restarting after covid 19 for your special needs participants

As activities resume, here is what your special needs friends and participants with medical conditions might benefit the most from: 

1: It is always ideal if accommodations can be made for them to join, however with the current health risks that may not be possible.  

2: Acknowledge that it is ok if they cannot join you yet.   This itself says you see them and they're not forgotten!

3: Recognize to them that they will be missed by not being there in person and that you understand why they cannot come.  

4: If there is any way to livestream, call in, or otherwise involve those who can't be there, make a specific invitation to include them. 

5: Take a moment to recognize just how hard this is for them.  If you are a person of faith, pray for them and their family.  As much as you've missed being in public activities during the quarantine, many people with special needs or medical conditions have been in their homes almost constantly since the beginning of the flu season (November 2019!), and many are being told by their physicians not to go out other than necessary until next spring (March 2021!).

6:Check back in.  Mark a calendar and don't let months go by without contacting them again to walk back through these things.  Maybe the situation will have changed and accommodations can be made.  Maybe just checking in will be what they needed to brighten their outlook on their own situation just a little bit.

These steps are simple things that, despite still not being able to attend, help us to know we are not forgotten.  Sadness is one thing.  Anger, bitterness, and depression are easily grown from isolation and loneliness, but can be helped by intentional effort by those who care about them.

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I've tried to put words to how we are processing things right now, but none of them work out to actually portray what I want it to.  In short, while we are glad that covid-19 is posing less of a threat to the general population, the outlook for our family is still not as good because of the medical conditions within our home. 

We (our children especially) are watching things resume and there is a sadness in knowing that after many months of being home things are beginning to happen with the people and groups we want to engage with, but we cannot be a part of it still.  There's kindof an expectation around us that everyone will be excited to re-engage.  There is a sadness in not being able to return and a bit of feeling left out for those whose activities have left no options for them to engage other than in-person. 

I know very well it is not only us, so I hope the above considerations can help those in leadership of different organizations that are starting back up to retain their special needs families and participants with medical conditions, as well as to help the families and other participants to maintain their connections.