Charlie Howard is a social entrepreneur but she is also a clinical psychologist with a regular group of patients. Ordinarily she would see them face to face. In Covid times, like most psychologists, she has switched to Zoom. Charlie talks here in the first few weeks after lockdown about the difficulties and opportunities that were thrown up.
Frank Oberklaid, a paediatrician at Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital wrote to us about his experiences about a month after the first lockdown in Victoria.
I run my two clinics from home via telehealth -70% of the hospital clinics are now run this way. It’s not too bad for established patients but it is difficult to build a relationship with new patients. All staff of the research institute (the Centre for Community Child Health that Frank founded and led) are now working from home, and all the hospitals in Melbourne including the RCH are preparing for the tsunami that we all hope will not come. I am on Zoom all day, and it is tiring in a different sort of way, more so than long days at the hospital. I am supposed to be working 80% but it feels busier than that.
Love in Covid Times is a collaboration with On Our Radar. Podcasts will be available every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.