Solutions to child care during COVID-19
Finding a personal and professional balance
Finding a personal and professional balance
Care for your child or for pandemic-stricken patients? It’s a choice that most health care professionals never imagined they’d face. Unfortunately, due to an upsurge in COVID-19 cases and dwindling child care options, it’s an unsettling reality.
Liz Chen, an assistant professor at theUNC Gillings School of Global Public HealthOpens in new window, is co-leading the UNC Task Force for Child Care for Health Care Workers. Its mission is urgent: to find solutions to emergency child care services needed by employees ofUNC HealthOpens in new windowand UNC School of Medicine. Coronavirus-induced school and daycare closings have turned their lives into logistical conundrums.
“We keep hearing from health care employees that this feels like an impossible situation,” Chen said. “They feel a sense of urgency and duty to go to work.”
One quick answer was launchingchildcarenc.orgOpens in new window, a website that includes resources and safety recommendations for Triangle-area health care workers. On the site, they can find a needs-assessment survey, family guidelines and resources offered by organizations across the state, including emergency services coordinated by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the YMCA.
Read the completeCarolina Story…Opens in new window