * * * *

The National HSCP Office is compiling an online repository to collate and share eHealth and clinical HSCP resources to reduce duplication of effort at this time. Watch out for updates, it will be live on 3rd April, 2020.

This post was written by the eHealth HSCP Advisory Group.* Stay tuned - our next blog will address eLearning opportunities.

(*Members include Marie Byrne, Heather Cronin, Meabh Smith, Deirdre Gilchriest, Claire Browne, Joanne Dowds, Julie O'Connell, Fiona Maye, Orla Maguire, Ruth Reidy, Kate Murphy, Sarah Moore, Eileen Heffernan, Paul Ryan, Éadaoin O'Hanlon, Siobhan Keohane, Alison Enright).

"Move fast - Speed trumps perfection"
Michael Ryan, WHO
Do you need information and advice on COVID-19? Go to www.hse.ie/coronavirus

"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Margaret J Wheatley, Author & Speaker

A very warm welcome to HSCPshare.com, a new format for connecting Health and Social Care Professionals (HSCP) with one another, all 16,000 of us throughout the Health Services!

Set up by the HSE's National HSCP Office, we hope this new format will add to our existing communications, helping to share information and learning from within and outside the HSCP community.

The HSCP Share Blog has been in the planning process for a little while and special thanks to the HSCP Communications Advisory Group and the eHealth HSCP Advisory Group for their invaluable assistance.

The process was somewhat accelerated in the past fortnight, though, as we found ourselves in extraordinary times, dealing with the new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Very quickly, it became clear that now is the time for sharing and inspiration, while we deal with unprecedented challenges which require new thinking and approaches.

Our five main aims for this blog are to:

Share knowledge and promote organisational learning

Hear points of view from HSCP and other HCPs in practice, academia and management

Assist in developing networks of practice

Raise visibility of HSCP service impacts and consider opportunities for further impact

Enable collective dialogue

You can follow the blog by going to www.HSCPshare.com and adding your email address to the 'Follow' box.

We're also on twitter - @WeHSCPs. Please do follow, share and contribute - this is your opportunity to showcase your work, its impact and to learn from others.

- Jackie Reed, National HSCP Lead

Do you need information and advice on COVID-19? Go to www.hse.ie/coronavirus

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I can distinctly recall the date of the first Covid-19 patient that was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny. Ironically, it was on Friday, the 13 th March, 2020. It was so rehearsed, systematic, an ideal scenario in fact - the patient was calmly examined in a dedicated isolation room.

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Guidance for healthcare workers - Health Protection Surveillance Centre

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Primary and secondary care settings should have risk assessment and triage processes in place. This is to quickly identify and manage patients that present with symptoms of COVID-19. Management of patients may include isolation pending testing or while awaiting results of testing.

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COVID-19 or coronavirus is here and every one of us is taking action to reduce the impact it has on our families and communities.

We're washing our hands, we're staying at home, we're thinking of those who are most vulnerable.

And, in our health service, we're preparing to care for the people who will be affected.

We are asking all healthcare professionals from all disciplines who are not already working in the public health service to register to be on call for Ireland.
We will be creating extra hospital and care beds and will need extra hands to provide the care that's needed. We need your help to meet the challenge that's ahead.

Maybe you aren't a healthcare professional, maybe you're studying to be one, or maybe you have other skills to offer or just want to volunteer to do your bit if needed.

Hopefully we won't need to call, and if we do, we may not need every one of you. But knowing you are there if we do will make all the difference.

To get more information about being on call for Ireland, go to our sign-up page.
You can read more about the people we need, how this will work, and fill in the enquiry form.

We'll ask you to give us details of your registration, experience or skills.

Thank you.

For more information on COVID-19, visit our coronavirus pages.

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COVID-19 or coronavirus is here and every one of us is taking action to reduce the impact it has on our families and communities. We're washing our hands, we're staying at home, we're thinking of those who are most vulnerable. And, in our health service, we're preparing to care for the people who will be affected.

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HSE POLICY AND PROCEDURE REDEPLOYMENT OF STAFF DURING COVID-19 INFECTION

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HSE POLICY AND PROCEDURE REDEPLOYMENT OF STAFF DURING COVID-19 INFECTION

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4 pg pdf document

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Protect yourselves and others

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Get advice about COVID-19, including symptoms, testing, vaccination and self-isolation.

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A weekly time for mindfulness practise and to support each other. This is a free weekly community building gathering. Every Sunday beginning Sunday March 22nd from 7 to 7.45pm Join URL: https://zoom.us/j/643674866 Feel free to join any Sunday and the same link can be used every week.

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Inclusion Ireland Statement on the rights of persons with disabilities during COVID-19 crisis

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Inclusion Ireland Statement on the rights of persons with disabilities during COVID-19 crisis

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We welcome the ongoing work by the National Public Health Emergency Team, the Department of Health, HSE services, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government; and the Department of Rural and Community Affairs during this pandemic. We are calling on all state actors to adhere to their obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which Ireland ratified in March 2018. The UNCRPD articles which warrant specific consideration during the current crisis in Ireland are discussed below. The authors recognise the use of the terms 'disabled people' by some disability activists in Ireland. However, this paper uses 'persons with disabilities' in line with the text of the UNCRPD.

1. Article 5 enshrines the right to equality and non-discrimination. Emergency measures and legislation enacted during this crisis must ensure that persons with disabilities are not discriminated against in any aspect of their lives. Intersectional discrimination experienced by persons with disabilities during this crisis along race, age, gender, sexuality, refugee and socio-economic identities must also be addressed.

2. Article 10 obliges the state to protect the right to life of persons with disabilities. Decisions based on the distribution of life-saving resources must not be based on the presence of a disability. The World Medical Association ethical guidance for provision of life-saving treatment must be followed. 'In selecting the patients who may be saved, the physician should consider only their medical status and predicted response to the treatment and should exclude any other consideration based on non-medical criteria(1)

3. Article 11 obliges the state to ensure the safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, conflict, humanitarian emergencies or natural disasters. States must ensure that laws, policies, and resource allocation measures are carried out in a way that protects persons with disabilities from the risk of infection and death.

4. Article 19 provides for the right to exercise choice and control over where and with whom to live, to participate in the community on an equal basis as other and to have access to any supports needed to enable them to live independently. Without adequate planning and resources, the current social distancing requirements will disproportionately impact persons with disabilities living in health and social care residential settings.

5. Article 25 enshrines the right to the highest attainable standards of health for persons with disabilities. Health facilities available to the general public must be equally available and accessible to persons with disabilities.
While the current pandemic is impacting on all members of society The UN Rapporteur on Disability has identified persons with disabilities as vulnerable during this global health pandemic(2)

We call on the Government to ensure:
* Accurate and up to date information on testing and access to health and public services must be available in a wide variety of languages and accessible formats. Information must be easily accessible on public platforms for individuals and service providers. This includes, availability of health passports for persons with diverse communication needs and making information available through assistive technology, Irish Sign Language and Easy to Read formats.
* Adhere to the World Medical Association guidance on equal treatment within triage health services. Healthcare needs, including mental health, which are not related to COVID-19, must continue to be met. Where possible services such as counselling should be conducted remotely. Persons with disabilities must be involved in decision making around their own healthcare. It may be critical for some people who have disabilities to have either paid or unpaid support with them during a hospitalisation as these people would have the ability to best support someone during a hospital stay. Where appropriate persons with disabilities should be supported to recover from any COVID-19 related illness in their own home, on an equal basis with the non-disabled population.
* A coordinated approach must be taken to ensure supports can be provided to families of children with disabilities, including adult children. This includes the provision of education materials and social supports in the home where education, employment and day services have ceased operation during the crisis. * Person-centered planning should govern the activities of disability service providers to promote the autonomy of the individual and to minimise disruption to routine which could be distressing for some persons with disabilities. Community supports for provision of vital supplies and social connections must be accessible to persons with disabilities.
* Social welfare supports for loss of income must be available to persons with disabilities and recognise any increased costs connected to disability during the pandemic. Remote working technologies should be utilized to ensure continued employment for persons with disabilities where possible.
* Advocacy services must be made available to individuals detained under the soon to be enacted Health (Preservation and Protection and Other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Bill 2020. Risk control measures must be in place to ensure no one is subjected to deprivation of liberty without proper legal procedure and safeguards.
* Extend the role of HIQA to risk assess for outbreaks of COVID-19 infection in nursing homes to include other congregated settings.
Signed by:
Amnesty International Ireland, Brothers of Charity Services Ireland, Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway, Cosáin CLG, Dara Community Living Kildare, Dermot M.J.Hayes - NDS DSG 5 & Independent Living Network Ireland & Clare Leader Forum, Disability Federation of Ireland, Down Syndrome Ireland, Fiona Anderson, Dr. Fiona Morrissey - Disability Law Researcher, Galway, Fiona Walsh, Inclusion Ireland, Independent Living Movement Ireland, Inclusive Living Network, LEAP Ireland,Maria Walls -PhD Scholar & DSG member, Paul Markey -PhD Hume Scholar, Maynooth University, Psychological Society of Ireland, Recovery Experts by Experience, St. John of God's CLG.
Please direct any queries to Dr. Áine Sperrin, Centre for Disability Law and Policy: aine.sperrin@nuigalway.ie

Footnote (1)World Medical Association, Statement on medical ethics in the event of disasters, Section 8.3.1://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-statement-on-medical-ethics-in-the-event-of-disasters/

(2) UN News, 'Preventing discrimination against people with disabilities in COVID-19 response
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059762

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Inclusion Ireland Statement on the rights of persons with disabilities during COVID-19 crisis - Social Care Ireland

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We welcome the ongoing work by the National Public Health Emergency Team, the Department of Health, HSE services, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government; and the Department of Rural and Community Affairs during this pandemic.

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The Role of Self-Awareness and Reflection in Social Care Practice 

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The Role of Self-Awareness and Reflection in Social Care Practice 

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CORU Social Care Workers Standards & Proficiencies

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TUSLA Social Care work reflection guide

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Social Care Ireland videos of advice

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Selecting and Safely Using Collaboration Services for Telework (NSA, USA)

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Selecting and Safely Using Collaboration Services for Telework (NSA, USA)

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It's a provable fact, backed by scientific research, that communication is more effective when you can see the person you're talking to. Seeing the other person's facial expressions, for example, makes it easy to tell a serious request from an offhand remark or a joke.

But as the business world has learned since the start of the pandemic, you don't have to brave airports and public spaces for an effective face-to-face meeting. Instead, video conferencing software and collaboration services have become the tool of choice for meetings and classes, with everyone from schoolkids to mortgage brokers to grandparents to international award show hosts learning (sometimes awkwardly) how to unmute themselves.

Using the webcam on a Windows laptop, a Mac, or a mobile device, you can meet one-on-one or with a group, no matter how widely scattered the members of your class/team/family are. We've assembled the leading conferencing software platforms, all capable of providing high-quality video and full-featured collaboration tools. While many of these video conferencing platforms also offer live streaming and webinar capabilities, our focus here is primarily on virtual meetings.

Note that several vendors responded to initial coronavirus concerns with free video conferencing offers. Many of those offers have since expired, but plenty of free and discounted options still exist.

The best-known video conferencing brand, by far

After a successful IPO in 2019, Zoom solidified its status as one of the leaders in the video conferencing industry, although recent security and privacy concerns have tarnished that reputation somewhat. Its conferencing software allows simple one-to-one chat sessions that can escalate into group calls, training sessions and webinars for internal and external audiences, and global video meetings with up to 1,000 participants and as many as 49 HD videos on-screen simultaneously.

Zoom sessions can start from a web browser or in dedicated client apps for every desktop and mobile platform, with end-to-end encryption, role-based user security (including HIPAA compliance), and easy-to-use screen sharing and collaboration tools. Meeting invitations integrate smoothly with popular calendaring systems, and meetings can be recorded as local or cloud-based files, with searchable transcripts.

The free tier allows unlimited 1:1 meetings but limits group sessions to 40 minutes and 100 participants. Paid plans start at $15 per month per host and scale up to full-featured Business and Enterprise plans.

BlueJeans Meetings

New owner Verizon has cut prices and beefed up security

Billing itself as "the meetings platform for the modern workplace," BlueJeans Meetings is a video conferencing solution that focuses on instant connections, using a mobile or desktop app or directly from a browser (with no download required). Verizon acquired the company in April 2020 and kept the quirky name, which comes from the founders' desire to make video conferencing software "as comfortable and casual as your pair of jeans. After the purchase closed, Verizon quickly lowered prices and added a slew of new features, including support for end-to-end AES-256 GCM encryption. The company plans to "deeply integrate" BlueJeans into its 5G product roadmap.

The meeting technology, powered by Dolby Voice, includes background noise cancellation and integrates with hardware-based conference room systems as well as enterprise applications like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Facebook Workplace. A full array of whiteboard and screen sharing tools add collaboration capabilities to any meeting. (For livestreams and large-scale web-based presentations, you'll need a separate product called BlueJeans Events.)

After an initial free trial of the conferencing software, BlueJeans Meetings requires one of three plans, which can be billed monthly or annually, at a 20% discount. The Standard plan, designed for individuals and small businesses, costs $12.49 per meeting host per month; it supports up to 50 attendees and 5 hours of meeting recordings but doesn't integrate with messaging apps like Slack. The Pro plan, at $17.49 per host per month or $167.88 per year, supports up to 75 attendees and includes 25 hours of cloud recordings per host. The Enterprise plan, with unlimited cloud recordings and an assortment of enterprise-focused tools, supports up to 200 attendees and requires a custom quote.

Microsoft Teams

Best for businesses and schools that already use Office apps

Microsoft Teams, a successor to Skype for Business, isn't so much a product as it is a feature of Microsoft 365, which tells you a lot about its design and who its features are best suited for: businesses and educational organizations of all sizes. Anyone can sign up for the free version of Microsoft Teams using a personal email address; that tier supports up to 300 meeting participants, with guest access, one-on-one and group video and audio calls, shared files (2GB per user and 10GB per team), screen sharing, and document collaboration using online Office web apps.

Where Teams begins to deliver its full promise as a video conferencing solution is in an organization that runs on a Business or Enterprise version of Microsoft 365, where Teams is just another feature (and the successor to Lync and Skype for Business). In that environment, administrators have access to a full range of management, security, and compliance tools. Team members can share files (up to 1TB per user), schedule meetings directly from Outlook, record meetings, and collaborate on documents using the desktop Office programs and SharePoint Online. Those paid plans also support online training sessions and webinars.

Microsoft 365 plans start at $5 per user per month, and Redmond has been rolling out new features at a steady clip for the past year. For organizations that aren't deeply embedded in the Microsoft way of working, the Teams feature set can be baffling. But for anyone who already lives in SharePoint and Outlook, Microsoft's conferencing software should be a tight fit.

Intermedia AnyMeeting

Big-time services from a company that's not too big

AnyMeeting has been around for nearly a decade, and the video conferencing software's user base had grown to more than 1 million when the company was acquired in 2017 by Intermedia. Today, AnyMeeting is available as part of Intermedia Unite, a unified communication and collaboration platform that integrates its video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing functions into a cloud-based service that also includes VOIP capabilities and an enterprise-grade PBX system. If that's overkill for your small business' video conferencing needs, AnyMeeting is available separately in Lite and Pro plans that cost $10 and $13 per user per month, respectively.

Video conferencing software features are essentially the same between the two plans, with the ability to create custom meeting URLs, schedule recurring meetings, and integrate with productivity tools from Google, Microsoft, Slack, and others. HIPAA compliance and end-to-end encryption are standard features as well. Upgrading to a Pro plan increases the number of web-based participants from 10 to 30 (but a maximum of 12 in Full HD). The Pro plan also includes the ability to record and transcribe meetings and unlimited cloud storage of meetings.

We've been a big fan of Intermedia for years, precisely because it offers the option to use big-time software and services from a company that's not too big to care.

Google Hangouts Meet

Designed to work in Chrome browser

Google's ever-evolving lineup of communications and collaboration apps split in two back in 2017, with the classic version of Google Hangouts video conferencing marked for retirement. Google Hangouts Meet is the business version, enabling video meetings for G Suite subscribers. External participants can also connect.

Naturally, the service is designed to work in the Google Chrome browser (although limited support for Internet Explorer 11 is also available), with mobile apps available on iOS and Android. The exact feature set depends on your G Suite version; the number of participants, for example, is limited to 100 for G Suite Basic, 150 for Business, and 250 for Enterprise. For live streaming (up to 100,000 audience members) and the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive, you'll need G Suite Enterprise.

If your business is standardized on Google's productivity and email tools, this video conferencing option should be on your shortlist.

What to look for when evaluating video conferencing solutions

What should you look for when putting video communication software to the test? After a full year of empty offices and no-travel orders, most companies have realized that remote work and online meetings can be extremely effective and are likely to demand much more from these tools than the basic feature set that might have been sufficient in pre-pandemic times.

We narrowed down the list of contenders in this guide using the same criteria we recommend you take into account when you're in the market for one of these services. Think of our list as a starting point to help you organize your search: One or more of the products that didn't make our cut might well deserve to be on the shortlist for your business needs.

Our most important criteria was reputation. Every product on this list has a solid track record in terms of performance and reliability. We were pleasantly surprised, in fact, to find some firms in this business that have been going strong for more than two decades.

In business terms, we know that our readers represent a broad swath of sizes, shapes, and cultures. So we went out of our way to find a mix of products that work for cash-conscious small businesses (three of them are free, in fact, for organizations with three people or fewer). For slightly larger organizations, including schools, we've tried to highlight commercial plans that are reasonably priced if you can live with their limits, such as the number of meeting participants and the length of each meeting.

Others offer high-end options ideal for large companies that want control over livestreams and training sessions involving large audiences. The biggest differentiator here is the number of people you can have in the audience. That makes sense for organizations that do webcasts and presentations to large numbers of employees, customers, or members on a worldwide basis. Those plans are where you're much more likely to find support for advanced features like full recording options and the ability to generate a PDF from the slide deck that powered your online session.

If all you want is the ability to talk face to face, with the occasional bit of screen sharing and whiteboarding, you have plenty of choices. If you want to make those sessions available for replay online, you'll need to look carefully at the cloud file storage options associated with each plan.

As you'll see from this list, you might already have access to effective tools because of subscriptions you're already paying for. We included three popular names from that group: Microsoft 365, Google's GSuite, and Intermedia's Office in the Cloud. (A fourth option, Slack, is excellent for messaging and 1:1 calls but doesn't have the feature set to compete with the other products on this list.) Shops that have standardized on one of those plans might find that the included conferencing and communication features are the ideal way to keep your company connected without extra deployment and training costs.

Finally, we considered the sorts of features that reduce friction in using this type of product. That list includes integration with other software you currently use, such as seamlessly connecting an online meeting to your calendar and your organization's directory. And then there are ease-of-use features, including the ability to connect from a browser instead of being forced to download a client app or plug-in, and the ability to invite external participants to meetings.

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Best video conferencing 2022: Virtual meeting apps | ZDNet

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It's a provable fact, backed by scientific research, that communication is more effective when you can see the person you're talking to. Seeing the other person's facial expressions, for example, makes it easy to tell a serious request from an offhand remark or a joke.

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The HSE + Tusla have provided permission to their staff for a limited time to use Whatsapp with certain prescribed restrictions

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The HSE + Tusla have provided permission to their staff for a limited time to use Whatsapp with certain prescribed restrictions

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10 Best Web Video Conferencing Software 

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10 Best Web Video Conferencing Software 

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10 Best Video Conferencing Software for Small Business | Free + Paid

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Top 10 video conferencing software features compared

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Top 10 video conferencing software features compared

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Maybe you're looking to avoid travel while the latest version of COVID is still making its rounds. Or perhaps you're trying to transition employees back to the office, but many want to make working from home a permanent condition. And let's face it, that can have a lot of benefits. But one thing either scenario requires is a world-class video conferencing system.

That's because these services have evolved into the beating heart of both online collaboration and personal interactions via the web, at least until the heebie-jeebies around travel finally fade. To help you choose the best service, we've tested 12 video conferencing systems, though only the eight top contenders made the list in this roundup.

Working from home is what's driving the majority of video conferencing sales these days, and for this, you'll be looking at different components and services. These can include the proprietary end-to-end systems you've probably seen deployed in smart conference rooms. Still, we're focusing on cloud services that require only an account and a webcam for this review roundup since they're the most relevant to remote work. However, these platforms can sometimes spread their solution across several component vendors, raising support difficulties. To solve them, you'll need a good understanding of video conferencing systems first.

Choosing the Right Video Conferencing System

Video conferencing has been around for some time in various proprietary formats. Companies specializing in enterprise solutions generally built these systems to connect meeting rooms. Connections were over a local area network and then leased telecommunication lines if the link was between different buildings. Network traffic was handled using proprietary protocols and codecs, which is still the basic architecture used today.

The protocols handle traffic streaming while the codecs encode the audio and video images into digital bits and bytes on the transmitting side and then back to video and audio on the receiving side. This usually required proprietary cameras, microphones, dedicated servers, and client-side applications that were also proprietary.

Today's cloud video services use TCP/IP as the primary network protocol and a small list of standards-based codecs to do the conversion work. Also, their hardware support is generally open, meaning you can use whatever webcam or microphone works with your computing device. Unlike older proprietary systems that needed a PC or dedicated meeting room smart screen, these new services often support an entirely web browser-based experience without the need to install any app (though a proprietary app is usually the best experience). Additionally, there's support for all kinds of mobile devices, though these generally work best after installing either an Apple iOS or Google Android app.

However, even modern conferencing systems still don't interact much, meaning you can't attend a video conference initiated in Microsoft Teams using a Cisco Webex meeting client, for example. Everything still happens in one system. The advantage is that this system no longer requires proprietary client, meeting room, or network hardware. It's also not one, large system purchase, but a service offered on a per-user or per-host (see below for more on hosts) subscription basis. That can seriously reduce costs.

However, they also offer a big bucket of new capabilities that older systems never had, far more than just face-to-face interactions. Best-in-class video conferencing services let users share their screens, remotely access one another's desktops, chat via text, exchange files, communicate via digital whiteboards, and even broadcast conferences to large groups of passive viewers (like webinars). Some are part of business-geared Voice-over-IP (VoIP) packages, which allow you to dynamically change a voice call to a video call or initiate a shared meeting at the touch of a button without ever losing the original connection.

Those features are great for central offices, but they're also fantastic communication aids for work-at-home scenarios, especially when viewed through a long-term lens. But video conferencing can go even further. For example, it's a perfect tool for addressing customers' support questions live or interacting with those customers in real-time during a webinar. These capabilities have taken a bit of a back seat with COVID, though they'll come back big when the pandemic is behind us. But for the last year, what's caused video conferencing growth to spike has largely been consumer demand as shown in the recent survey charted by Statista.
Growth of Popular Video Conferencing Systems During COVID 19, 2020
Even so, for IT workers, in particular, telecommuting is booming. According to a report by FlexJobs, 3.9 million US employees were working from home at least half of the time even before the pandemic. This is an increase of 115% from 2005. That means in some cases, video conferencing represents the only visible interaction that those employees will get with their employers; and now that many companies have discovered that the benefits of telecommuting can work long-term, those numbers are only going to grow.

Cutting Costs With Video Conferencing

Pandemic aside, many small to midsize businesses (SMBs) spread across different geographic locations, a trend that preceded the coronavirus. While that trend has both cost and hiring benefits to most companies, it also brings complex challenges for communication, even for in-house employees. Add customers and partners to the mix, and it's challenging to think about talking to all of these people without extensive travel, which brings restrictive costs. This is where video conferencing can deliver a serious boost to your company's bottom line.

But even without considering geography, video conferencing can save money. Many of the new collaboration features included with this round of contenders aim to automate tasks that used to cost extra. The prime examples are meeting transcription and recording.

In older, proprietary systems, recording a meeting meant either a separate camera or a third-party microphone for audio-only recordings, plus server space for storage. Modern services have automated recording so you can initiate one with the press of a button and then automatically save it to the cloud and auto-share it with all meeting attendees.

Transcription, too, used to cost extra as meeting managers would have to send out at least an audio recording to a transcription service. Many new video conferencing services now contain artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of virtual meeting assistants who manage things like attendance tracking and do an excellent job of transcribing meetings directly to PDF or Microsoft Word documents. They can then send those docs to everyone in the discussion or save them in shared cloud storage.

Understanding Video Conferencing Price Tags

As with all software services, pricing and packages are essential, and they do vary widely. The prices quoted in these reviews are typically for the vendor's middle pricing tier, and those are usually charged on a per-user per-month basis. (For more pricing information, click through to the individual reviews.) All but one video conferencing service tested offers free trials (most are for 30 days), and many don't require a credit card. That means you don't have to worry about being charged automatically when the trial ends.

Most services offer free plans, primarily due to companies wanting to help consumers during the pandemic. However, once you move to a paid tier, you need to pay attention to pricing details. For example, many products tested charge differently for "hosts" and "users." Digging through the fine print, you'll find that hosts are users that can initiate meetings, which means not all companies need to make every user a host depending on how your organization handles collaboration. That can have a significant impact on your overall price, so be sure to nail down the details before buying.

Many services are scalable depending on the number of hosts and attendees you need. That's why we recommend not just trying the features of our top-rated video conferencing services but also using that trial time to experiment with how many users need to have meeting manager status. In other words, evaluate how video conferencing best fits into your organization's culture and workflows.

Generally, services priced per-host instead of per-user do better for webinar-type environments. Those priced per attendee tend to be more attractive to collaborative-style engagements where anyone could start a meeting.

Another price consideration is hardware. Every laptop has a microphone and a serviceable tho fairly mediocre webcam built-in. The same goes for most mobile devices these days. So the basics for a web meeting are all there in that kind of hardware. Desktops PCs, however, are not so complete. Additionally, if you're looking for enhanced clarity of sound or video, you'll need the best microphones and high-end webcams you can get. Depending on how many desktops and conference rooms you're looking to outfit this way, you can significantly affect the overall cost of your video conferencing solution, so you should budget for that upfront.

Using Web Conferencing for Collaboration

You've found a shortlist of video conference services you like. Now what? Start by remembering that video conferencing is no longer about just high-end smart conference rooms. Hybrid work is here to stay, so your video conferencing system is going to be the heartbeat of that architecture. That means many new users, which in turn means a great place to match one vendor's capabilities over another is the platform's ease of use.

Suppose the user interface (UI) is a maze. In that case, it will not only cause delays in meeting start times; it'll also become a blocker to using any of the more advanced collaboration features. And that's where the actual value of these systems is: easy and always-on collaboration.

We discuss the ease of signing up, creating a meeting, inviting participants, and setting up audio and video controls for each review. We also look at the user experience (UX) from the meeting invitees' point of view and how easy it is to access smart meeting controls. That covers whiteboard-style collaboration and file sharing, annotation, and the virtual assistant features mentioned above.

We test each service's prominent features, but it's up to you to decide on particular features. Do you need dial-in numbers, VoIP support, or both? And do you need features like screen sharing or remote control? Some services offer both teleconferencing with dial-in numbers (local or toll-free) and VoIP calling, while some offer just one or the other. A few offer international dial-in numbers.

All of the products reviewed offer video calls via webcam, which is a feature that's creeping into several team messaging platforms, like Microsoft Teams and Slack, too. In Teams' case, this is a complete video conferencing solution, which is why we've reviewed it here. However, Slack and some of its other competitors have only implemented person-to-person video calling, which is why we haven't checked them as part of this roundup.

However, Slack's strength in this regard (and it's a strength shared by its competitors) is its very long list of out-of-the-box integration options. Inside Slack, you can only do person-to-person video. Still, the platform integrates just fine with Google Workspace, Teams, Zoom, and a host of other communications platforms, including the ones we've reviewed here, so an intelligent Slack administrator can build all the meeting functionality you need that way.

In all of these reviews, we hosted and joined meetings to test the experience of both registered and non-registered users. We made sure to outline how easy it is to join a meeting, including whether or not a participant needs to download software before joining (which could cause a delay). In this case, it's important to communicate with employees about hardware compatibility and your preferred browser. Other services simply require that attendees enter a code to access the meeting.

Our reviews also cover the host's administration features. The best services let you set up different types of meetings, such as a lecture-style meeting where all participants are muted, or a discussion or Q&A mode in which presenters can mute and unmute participants as needed. Other options include enabling and disabling webcams, locking latecomers out of a meeting, creating a waiting room while preparing for the meeting, and allowing break-out sessions.

For presentations, screen sharing is essential. But so are more granular options, such as the ability to share just one application ( Microsoft PowerPoint, for example), document, or image, not just your entire desktop. Most of the video conferencing services in this roundup also offer a text chat mode not only during a meeting but sometimes outside a video call, too.

During a trial, you should experiment with all these features and think carefully about how much actual collaboration you need in your various meetings. That means evaluating the service with more than just IT personnel. You should also include stakeholders from your various departments, so you've got an accurate representation of the different kinds of gatherings your employees hold between themselves and folks outside the organization.

Managing Your Network for Video Meetings

Unfortunately, even in an extensive, centralized network like the one in your main office, working with any stream-dependent app, especially video conferencing, becomes trickier the larger the network and the more apps there are competing for network bandwidth. That means if you're running all or part of your solution on a more extensive network, then prepare to handle some tweaking.

While the basic setup is enough to get one session running, be sure to work with your IT staff to test what happens when multiple streams are open. And not just numerous streams, but also those streams competing with all the other types of traffic you've typically got running. You're looking for artifacts or excessive buffering that disrupt the stream. The home network situation is even more pressing, and now probably a long-term issue for many IT pros.

While video conferencing has undoubtedly had a positive impact on employees trapped at home, it's also put your IT help desk personnel in an awkward position. The video conferencing app is now a core business service. Still, it's probably running over consumer devices, home network routers, and even peripherals, like webcams and microphones, most of which the IT department didn't purchase and usually hasn't been trained in servicing. That makes supporting those home users on an end-to-end basis very difficult. And that's not even considering the internet, which handles most of the network traffic and which your IT department doesn't control either.

Fortunately, the coronavirus is a temporary problem, which means most businesses are using the same "solution," and that's to handle this problem on a case-by-case basis. If an IT pro can service a router remotely, that's what happens. If not, then it's down to either sending the device to a central location to be reconfigured or simply walking the employee through the required steps over the phone.

Once the pandemic is over, if you're still looking at a large number of permanent home workers (and many businesses will be doing exactly that), then you can build more long-term solutions. That might include pre-configuring a number of router models and then distribute them to your remote workers so everyone is using the same platform.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) are another related problem. Many businesses make employees use these services when working remotely to protect themselves and corporate data. But because they use encryption, VPNs can often cause bandwidth or throughput problems, affecting video streaming performance. They're also run by companies other than your video conferencing vendor, so supporting a combination of both usually ends up as an internal problem.

To help, you'll need to investigate different VPN offerings for remote connections and potentially work with your IT staff to implement Quality of Service (QoS) features on both your main network and users' home networks. That'll protect the bandwidth required during your video conferences. If you're already using a cloud PBX-based VoIP system for your phone calls, your IT people will already have a good idea of how to protect traffic this way as the requirements are very similar.

Don't Forget Vendor Support

If all this sounds like you'll be supporting yourself once you buy into one of these services, that's not the case. It's just that the particulars of implementing any video conferencing service can vary so widely from business to business that your own IT people are usually the best first line of support. After all, they're the ones who'll wind up knowing the system best.

But aside from making sure your IT staff is thoroughly familiar with your chosen video conferencing service, you'll also want solid support resources from the service vendor. The best video conferencing services offer phone, email, and chat support in addition to extensive online documentation. End-user support in this manner may cost extra, but it's worth considering if your IT staff is small. Checking for a professional services arm that will help train both users and IT pros is another important factor, and an active user community can be a good resource, too.

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The Best Video Conferencing Software for 2022

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Maybe you're looking to avoid travel while the latest version of COVID is still making its rounds. Or perhaps you're trying to transition employees back to the office, but many want to make working from home a permanent condition. And let's face it, that can have a lot of benefits.

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Cisco Webex online video conferences + meetings

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Cisco Webex online video conferences + meetings

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International Federation of Social Workers - Covid-19 Resources

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International Federation of Social Workers - Covid-19 Resources

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In many countries social workers are supporting communities that are affected or fearful of the Covid-19 Virus. Social work has an essential frontline role in the fight against the spread of the virus through supporting communities protect themselves and others through physical distancing and social solidarity.
Key functions of social work at this time include:

1. ensuring that the most vulnerable are included in planning and response.

2. organizing communities to ensure that essentials such as food and clean water are available.

3. advocating within social services and in policy environments that services adapt, remain open and pro-active in supporting communities and vulnerable populations.

4. Facilitating physical distancing and social solidarity.

5. As a profession, advocating for the advancement and strengthening of health and social services as an essential protection against the virus, inequality and the consequent social and economic challenges.

Official IFSW statements relating to the Covid-19 Virus are listed to the right and IFSW member updates and reports below.
News and Statements on Covid-19

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Updated Information on IFSW and Covid-19

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In many countries social workers are supporting communities that are affected or fearful of the Covid-19 Virus. Social work has an essential frontline role in the fight against the spread of the virus through supporting communities protect themselves and others through physical distancing and social solidarity.

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Whether it's chat, calls, or video, anyone can engage at any time, bringing everyone closer.

Your docs, photos, videos, chat history, and meeting notes are always there, so it's easier to work together.

Set up your team's space with all the apps you need so you can stay in just one place instead of jumping around.

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Whether it's chat, calls, or video, anyone can engage at any time, bringing everyone closer. Your docs, photos, videos, chat history, and meeting notes are always there, so it's easier to work together. Set up your team's space with all the apps you need so you can stay in just one place instead of jumping around.

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COVID-19: Safeguarding and child protection | NSPCC Learning

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Resources to support your work with children, young people and their families during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, lockdown and restrictions.

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Working with External Users

You can add external users to a Team as Guests.

Click Manage Team > Add members

Enter their email address and click Add

Set up a Scheduled meeting

Enter their email address in the attendee field

The user will receive an email invite with a link

The user can join by simply clicking the link.

Guide to Joining a Call as an External User (With or Without an Office365 Account)

If your external users are unfamiliar with Teams, and/or don't have an Office365 account, they can still join a call in just a few easy steps.

Our handy guide will show you how to Join A Teams Call as an External User, with screenshots.

The guide would also be useful if you are a UCC staff member who has been invited to join a call, but is not very familiar with using Teams.

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MS Teams Cheat-Sheet | University College Cork

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You can add external users to a Team as Guests. Click Manage Team > Add members Enter their email address and click Add Set up a Scheduled meeting Enter their email address in the attendee field The user will receive an email invite with a link The user can join by simply clicking the link.

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As we head into 2021, Worklife is running our best, most insightful and most essential stories from 2020. Read our full list of the year's top stories here.
Burnout: the term for relentless overwork has rapidly become ubiquitous, especially when describing millennials who hustle to the point of exhaustion. And with millions of people now in lockdown as Covid-19 sweeps the globe, burnout is still very much around - but it looks a little different right now.

Many have lost jobs, while those lucky enough to keep them have to do so while working in the confines of home, some simultaneously balancing family pressing needs, like childcare. Daily life has been completely uprooted, and now, we juggle a constant onslaught of dilemmas we've never dealt with before: Should I disinfect my groceries? How do I stay in shape indoors? Are cardboard packages safe to touch? Can I hug my kids?

On top of it all, social media showers us with well-meaning calls to " finish up that project": write that screenplay, build that armoire, learn Maltese! After all, according to social media, Newton discovered gravity and Shakespeare wrote King Lear when both were hunkered down to avoid the plague. Make sure your quarantine doesn't go to waste.

In short: we're being exhausted in a whole new way as burnout morphs during this pandemic, persisting even in the most unusual times. But it is possible to both understand why we feel this novel type of burnout - and how we keep it at bay, too.

A woman in Mexico teleworking during the coronavirus pandemic. Juggling new challenges in our new reality has allowed burnout to seep into the crisis (Credit: Getty Images)

The exhaustion of choice
Usually, when we think of burnout, we think of working 12-hour days, answering Slack messages long after we clock out and finishing a day job only to dive straight into a side hustle. But in a crisis like this, burnout can emerge because of something different - what experts call 'decision fatigue'.

With news changing all the time, "information is constant: whether it's about the pandemic itself, whether it's about things you should be doing, schedules for your kids, how to work best from home - it's just a lot of information", says Janna Koretz, a Boston-based psychologist who helps clients with high-powered jobs navigate burnout.

In other words, the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing us to rapidly grapple with difficult decisions in an unsettlingly new context.

"Normally, we're not thinking about the ethical implications of ordering delivery or whether to offer to get groceries for your elderly neighbour," says Elizabeth Yuko, a New York-based journalist and Fordham University adjunct professor in bioethics, the field that studies ethical implications in healthcare, medicine and other areas of life science. "It's this psychological stress most of us aren't used to. We've never experienced anything like this in modern times."

On an hourly basis, our top concerns can swing from how we keep our families safe to what the kids are going to eat for dinner. "You have these range of decisions that go from borderline life-or-death on one end of the spectrum - and then snacks on the other," Yuko says.

"People are still trying to figure out how to exist in this new world," adds Koretz. Figuring out how to structure your day or prioritise tasks now seems herculean, especially when your home, once your sanctuary, now potentially triples as an office, school and quasi-prison.

This decision fatigue, combined with the pressure we're putting on ourselves to make smart, safe choices for ourselves, our families and our communities, can lead to pandemic-specific burnout.
The stress of unwinding
Experiencing some emotional exhaustion and anxiety is to be expected, the experts agree. The problem is that many of our usual coping mechanisms have vanished - think going to the gym or taking an art class - and trying to shoehorn in a new one might actually exacerbate burnout.

Those tweets urging people to either start or finish that passion project can be a source of stress for some, who already feel frenzied that they're not spending their time correctly. It can lead to even more stress for people worrying they're not using every moment to be productive - like finishing a project or learning a new skill - especially as we're all trying to figure out the best way to cope with our new reality.

A law student in Boston takes up guitar while in quarantine. Experts say new hobbies can help some, but such messaging may be anxiety-inducing for others (Credit: Getty Images)

Lotte Dyrbye, a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, one of the largest medical research institutions in the US, researches burnout and the wellbeing of physicians. She says people need to find things that work for them, whether it's meditation, solitary walks or bingeing on Netflix. "It really needs to be very individualised, and there's not necessarily a right or wrong." Don't pile onto your anxiety: rely on hobbies you already have; ones you know make you happy and take the stress off. A big part of staving off pandemic-induced burnout is that the activity shouldn't feel exhausting.

"People feeling anxious about writing their next novel, or learning how to play the guitar, or learning French - I've gotten questions about that a lot; people saying, 'I feel like a failure, I finally have this time'," says Yuko. It's unrealistic to expect to perform above and beyond right now, even with an abundance of time at home. "This is probably the biggest shift in all of our lives in terms of day-to-day operations," she says.

Take care to stay sane before panicking about the progress of your masterpiece-in-progress - or lack thereof.
It's not forever
Koretz says clients have been raising a host of new concerns associated with the pandemic: financial fears, job losses, concerns about older parents, disappointment over cancelled trips. She says that there's a lot of pressure to still perform well at your job (if you still have one), and to meet all the new demands at once, which can cause burnout.

Her advice? Keep the big picture in mind. "This all is a season. This will pass. It may be difficult... there's a lot of scary things between point A and point B," she says. "But point B exists. And every day that we're in quarantine, we're closer to that time."

Many parents have suddenly become homeschooling educators, piling onto the onslaught of decisions, tasks and worries that have come with coronavirus (Credit: Getty Images)

There's even a potential silver lining - you may hone some key life skills.

Koretz says that, usually, burnout is caused by unrealistic expectations, either from our employer or from ourselves. But coming out of the pandemic may shift our perspectives, after weeks of learning to adjust to new circumstances like widespread remote work. "This is going to make everybody's ability to manage, cope and be flexible much better. So when we go back to our day-to-day, things are going to be easier because we've done something that's very challenging," she says.

When in doubt, Yuko says, stick to the basics. With each decision you make during this time that stokes anxiety, make a simple list of pros and cons. What are the risks associated with each option? But perhaps the best thing you can do right now - in the age of social distancing - is the exact opposite of the urge driving the behaviour that leads to burnout in the first place. Do nothing.

"By staying in our houses, apartments, et cetera - that itself is doing something positive, and really the best thing we can do right now," says Yuko. "By doing nothing, you're doing something."

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As we head into 2021, Worklife is running our best, most insightful and most essential stories from 2020. Read our full list of the year's top stories here. Burnout: the term for relentless overwork has rapidly become ubiquitous, especially when describing millennials who hustle to the point of exhaustion.

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Training: Watch these videos to help your school, work, or organization use Microsoft Teams to video conference, work remotely, and become proficient using Teams.

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How to sit properly at your computer to avoid back pain and fatigue

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This step by step guide with images covers how to sit properly at your computer and how to sit there consistently throughout the day.

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Free JKP chapter on nurturing the personal and professional self

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Free JKP chapter on nurturing the personal and professional self

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News and articles from Jessica Kingsley Publishers and our authors

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Microsoft attempts to up its Teams game with new features while locked-down folk flock to rival Zoom... warts and all

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Changes may help, but big user requests are still missing

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International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children

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Child Protection During COVID-19 Response for Educators - International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children

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Latest Updates: Child Protection News Groomed: how a film-maker learned to confront a childhood of abuse (The Guardian, 17...

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4 free chapters from "Mindfulness for Carers" (JKP)

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4 free chapters from "Mindfulness for Carers" (JKP)

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News and articles from Jessica Kingsley Publishers and our authors

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(shorter version of tool no 3)

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Google Meet (formerly Hangouts Meet) - Free Video Meetings

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Use Google Meet (formerly Hangouts Meet) video conferencing solutions from your browser or mobile app. Get started with a secure, HD video today.

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RTE - All you need to know about working from home

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RTE - All you need to know about working from home

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Analysis: more and more employees and companies will be remote working due to the coronavirus outbreak so where do you start? By Maébh Coleman, Marian Jennings and Rowena Hennigan, TU Dublin
Many companies and individuals are being forced to introduce social distancing to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The result is many people suddenly find themselves working from home at the last minute and many are doing so for the first time. Some may be finding this change a shock and are struggling about where to start.

Those who already work from home and those who advocate for remote working are conscious that a hasty and poorly planned exclusion from the norm could result in a bad first experience for many, but working from home could be a life-saving measure. The introduction of successful remote working at a company level under normal circumstances takes time, structures, policies and a considered approach so you may need a steer on where to start. The Irish Workplace Relations Commission has recently issued advice about Covid-19 and working from home. But you can also check out the list below to guide you on how to approach the situation. The earlier you begin to plan, the more prepared you will be.

Yes, it's a challenge

Firstly, acknowledge company-wide and team-wide that this is a challenge. There will be a period of flux, change and new learnings for all. It is an unpredictable situation for many, some of which may be working from home whilst self-isolating from the condition and/or with children around and under other stressful conditions.
From RTÉ Radio 1's The Business, comedian Gearoid Farrelly and Wikimedia's Dr Rebecca O'Neill on the benefits of working from home
Then, agree the terms, even at a basic level. Start by documenting a short statement of how operationally your remote working arrangement will function. Share your version of "Remote Working Operations During Coronavirus" on a shared drive with your colleagues. Ask for comments and feedback - hey, well done! this is your first step in remote collaboration ;) Just look at RoRemote's list of resources and support, ranging from Slack channels to Q&As to whole guidebooks and policiesavailable for you to adapt and adopt.

Give your staff and colleagues autonomy. Experienced remote teams and workers know that a culture of trust is the foundation to good remote work practices. Enabling and believing in the autonomy of your staff is the first steps towards this. For example, the terms you have agreed above may outline using a core piece of software for business operations and you must believe your team will do this.

Mental approach and attitude

Going remote is not just about software tools, policies and practices. It is about your mental approach and attitude to the situation. You will need to test and trial practices; you will definitely need to re-iterate and review and you will continually be improving yourself and your teams operations. Accept it! And get on with it, but most importantly do the work needed to be productive.
From RTÉ Radio 1's The Business, recruitment firm Abodoo co-founder Vanessa Tierney and occupational psychologist John Deeley on the positives and negatives for employers and employees of remote working
Stay in touch

Many self-isolated remote workers began working from home suddenly and felt the loss of their connections. Plan to keep in touch every day, several times a day by phone or Skype. Have a work-buddy or team that you can rely on and use the technology tools to hand to help feel connected.

Encourage and support explicit and concise communications. Use video communications as much as possible to talk directly to team members and colleagues. Video software such as Whereby is free for up to four participants for video calls and can support sharing screens for collaboration and chat interactions.

Collaboration is key to remote success. There is a lot to be said for standing at a colleague's desk and discussing a file while making edits. You can mimic this by sharing screens on a video call (see above). It is not intended to fully replace the value of in-person interaction, but using the right mix of tools and technology, at the right moments can come very close.

Get advice

There is a whole world of experienced remote workers out there waiting to support you and welcome you into their (remote) community. Remote workers in the main are trusting and open. They default to supporting each other and believe in welcoming anyone else into the fold! They will embrace you into the community! A thriving Irish community for information and support is Grow Remote, which even has its own Slack channel which you can join to seek advice or ask questions.
From TedX, why working from home is good for business
Remote advocates quote benefits including more opportunity to concentrate and get into deep-work, better control over their work day and structure of how they approach tasks. Many studies, like this one from Stanford University, have confirmed that remote work is more productiveso keep your mind open to its potential, alongside a strong dose of enthusiasm and commitment to try a new way of work.

Trust your team

No article about remote work can be published without mentioning trust. Managers, colleagues, founders and team members all need to trust each other to get the job done. Remember trust also works for all stakeholders, so make sure you comply with GDPR when working remotely.

Remember the need for business continuity. Managers need to be conscientious in relation to business continuity, but within realistic timescales. Create some short-term goals and check these regularly on team calls to monitor and review, as required.

One way to build trust amongst a team of remote workers is to treat the whole experience as a trial experience with regular checkpoints, reviews, communication points and very honest discussions. If it is a trial where everyone is testing, reviewing and reporting about the same remote experience, all feedback needs to be honest and transparent at all times.
YouTuber Ingrid Nilsen on how to be productive working from home
Check the tech

Last but not least is the technology and tools you need to work remotely. From email access and video conference software to collaboration tools, whatever it is you need to use to get your job done. These tools will be new for many and one may face a steep learning curve, but there is a wealth of info available for free online, from tutorials to how-to guides. It is also easy to track how you're dealing with new technology tools, both on an individual and team level.

While nobody expected it, working from home may ultimately help to save lives and slow the spread of Covid-19. Yes, it's a big change in behaviour for some, but you never know you may like it.
Maébh Coleman is a lecturer and teaching fellow at the School of Business at TU Dublin. Marian Jennings is a law lecturer at the School of Business at TU Dublin. Rowena Hennigan is The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ a lecturer on the Future of Work module and various marketing modules at TU Dublin and a freelance consultant.

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All you need to know about working from home

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Analysis: more and more employees and companies will be remote working due to the coronavirus outbreak so where do you start? By Maébh Coleman, Marian Jennings and Rowena Hennigan, TU Dublin Many companies and individuals are being forced to introduce social distancing to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

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Free JKP chapter on creating well-being in workplaces

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Free JKP chapter on creating well-being in workplaces

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News and articles from Jessica Kingsley Publishers and our authors

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7-Day Free Trial Video Conferencing | BlueJeans

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Try BlueJeans for an unparalleled video conferencing experience that empowers users to collaborate across mobile devices, desktops, and room systems. Experience touch-to-join, HD video conferencing and stunningly clear audio powered by Dolby Voice® in a smart, intuitive interface. The BlueJeans Video Conferencing Platform includes: BLUEJEANS MEETINGS Collaborate effectively, seamlessly with web, audio, and video conferencing that works from anywhere on any device.

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Zoom, the hit video conferencing platform, will freeze new feature development and shift all engineering resources on to security and safety issues, its founder has said.

The move comes as the company battles the damage caused by a string of minor scandals ultimately related to the same scrappy approach that enabled it to capitalise on the wave of global lockdowns in the first place.

"We have fallen short of the community's - and our own - privacy and security expectations," said Zoom's founder and CEO, Eric Yuan, in a blogpost on Thursday. "For that, I am deeply sorry."

Since it began gaining hundreds of thousands of users a day, Zoom has come under increasing scrutiny from privacy campaigners, security researchers, and members of the public, who have found faults in the platform's programming, policies, and practices.

Some stem from the fact that a tool originally designed for enabling corporate communications has been repurposed for a wide range of consumer uses, from strangers meeting up for virtual "happy hours" to children's book groups and remote sessions of Dungeons and Dragons.

But others relate to the company's approach, modelled on the notorious Facebook maxim "move fast and break things", of finding unorthodox solutions to problems, which may not always hold up under closer inspection.

"There's a difference between being able to pivot on top of a solid foundation," says Vincent Roffers, executive strategy director at branding strategists Superunion, "and the path where they have at some level cut corners a bit," in terms of the way they've created their product.

The most public problem facing the company has been the rise of "Zoombombings", when trolls join public video chats to wreak havoc among their members by broadcasting pornography, hurling abuse, or undressing in front of their webcam. Zoombombings are possible because the company's product is built for use in cases where every caller is part of the same company, or already known to each other, security experts say - an assumption that no longer fits after weeks in lockdown.

"We now have a much broader set of users who are utilising our product in a myriad of unexpected ways," Yuan said, "presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived." Zoombombings can be prevented by changing the app's settings, Zoom said in late March as the problem was growing. And other tools, such as YouTube or Twitch livestreams, may be more appropriate for some uses, such as a broadcast of an author reading their book.

Other problems were more baked into the product, however. In July 2019, before it exploded in popularity, Zoom faced an embarrassing security scandal.A researcher discovered that the company installed some code on Macs alongside its app that meant that even if the app was later uninstalled, a single click on a web link was all it took to reinstall the app and join a new conference call with mic and camera enabled. Zoom initially defended the flaw for more than 90 days, saying it was a feature intended to make it easy for users to join calls. Only when the researcher went public did the company act. Apple later pushed a software update to all Macs that automatically prevented the feature from working.

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If you have been affected or have any information, we'd like to hear from you. You can get in touch by filling in the form below, anonymously if you wish or contact us via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding the contact +44(0)7766780300. Only the Guardian can see your contributions and one of our journalists may contact you to discuss further.

That episode left security researchers suspicious of the company, and when it burst into the public's consciousness in March, the suspicion returned. In just a couple of weeks, researchers found many more flaws, major and minor, which piled up faster than Zoom could fix them, from a broken promise to provide "end to end encryption" for video calls to bugs that would allow a hacker to gain access to a user's webcam and microphone.

"So many of Zoom's poor decisions were about prioritising growth over security," said the analyst Ben Thompson. "This crisis, though, more than takes care of growth: it's up to Zoom to seize the opportunity to prioritise security in a transparent and verifiable way at a time when all of their customers want them to succeed."

That's what the company is promising now, founder Yuan says. Over the next 90 days, it will conduct a "comprehensive review with third-party experts", publish a transparency report, and run penetration tests to find and fix further flaws.

Superunion's Vincent Roffers believes that is the right approach. "They need to make it right in a way that's transparent that's visible. The worst thing they could do is retreat and disappear," he said.

"They're going to be fine. The thing about branding is, you always have a lot of chances: It's not about what you do now, it's about what you do next."

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Zoom says engineers will focus on security and safety issues

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Zoom, the hit video conferencing platform, will freeze new feature development and shift all engineering resources on to security and safety issues, its founder has said. The move comes as the company battles the damage caused by a string of minor scandals ultimately related to the same scrappy approach that enabled it to capitalise on the wave of global lockdowns in the first place.

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Your screen freezes. There's a weird echo. A dozen heads stare at you. There are the work huddles, the one-on-one meetings and then, once you're done for the day, the hangouts with friends and family.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we're on video calls more than ever before - and many are finding it exhausting.

But what, exactly, is tiring us out? BBC Worklife spoke to Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace, and Marissa Shuffler, an associate professor at Clemson University, who studies workplace wellbeing and teamwork effectiveness, to hear their views.
Is video chat harder? What's different compared to face-to-face communication?
Being on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat, says Petriglieri. Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. "Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally," he says.

Silence is another challenge, he adds. "Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology." It also makes people uncomfortable. One 2014 study by German academics showed that delays on phone or conferencing systems shaped our views of people negatively: even delays of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused.
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An added factor, says Shuffler, is that if we are physically on camera, we are very aware of being watched. "When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful." It's also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera.

Yet if video chats come with extra stressors, our Zoom fatigue can't be attributed solely to that. Our current circumstances - whether lockdown, quarantine, working from home or otherwise - are also feeding in.

A 2014 study found that delays on phone or conferencing systems shaped our views of people negatively (Credit: Getty Images)

Petriglieri believes that fact we feel forced into these calls may be a contributory factor. "The video call is our reminder of the people we have lost temporarily. It is the distress that every time you see someone online, such as your colleagues, that reminds you we should really be in the workplace together," he says. "What I'm finding is, we're all exhausted; It doesn't matter whether they are introverts or extroverts. We are experiencing the same disruption of the familiar context during the pandemic."

Then there's the fact that aspects of our lives that used to be separate - work, friends, family - are all now happening in the same space. The self-complexity theory posits that individuals have multiple aspects - context-dependent social roles, relationships, activities and goals - and we find the variety healthy, says Petriglieri. When these aspects are reduced, we become more vulnerable to negative feelings.

"Most of our social roles happen in different places, but now the context has collapsed," says Petriglieri. "Imagine if you go to a bar, and in the same bar you talk with your professors, meet your parents or date someone, isn't it weird? That's what we're doing now... We are confined in our own space, in the context of a very anxiety-provoking crisis, and our only space for interaction is a computer window."

Shuffler says a lack of downtime after we've fulfilled work and family commitments may be another factor in our tiredness, while some of us may be putting higher expectations on ourselves due to worries over the economy, furloughs and job losses. "There's also that heightened sense of 'I need to be performing at my top level in a situation'... Some of us are kind of over-performing to secure our jobs."
But when I'm Zooming my friends, for example, shouldn't that relax me?
Lots of us are doing big group chats for the first time, whether it's cooking and eating a virtual Easter dinner, attending a university catch-up or holding a birthday party for a friend. If the call is meant to be fun, why might it feel tiring?

Part of it, says Shuffler, is whether you're joining in because you want to or because you feel you ought to - like a virtual happy hour with colleagues from work. If you see it as an obligation, that means more time that you're 'on' as opposed to getting a break. A proper chat with friends will feel more social and there will be less 'Zoom fatigue' from conversations where you've had a chance to be yourself.

Big group calls can feel particularly performative, Petriglieri warns. People like watching television because you can allow your mind to wander - but a large video call "is like you're watching television and television is watching you". Large group chats can also feel depersonalising, he adds, because your power as an individual is diminished. And despite the branding, it may not feel like leisure time. "It doesn't matter whether you call it a virtual happy hour, it's a meeting, because mostly we are used to using these tools for work."
So how can we alleviate Zoom fatigue?

Both experts suggest limiting video calls to those that are necessary. Turning on the camera should be optional and in general there should be more understanding that cameras do not always have to be on throughout each meeting. Having your screen off to the side, instead of straight ahead, could also help your concentration, particularly in group meetings, says Petriglieri. It makes you feel like you're in an adjoining room, so may be less tiring.

In some cases it's worth considering if video chats are really the most efficient option. When it comes to work, Shuffler suggests shared files with clear notes can be a better option that avoids information overload. She also suggests taking time during meetings to catch up before diving into business. "Spend some time to actually check into people's wellbeing," she urges. "It's a way to reconnect us with the world, and to maintain trust and reduce fatigue and concern."

Building transition periods in between video meetings can also help refresh us - try stretching, having a drink or doing a bit of exercise, our experts say. Boundaries and transitions are important; we need to create buffers which allow us to put one identity aside and then go to another as we move between work and private personas.

And maybe, says Petriglieri, if you want to reach out, go old-school. "Write a letter to someone instead of meeting them on Zoom. Tell them you really care about them."

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Your screen freezes. There's a weird echo. A dozen heads stare at you. There are the work huddles, the one-on-one meetings and then, once you're done for the day, the hangouts with friends and family. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we're on video calls more than ever before - and many are finding it exhausting.

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Trolls exploit Zoom privacy settings as app gains popularity

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Working and socialising from home has brought new risks to everyday life, as webcam meetings and chatroom cocktail hours contend with privacy invasions, phishing attacks and "zoombombings" - uninvited guests abusing the popular video service to broadcast shocking imagery to all.

Public Zoom hangouts have become a popular way to spend time for isolated remote workers, who are joining calls with names such as "WFH Happy Hour" to spend time in the company of others.

But the default settings of the service are configured in the expectation of trust between participants, meaning trolls can wreak havoc. Some zoombombers have used the screensharing feature to broadcast pornography and violent imagery. Others have revelled in the opportunity for exhibitionism, while security experts have said the file transfer feature that is switched on by default could be used to spread malware.

During one WFH Happy Hour last week, for instance, a troll joined the group and, using the screensharing feature, aired a pornographic clip to the call's 40 participants. Because the call was public - so that anyone wanting some company in the evening could swing by, replicating a welcoming pub - the anonymous user simply rejoined and continued to broadcast, eventually forcing the hosts, Hunter Walk and Casey Newton, to close the event.

Newton, a journalist, told TechCrunch shortly afterwards: "I want to apologise to all our attendees - including my parents, Jim and Sally, who joined WFHappyHour today for the first time. Today we all learned an important lesson about disabling screen-sharing and saw once again the importance of good content moderation."

Other zoombombing instances have been more malicious. Ruha and Shawn Benjamin told NBC News of their experience when a racist troll - wearing nothing but a thong - gatecrashed their reading session for children stuck at home and began repeating the N-word multiple times. "Then we knew it was a malicious, targeted thing. My husband and I are both African American," Ruha Benjamin said.

Other aspects of the service have also come under criticism. One Zoom feature allows hosts to tell if guests are looking at a window other than the Zoom chat - perfect for bosses who want to ensure their employees are paying attention, but an unexpected invasion of privacy for many. On Thursday, Vice News reported that the service's iOS app was sending some analytics data to Facebook, even if users did not have a Facebook account.

The company said in a statement: "We have been deeply upset to hear about the incidents involving this type of attack. For those hosting large, public group meetings, we strongly encourage hosts to change their settings so that only the host can share their screen. For those hosting private meetings, password protections are on by default and we recommend that users keep those protections on to prevent uninvited users from joining. We also encourage users to report any incidents of this kind directly to our support so we can take appropriate action."

Share your stories

If you have been affected or have any information, we'd like to hear from you. You can get in touch by filling in the form below, anonymously if you wish or contact us via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding the contact +44(0)7766780300. Only the Guardian can see your contributions and one of our journalists may contact you to discuss further.

In a blogpost addressing the rise in zoombombings, the company said: "Like most other public forums, it's possible to have a person (who may or may not be invited) disrupt an event that's meant to bring people together." It offered a list of tips on how to prevent them, such as not posting links on public social media when possible.

Colin Tankard, the managing director of Digital Pathways, a cybersecurity company, said the technical security of Zoom was strong and protected callers against eavesdropping. He said: "The security risks using such services hinge more around how secure your password is in gaining access to your conference dashboard, as if weak passwords are used, a hacker could copy the meeting ID and then connect during the call hiding their identity or appearing as a valid caller."

But none of the concerns have hurt the fortunes of Zoom Video, the company behind the software. It has become so popular in the last two weeks that on Thursday the US Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in stocks in Zoom Technologies, an unrelated company but one with the stock market ticker ZOOM. Zoom Video's is actually ZM.

That same day an app called Zoom became the third most popular paid app on Apple's App Store. That Zoom is a £3.99 magnifying glass app. The chat service Zoom is free.

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Trolls exploit Zoom privacy settings as app gains popularity

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Working and socialising from home has brought new risks to everyday life, as webcam meetings and chatroom cocktail hours contend with privacy invasions, phishing attacks and "zoombombings" - uninvited guests abusing the popular video service to broadcast shocking imagery to all.

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Health and Safety Authority Advice Home-Working

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Health and Safety Authority Advice Home-Working

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Welcome to the UB School of Social Work's Self-Care site. The resources in these pages are appropriate for both students in training and for professionals already working in the field. There are additional resources that we trust will be helpful no matter where you are on your self-care journey.

The Self-Care Starter Kit℠ was initially developed for UB Social Work students, but it is our hope that these resources will be useful for students and professionals alike. Although the information does not address all that goes into developing the skills of self-care, it does begin the journey.
We recommend you start with Introduction to Self-Care, followed by Developing Your Self-Care Plan.
Using the Materials

You are welcome to use the Self-Care Starter Kit℠ exercises/worksheets without revising them for personal and/or educational (non-commercial) purposes only. We ask that you read over the Creative Commons licensing agreement, let us know that you will be using the materials, include the original citation information that is on them, as well the web address for our site, as an acknowledgement of where it was downloaded from and so people are able to explore our site if they're interested.

Butler, L. D., & McClain-Meeder, K. (2015). Self-Care Starter Kit. Located at http://www.socialwork.buffalo.edu/students/self-care/index.asp

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Acknowledgements

We hope the resources in these pages will be useful as you strive to maintain and enhance your well-being in all the important domains of your life.

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all those who have helped us in this effort: the colleagues who generously contributed materials and provided advice on resources, copyright issues, and IT questions; the experts in the field who gave permission to include their materials; the SSW students who provided self-care utilization data and feedback on our materials and original workshop; and our colleagues on the UBSSW Reaccreditation Committee and in the school who provided both informational and tangible support for the development of this program and have incorporated self-care materials and activities in their courses. We are especially grateful to Elaine S. Rinfrette, LCSW-R, PhD for her extensive and essential contributions to every aspect of the development of this program; Shirley Reiser, LCSW and Elaine K. Hammond, LMSW for their far-sighted and widespread efforts to highlight self-care in our school by developing trainings and materials, and through their invaluable contributions to the development of these pages; Dana M. Horne, MEd for designing the self-care (Venn) logo and providing consultation and support; Robert Garlan, PhD for his thoughtful suggestions and text revisions for these webpages; Melissa Dudley, MSW for her excellent research assistance; and David Coppola for his superb work designing and programming the original self-care site webpages.

Lisa D. Butler, PhD
Self-Care Program Team Leader and
Associate Professor

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Welcome to the UB School of Social Work's Self-Care site. The resources in these pages are appropriate for both students in training and for professionals already working in the field. There are additional resources that we trust will be helpful no matter where you are on your self-care journey.

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NASW Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice (USA, 2017) 

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NASW Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice (USA, 2017) 

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Youth Social Work with Digital Technology - An academic journal article 

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Youth Social Work with Digital Technology - An academic journal article 

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Protecting Personal Data When Working Remotely

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Protecting Personal Data When Working Remotely

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Measures to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19 will involve more people working remotely than usual. Below are some tips to keep personal data safe when working away from the office. For more information you can consult our guidance on data security.

Take extra care that devices, such as USBs, phones, laptops, or tablets, are not lost or misplaced,

Make sure that any device has the necessary updates, such as operating system updates (like iOS or android) and software/antivirus updates.

Ensure your computer, laptop, or device, is used in a safe location, for example where you can keep sight of it and minimise who else can view the screen, particularly if working with sensitive personal data.

Lock your device if you do have to leave it unattended for any reason.

Make sure your devices are turned off, locked, or stored carefully when not in use.

Use effective access controls (such as multi-factor authentication and strong passwords) and, where available, encryption to restrict access to the device, and to reduce the risk if a device is stolen or misplaced.

When a device is lost or stolen, you should take steps immediately to ensure a remote memory wipe, where possible.

Follow any applicable policies in your organisation around the use of email.

Use work email accounts rather than personal ones for work-related emails involving personal data. If you have to use personal email make sure contents and attachments are encrypted and avoid using personal or confidential data in subject lines.

Before sending an email, ensure you're sending it to the correct recipient, particularly for emails involving large amounts of personal data or sensitive personal data.

Cloud and Network Access

Where possible only use your organisation's trusted networks or cloud services, and complying with any organisational rules and procedures about cloud or network access, login and, data sharing.

If you are working without cloud or network access, ensure any locally stored data is adequately backed up in a secure manner.

Paper Records

It's important to remember that data protection applies to not only electronically stored or processed data, but also personal data in manual form (such as paper records) where it is, or is intended to be, part of filing system.

Where you are working remotely with paper records, take steps to ensure the security and confidentiality of these records, such as by keeping them locked in a filing cabinet or drawer when not in use, disposing of them securely (e.g. shredding) when no longer needed, and making sure they are not left somewhere where they could be misplaced or stolen.

If you're dealing with records that contain special categories of personal data (e.g. health data) you should take extra care to ensure their security and confidentiality, and only remove such records from a secure location where it is strictly necessary carry out your work.

Where possible, you should keep a written record of which records and files have been taken home, in order to maintain good data access and governance practices.

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Measures to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19 will involve more people working remotely than usual. Below are some tips to keep personal data safe when working away from the office. For more information you can consult our guidance on data security.

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Etiquette for Virtual Meetings: Tips from Slack

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Etiquette for Virtual Meetings: Tips from Slack

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Free account allows 40 mins per meeting with up to 100 participants

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Free account allows 40 mins per meeting with up to 100 participants

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Free course - helpful for running online training

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Free course - helpful for running online training

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Discover practical ways to teach online and support your students

Are you a teacher looking to learn how to teach online successfully but are under time-constraints?

If so, you've come to the right place. This 3-week course will teach you how to adapt from face-to-face teaching to online teaching so that you and your students can get the most out of the school day.

Even for experienced practitioners, doing this under time pressures presents challenges. However, with the right knowledge, you can overcome the hurdles presented by teaching online and embrace its possibilities.

Creating a lesson plan

The course will begin with a discussion about the challenges of online teaching and advice on how to prepare your students for success outside of the classroom.

You'll learn how to create effective lesson plans for online teaching and think about learning design considerations. We'll provide useful resources and share some answers to popular questions about teaching online.

Engaging your students

Discover how to build a strong online community by connecting with others, and learn how to create engagement through interaction. You'll find out how to balance online learning with offline, asynchronous learning.

We'll be thinking about creating a structure for students during this difficult time and discussing how to build an effective student learning environment from home.

You'll select and design different approaches aimed at engaging students, and you'll hear from some students about their experiences with learning online.

Checking progress and providing feedback

In the third and final week of the course, you'll learn what makes an effective assessment and feedback system. Checking student progress and giving useful feedback is very different in an online context, so it's important to learn the best methods.

What topics will you cover?

Getting started with online teaching

Preparing your students for successful online learning

Using tools designed for creating, sharing and re-mixing plans for learning

Building and sharing a library of learning designs as a community of teachers

Bringing lessons learned from teaching online into your everyday practice

Collecting and responding to student feedback

Reflecting on how we teach online and making iterative improvements

Navigating the personal impact of teaching and learning online

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for educators, teachers, lecturers, and trainers who have to rapidly move from face-to-face to online teaching who are under time constraints.

What's included?

FutureLearn are offering everyone who joins this course a free digital upgrade, so that you can experience the full benefits of studying online for free. This means that you get:

Unlimited access to this course

Includes any articles, videos, peer reviews and quizzes

A PDF Certificate of Achievement to prove your success when you're eligible

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps, but you can complete them as quickly or slowly as you like

Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities

Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners

Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course

Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning

Whenever you're ready, mark each step as complete, you're in control

Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Learner reviews

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Get a taste of this course

Find out what this course is like by previewing some of the course steps before you join:

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...

You can use the hashtag #FLteachonline to talk about this course on social media.

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Free Social Work Tools And Resources for Direct Work with Children and Adults by Social Workers

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Assessment Archives - Free Social Work Tools and Resources: SocialWorkersToolbox.com

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APA (2013) Guidelines on Telepsychology - useful for social workers

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Setting an Agenda for Virtual Meetings: Helpful Hints from Slack

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Skype for Business lets you connect with co-workers or business partners in your company or around the world.

Start conversations with IM, voice, or video calls.

See when your contacts are available online, in a meeting, or presenting.

Set industrial-strength security for meetings.

Broadcast online to a large audience.

Present your screen during meetings or give control to others.

Use Skype for Business in other Office programs to chat, call, or join a meeting with a click.

Skype for Business lets you quickly connect with others across your company or around the world.

It looks and feels like Skype, but has added productivity features that help run your business efficiently, like seeing when someone is available, in a meeting, or presenting, providing industrial strength security for calls, or broadcasting a meeting online to a large audience.

In the main window, find contacts, make voice or video calls, or just hover over the person you want to connect with.

Then select IM, call, video chat, or schedule a meeting to start a conversation.

Once you're in a chat, you can pull in other people and add audio.

You can also share your screen, and have others take control to help out.

Skype for Business works with your other Office programs, so you can chat, call, or join a meeting with a click.

Online meetings are created just like regular ones in Outlook.

Call-in info and links are added to the invite automatically.

When it's time to meet, click on the link in your email.

Your contacts can still attend even if they don't have Skype for Business.

Once you're in a meeting, click More Options to see additional features, including recording in full HD.

Skype for Business helps you and your contacts stay in touch and be productive across the Microsoft 365 apps.

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Skype for Business lets you connect with co-workers or business partners in your company or around the world. Start conversations with IM, voice, or video calls. See when your contacts are available online, in a meeting, or presenting. Set industrial-strength security for meetings. Broadcast online to a large audience.

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Starting around March 2020, more people than ever before began working from home, and quite suddenly. Organizations and individuals didn't have time to prepare for remote work or think about the best ways to transition teams, processes, and culture to an online-only environment. No one knew (or yet knows) how long the COVID-19 pandemic and thus mandatory remote work would last.

If you're new to the work-from-home lifestyle, whether due to the coronavirus or because you've managed to find a remote-based job, you may have found that you need to change your habits and routines to make working from home a success.

I've worked 100 percent remotely for more than six years, long before the COVID-19 pandemic started. Several of my friends and colleagues have done it, too. We each face unique challenges, not only because of our different personalities, but also due to our various lifestyles and the type of work we do. Still, many of the core issues we face as remote workers are the same.

Everyone who works remotely has to figure out when to work, where to work, and how to create boundaries between work and personal life. What about office equipment, career development, training opportunities, and building relationships with colleagues?

Working remotely, especially when working from home most of the time, means figuring out these issues and others. Here are 20 tips for leading a better and more productive remote-work life, based on my experience and what I've learned from others.

1. Maintain Regular Hours

Set a schedule and stick to it...most of the time. Having clear guidelines for when to work and when to call it a day helps many remote workers maintain work-life balance.

That said, one of the best benefits of remote work is flexibility, when the job allows for it. Sometimes you need to extend your day or start early to accommodate someone else's time zone. When you do, be sure to wrap up earlier than usual or sleep in a bit the next morning to make up for it.

Automatic time-tracking apps, such as RescueTime, let you check in on whether you're sticking to your schedule. They can also help you figure out what times of day you're most productive versus when you slack off. You can use that information to your advantage by protecting the hours when you're most likely to get difficult work done. For example, if you tend to have high productivity between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m., don't schedule meetings during that time.

2. Create a Morning Routine

Deciding you'll sit down at your desk and start work at a certain time is one thing. Creating a routine that guides you into the chair is another.

A routine can be more powerful than a clock at helping you get started each day. What in your morning routine indicates you're about to start work? It might be making a cup of coffee before you tackle your to-do list. It might be returning home after a jog or getting dressed. (Wearing pajamas is a work-from-home perk for some, but a bad strategy for others.) Look for an existing habit that you have, like brushing your teeth or coming in from a dog walk, to act as your signal. That way, you can tack on the new habit of kicking off your workday.

I say "morning routine," but not everyone who works from home follows a nine-to-five schedule. Yours might be a "getting started" routine at another time of day. Nevertheless, look for an existing habit you have and try to start your work day after it.

3. Set Ground Rules With the People in Your Space

Set ground rules with other people in your home or who share your space when you work.

For example, if you have children who are learning at home or who come home from school while you're still working, they need clear rules about what they can and cannot do during that time. If you share a space with another adult who's working from home, you may have to negotiate quiet times, meeting times, and any shared equipment, like desks and chairs.

Additionally, just because you're home and can let service people into the house or take care of pets doesn't mean other family members should assume you always will. If that's how you choose to divide up the domestic labor, that's fine, but if you simply take it all on by default because you're home, you may feel taken advantage of, and your productivity may suffer.

4. Schedule Breaks

If you work for an organization, know the policy on break times and take them. If you're self-employed, give yourself adequate time during the day to walk away from the computer screen and phone. A lunch hour and two 15-minute breaks seem to be the standard for full-time US employees. For computer-based work and other sedentary work, it's important to stand up and move to get your blood circulating every so often, at least once an hour. It also helps to move your eyes off screen regularly, even if it's a micro-break of 10-20 seconds.

5. Take Breaks in Their Entirety

Don't short-change yourself during breaks, especially your lunch hour or meal break.

There are apps, such as TimeOut for Mac and Smart Break for Windows, that let you set a schedule for when you'll lock yourself out of your computer. RescueTime also has a pause feature that lets you time 15-minute and one-hour breaks. Don't need any more apps in your life? Set an alarm or timer on your phone, or mind the time with a standard clock. No matter how you track your breaks, make sure to take them in their entirety. For example, if you plan for an hour break and return to your desk after only 40 minutes, walk away for another 20.

For more on breaks, see: How to Take Better Breaks to Boost Your Productivity.

6. Leave Home

To the extent that it's allowed and safe during the pandemic, get out of the house and move your body. Your body needs movement and blood circulation. Plus, the fresh air and natural light will do you good. Ideally, step outside for at least a short while before, during, and after your working hours.

This same advice applies to people who work in traditional office settings, too. Leave the building at least once a day during working hours.

In non-pandemic times, remote workers can also go to cafes, libraries, and co-working spaces to break up the monotony of being at home. That's great, too, but the really important part is to leave your home, get some air and natural light, and move.

You don't have to go to crowded public spaces to get away from your solo workspace (and you probably shouldn't right now, either). Take a walk. Weed the garden. Sit on the stoop. You get the picture.

7. Don't Hesitate to Ask for What You Need

If you're employed by a company or organization that supports your work-from-home setup, request the equipment you need as soon as you start working from home, or within a few days of realizing you need something new.

It's extremely important to set a precedent early that you will ask for what you need to get your job done comfortably. These items might include the right monitor, keyboard, mouse, chair, desk, printer, software, and so forth. Organizations that are accustomed to remote employees often have a budget for home office equipment. Ask what it is and how often it's renewed. It also doesn't hurt to ask whether there's a loan agreement or who will pay for return shipping or disposal of outdated equipment. Some remote organizations allow employees to bring in a consultant to make sure their workspaces are set up to be ergonomic.

If you're working from home short-term and are expected to return to an office when it's safe, ask for what you need, but be willing to make acceptable compromises. Ordering a new office chair and desk might be off the table. Instead, a mouse, keyboard, laptop riser, and a back-supporting cushion go a long way and all together can cost less than $200. There are other cheap and easy ways to improve your home office, too.

Image from Sonic Electronix

8. Keep a Dedicated Office Space

In an ideal world, remote employees would have not only a dedicated office, but also two computers, one for work and one for personal use. It's more secure for the employer, and it lets you do all your NSFW activities in private.

But not everyone has a spare room to use as an office in their home, and keeping two machines isn't always realistic. Instead, dedicate a desk or table space and some peripherals that will be used only for work. For example, when your laptop is hooked up to the monitor and external keyboard, it's work time. When it's on your lap, that's personal time. You may want to go as far as partitioning your hard drive and creating a separate user account for work. Making even small points of differentiation between work time and personal time helps your brain know when you're off the clock, and that contributes to better work-life balance.

For more tips on creating a great workspace, see our story on cheap and easy ways to level up your home office. We also have tips for how to can maintain focus and productivity with our guide to keeping your desk tidy.

9. Maintain a Separate Phone Number

Set up a phone number that you only use for calls with colleagues and clients. It doesn't have to be a landline or a second mobile phone, or even require a SIM card. It can be a VoIP service, such as Google Voice or Skype.

Similar to some of the other tips, having a separate phone number helps you manage your work-life balance.

10. Use a VPN

Use a VPN whenever you're connected to a network that you don't control. That includes Wi-Fi at co-working spaces, cafes, libraries, airports, hotels, and so forth. Organizations often have their own VPNs that off-site employees need to access certain servers or websites that store information meant only for internal use. In those cases, you'll also need to use a VPN at home. It's a good idea to get into the habit of leaving your VPN connected as often as possible because it's always safer to have it on than not.

One more point about VPNs: When you're connected to a company VPN, your organization could conceivably see what you're doing. So, don't view porn via a corporate VPN.

11. Socialize With Colleagues

Loneliness, disconnect, and isolation are common problems in remote work life, especially for extroverts. Companies with a remote work culture usually offer ways to socialize. For example, they might have channels in a team messaging app, like Slack, for talking about common interests or organizing meetups for people in the same region.

Figure out how much interaction you need to feel connected and included. Even if you're highly introverted and don't like socializing, give a few interactive experiences a try so that you're familiar with them if you ever decide you want them. If you're not at a company with a strong remote culture, you may need to be more proactive about nurturing relationships.

As much as team messaging apps are excellent venues for socializing, they tend to create distractions, too; check out these tips on how not to get overwhelmed by Slack.

12. "Show Up" to Meetings and Be Heard

Certainly, you'll take part in video conferences and conference calls while working remotely, but it's a good idea to attend optional meetings sometimes, too. Be sure to speak up during meetings so everyone knows you're on the call. A simple, "Thanks, everyone. Bye!" at the close goes a long way toward making your presence known.

If your company uses Zoom Meetings for its video conferencing, you can quickly master its ins and outs with our story: Top Zoom Tips for a Locked-Down World.

13. Get Face Time

If your employer is lax about getting you in a room with other employees, ask to have an annual or semi-annual trip in your contract. It could be for annual planning, training, or team building. Or, tack it onto some other business event, such as a yearly fiscal meeting, nearby conference, or office holiday party. Don't wait around for someone to invite you to the office or an event. Be proactive.

For those unexpectedly working from home who are also trying to reduce face-to-face contact, set up a video call with your colleagues or manager once a week to check in. Don't be afraid to let check-in meetings be as short as they need to be. Sometimes a five-minute conversation is all it takes to stay connected.

14. Take Sick Days

When you're not well, take time off. If sick days are part of your compensation package, take the time off that you need. Not taking it is like throwing away money!

If you're freelance or self-employed without paid sick time, it can be tempting to power through illnesses and keep working. Remember that for your long-term wellness and productivity, it's best to rest and get better so that you can get back to work at full capacity.

15. Look for Training and Learning Opportunities

When you're not in an office with your fellow employees, you might miss out on training and skills development courses that are taught in person. Your company might even forget to add you to its online training courses. It can be tempting to regard this as a dodged bullet, but you might be missing out on an opportunity to learn something useful. Speak up and make sure you're included.

In addition to top-down training, you can request online or in-person courses, training, and coaching if you need it. There are also plenty of online learning sites that teach business soft skills, programming, software skills, and other courses. Remote companies often have a budget for learning and skills training. If your organization doesn't, ask if they might add it.

In non-pandemic times, people who work 100 percent remotely might seek out learning opportunities that are taught at the organization's headquarters or nearby. That way, you get training and face time with colleagues in one go.

16. Overcommunicate

Working remotely requires that everyone overcommunicate.

Tell everyone who needs to know about your schedule and availability often. Don't assume they'll remember. When you finish a project or important task, say so. Overcommunicating doesn't necessarily mean you have to write a five-paragraph essay to explain your every move, but it does mean repeating yourself. Joke about how you must have mentioned your upcoming vacation six times already, then mention it again.

17. Be Positive

Reading tone in written messages is really difficult in all-remote settings. The less face time you have with people, the more an intentionally concise message can come off as terse and short-tempered.

In remote work settings, everyone must be positive, to the point where it may feel like you're being overly positive, gushy even. Otherwise, you risk sounding like a jerk. It's unfortunate, but true. So embrace the exclamation point! Find your favorite emoji. You're going to need them :D

18. Take Advantage of Your Perks

For two years, I baked a loaf of bread nearly every week. Why? Because I was home and I could. I love baking bread, but you need to be home to tend to it once an hour or so to punch down the dough, shape the loaf, and let it bake. It doesn't take a lot of hands-on time, but you need to be there. When I worked in an office full-time, I struggled to find half a day when I was home to bake.

Working remotely comes with unique perks. Take advantage of them. You deserve it.

Image by Vicky Ng on Unsplash

19. Don't Be Too Hard on Yourself or Others

Successful remote employees have a reputation for being extremely disciplined. After all, it takes serious focus to do any full-time job from an unconventional space.

That said, everyone lets their attention drift sometimes. If you find yourself working one minute and researching vacation house rentals the next, don't reprimand yourself too harshly. Instead, ask yourself whether people in an office setting do the same thing. If the answer is yes, cut yourself some slack, then get back to work. Above all, remember, you need to balance productivity with self-care; otherwise, you risk burning out.

During the COVID-19 pandemic-but really all the time-we need to extend this same kindness and forgiving attitude to our co-workers, clients, and bosses. There is an extraordinary amount of stress and anxiety during a global pandemic. Keep in mind that you may not know what another person is going through not only in life, but also in their home work environment. Cut them some slack.

20. End Your Day With a Routine

Just as you should start your day with a routine, create a habit that signals the close of the workday. It might be a sign-off on a business messaging app, an evening dog walk, or an at-home yoga class. Something as simple as shutting down your computer and turning on a favorite podcast will do. Whatever you choose, do it consistently to mark the end of working hours.

Make It Personal

Above all else, figure out what works best for you. Sometimes the answer is apparent, but other times you might need some inspiration from other remote workers who are in the same boat. A supportive community does exist, whether you find them in your organization's Slack channel or online through blogs or Twitter. Consider, too, that you might need to shake up your routine once in a while, lest it gets too...routine.

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More people than ever are working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether you're new to working remotely or just looking to level up, these tips from a remote work pro can help you stay productive and maintain balance.

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CMRP Audio downloads | Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice | Bangor University

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Bangor University is a Registered Charity: No. 1141565

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Guidance from the Australian Association of Social Workers about Technology and Social Work Practice

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Guidance from the Australian Association of Social Workers about Technology and Social Work Practice

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A journal article about the Ethics of Digital/Online Social Work Practice

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A journal article about the Ethics of Digital/Online Social Work Practice

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Guide from Slack about the length of time for different meetings

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Guide from Slack about the length of time for different meetings

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Meet Now: How to use Skype’s free Zoom alternative for video calls

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Skype’s free group chat feature is here to compete with Zoom, but there’s a catch.

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Some of this also applies to setting up online meetings

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Some of this also applies to setting up online meetings

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As the newly identified coronavirus, COVID-19, continues to spread around the world, many schools are moving all classes to an online environment. Planning a course online generally takes time and preparation, which is a luxury that a rising number of business schools -and other institutions around the globe-just don't have as they respond quickly to this outbreak.

While it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the idea of moving your traditional lecture or discussion course online, the good news is that there are many advantages to online teaching. My advice? Embrace the opportunity that this unfortunate circumstance offers. You now have the chance to work with students online, and they have the chance to learn online. This will help them develop different skills that will be extremely useful to them in their careers as more and more work gets done virtually. Being comfortable with the idea of interacting virtually and using online tools will be helpful to your students long term.

When you're struggling because you can't see your students in the same physical space or you can't move around the room the way you're used to, keep that bigger picture in mind. For now, here are some tips to help you succeed in transitioning your physical classroom into an online environment.

Q: What's the best way to manage class time?

Time is an important thing to think about, particularly if you're running an asynchronous course, during which students are logging in at all hours of the day and running discussion boards. You could literally teach the course 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but obviously you're not going to. Think about how much time you're willing or able to devote to the class to ensure you can balance your other obligations, such as research and your life outside teaching. Decide how many hours that might be, then figure out how you can best and most efficiently use that time.

Know that the workload in an online course, especially if you've never taught online or if you're teaching a course you haven't taught online before, is going to be disproportionately heavy early on. For the first few weeks, try to increase the time you are devoting to the class. The more you're able to do that, the better.

Q: How long should an online class session be?

Fatigue is a major challenge for educators and students when teaching and learning online. I prefer 50- to 90-minute online sessions, but the reality is that sometimes my classes run for 140 minutes. If you go past an hour, introduce as much unpredictability and novelty as you can. If you use slides, don't share them in advance for this reason. Use surprising questions, groups, and small activities (writing, problem solving, videos, or shared documents, for example) to break up the monotony. And be sure to offer breaks if you go past 90 minutes.

For yourself, get comfortable (if you are standing, consider a mat or other padding) and do anything you can to optimize your energy and mindset. I find online teaching to be the most cognitively demanding thing I do, so I always try to get as much as sleep as I can the night before, fast the day of, and block a few minutes to myself just before I "go live" to relax and remind myself that I want to help these students learn. For many of my colleagues, it's just the right cup(s) of coffee, their favorite foods beforehand, or perhaps some exercise.

Q: How should I set up my home office for a class session?

If you're teaching synchronously, make sure you are comfortable before class starts. I like to stand when I teach; I find it gives me more energy and helps me think better. I also always keep multiple colored pens, multiple colored Post-it Notes, a teaching plan propped up, and a clipboard sitting on a tablet stand. During the class, when something occurs to me, I'll jot it down. It might be something I want to do in 10 minutes, or a reminder for something else, or a student that I want to call on. I stick the notes on the monitor, trying to always stay on camera when I can. Having that list available to me is incredibly useful as a reference.

Other tips for running a successful class from your home:

Find a way to let others in your household know that you're on the air-that you're live with students. This could be a Post-it Note or a large sign that you put up, but always do it. Make sure you're not going to be disturbed.

Use the biggest monitor that you have. If you don't have a large computer monitor, use your TV set. You're going to be able to see yourself and you're going to be able to see your students if they're sending or streaming video.

Do what you can do reduce noise. You don't want hums-turn down your heating or the cooling system for a little bit if you can.

Get the lighting as optimized as possible. There are many tutorials online. You can search "lighting for video conferencing" or ask your children how they light selfies; it's the same technology.

Turn off your notifications. You don't want your emails popping up while you're teaching. Some online teaching and conferencing tools, such as Zoom, are smart and will turn those off for you.

Decide whether you'll wear a headset or use speakers. Most video conferencing software now has good-quality audio. I use speakers when I teach from my setup, but sometimes you'll get feedback, in which case you do need to have headphones. Your students should also use headphones to cut down on feedback.

Make sure you check that the audio and video are both clear before you go live.

Q: How fancy do I need to be with the technology?

Keep your technology simple and lean. Use tools that you and your students know, rather than make the learning curve even steeper. Making this move is a big adjustment for all of us; don't add to the complexity unless you must.

For synchronous meetings, I use functionality built in the platform to share my screen and use chats, polls, and Q&As. I set up the polls in advance. If you want to do more sophisticated sharing, such as showing a video and having students hear the audio, or using your own software for added functionality, most tools have settings to enable that. In general, the differences between tools are fairly small and are getting smaller each year. Most of the tools are fairly stable, although they are sensitive to the speed of connectivity and local regulations. These issues change regularly and may require some agility. If you can, conduct a survey or run tests before choosing your tool.

For tracking attendance, some tools offer logging functions, but I've found it easier to create a poll and require everyone to respond, using that list as attendance. Or just take screen grabs of the participant video array or participant list at the beginning and the end of each session.

Q: How can I be more efficient when creating a course online?

Reuse when you can. Talk to colleagues who may have content that you can repost. When you create an assignment, think about how you might modularize it so that you can just copy and paste parts of it the next time you teach the course. With online courses, you can reuse a tremendous amount of content. This speaks to that larger up-front time investment that I mentioned earlier. I realize that if you're just going into your first online course, this may not sound very important. But you'll find there are ways to reuse that will save you significant time.

Q: How does grading change in online classes, especially when using a forced curve?

Whatever grading mechanism you use in the traditional classroom absolutely can translate to the online classroom. For a forced curve where you have to give some lower and some higher scores, make sure your system is transparent and students are aware of the criteria. For example, if you're going to grade discussion posts, explain what makes a good post and why. As long as you do that, you can absolutely hold to the same standards with the same low level of grade complaints.

Q: How can I assess how I am doing?

Remember that your students are not expecting these initial sessions to be perfect. Pay close attention to the quality of their responses and deliverables to see if they are learning at the pace you expect. Record synchronous sessions and watch at least parts of the recording to spot tendencies you'd like to change. Work with colleagues to review one another's classes. Create a survey for the class to ask how things are going and ask for suggestions for improvements.
Click here to read Part 2 of this feature, which covers strategies for engaging students in an online classroom.

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As the newly identified coronavirus, COVID-19, continues to spread around the world, many schools are moving all classes to an online environment. Planning a course online generally takes time and preparation, which is a luxury that a rising number of business schools -and other institutions around the globe-just don't have as they respond quickly to this outbreak.