Blog

Alert Levels 3 and 4

Our therapy rooms in Morningside are closed for face-to-face therapy sessions under Alert Levels 3 and 4.

Our focus is providing support to children and families where and as we can. This will be primarily through online tools. The following Kidz Therapy services are available through online sessions:

• Therapeutic sessions (psychology and psychotherapy)
• Occupational Therapy
• Art Therapy

If you are a current client and wish to continue treatment with virtual sessions, please contact your therapist directly to arrange this.

We have limited online therapy spaces available for new clients. If you or someone in your family needs additional support in these times, please email info@kidztherapy.co.nz for more information.

• Unfortunately, some of our services are not able to continue in Alert Level 4. These are:
  Educational Psychology Assessments
• Speech Therapy
• Dance and Movement Therapy



Our staff will be in touch to reschedule any appointments affected by the change in Covid alert levels once we have a confirmed date for the move to Alert Level 2.

Alert Level 2

The Kidz Therapy rooms are open at Level 2. All of our therapy and assessment options are available through face-to-face sessions. There are some restrictions, plus safe hygiene practices and contact tracing protocols in place:

• All clients are required to provide their details for contact tracing. This can be done (undertaken) either through the NZCovid Tracer App or the hard copy register provided in reception.
• Additional cleaning protocols are in place to ensure our therapy rooms are spotlessly clean. This includes regular cleaning of common areas such as the reception, bathrooms, stair railings etc.
• Kidz Therapy staff will wipe down surfaces in therapy rooms between clients
• Hand sanitiser is provided for client and staff use in each room
• Although face coverings are not mandatory at Alert Level 2, we ask clients to consider wearing one in our therapy rooms and common areas where it is not possible to maintain a 2 m distance from others.
• As there is limited space available at Kidz Therapy, we ask that under Level 2, parents / guardians do not wait at the centre while their child is in their appointment.

If you or your child are more comfortable continuing with online sessions during Level 2, this can be arranged directly with your therapist.

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation, our Number One priority is to keep ourselves, children and families safe and healthy.

Extra information

There is a lot of information out there at the moment about Covid-19 and it can be hard to tell facts from fake news. The Worldometers website provides factual worldwide information regarding the pandemic.

Support for young people

The suddenness and uncertainty when Covid Alert Levels change is challenging for most of us. However, young people can find them particularly challenging. Especially if they are finding it difficult to remain linked into education or if their employment is impacted.

If you or a family member are in crisis, contact your District Health Board for urgent advice and support.

Otherwise, there are a range of dedicated self-help tools and support available for young people including:

• SPARX is a computerised self-help programme intended to help people aged 12-19 who may be feeling down
• Mental Wealth by Le Va provides online resources to help young people look after their mental health, and includes online counselling
• The Lowdown provides videos and articles about anxiety and depression and also includes support through a free 24/7 helpline, text and webchat
• Aroha is a chatbot to help young people cope with stress
• Youthline provides support for young people via the fee call service, text and webchat
• Melon Health provides online tools and resources to help people manage stressful times, and also has an app available for download
• Sparklers is a free online toolkit of wellbeing activities for Tamariki Years 1 to 8.
• 1737 is a free service for any New Zealander, including young people, that may be feeling down, anxious, a bit overwhelmed or just need to chat to someone. People can call or text for free 24/7.

Social media resources

A range of organisations and services are providing useful content focused on sharing mental wellbeing messages. Some examples that you may wish to look at sharing across your own networks include:

• Mentemia’s blog and Instagram and Facebook content
• Melon’s series of Facebook videos
• The Mental Health Foundation’s content on the Five Ways to Wellbeing (via the Getting Through Together campaign)
• Youthline’s daily reminders on Instagram and Facebook