ThaiHealth suggests family lifestyles be adapted under the New Normal

Get together to talk about COVID -19 sometimes

 

ThaiHealth has advised families to adjust and adapt the family rules under the New Normal lifestyles, by adhering to sanitary rules, washing hands, eating hot cooked food with personal silverware, keeping physical distances, and cheering your loved ones up when stress gets in the way.

 

ThaiHealth’s Director of Healthy Child, Youth, and Family Promotion Section, Ms Nattaya Boonpakdee, said that the “New Normal” context for Thai families largely varies depending on economical status, location, and types of family. Therefore, each family’s way of adjustment and adaptation to CoVid-19 age should be more or less flexible. However, the first thing to be done is reconstituting rules to meet the needs of the changing lifestyles in order to be safe from CoVid-19.

 

Try to maintain usual daily routines

 

Sanitation

In big three-generation families, parents must educate other family members on the correct way to lead their lives according to sanitary issues – washing hands, eating hot cooked meals, not sharing personal necessities, wearing face masks when going out, and take thorough shower after returning home.

Be a good role model for children

 

Keeping Physical Distance

Physical distancing measure should be used even in household. If area is limited which make it difficult for keeping distance, there has to be a way to prevent overcrowding, such as switching to community areas.

Professional and Education Life

The “Work From Home” culture during CoVid-19 has become a more popular practice as many organisations and educational institutions permit more learning and working from home. Schools have also postponed the start of new semester, prompting educators to organise online courses, thus making all family members to be at home all day.

“The new way of family life under CoVid-19 situation will certainly create stress as people have to change themselves a lot. Those who are easily adaptable will not be at risk of stress, but those who are with limited resources will be more at risk. Moreover, if they have medical conditions especially by CoVid-19, this could become a more perplexed problem. So, there should be a good planning ahead. Every family member is encouraged to brainstorm and reconstitute new family rules, keep their family healthy, and cheer other people up physically and mentally. If people are always healthy, engaged in exercise on a regular basis, the risk of contracting viruses or diseases will be lower.”

She also explained further that ThaiHealth is giving people support to rid Thai families of CoVid-19 through its two social works: 1) Educating people by creating informative media and online tales that can be used in every household where parents can instruct their children on how to lead their lives at home, and 2) For families with sensitive issues or limited resources, ThaiHealth has piloted a project to help these families gain more income through teaching vocational skills, job matching, and setting up community family volunteers.