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COVID-19 Pandemic
Aquarium Foundation's response to the global pandemic
September 2021
The massive effects of the virus disrupted normal patterns of our behaviour and continues to take an emotional toll on all of us. It meant having to face major losses as it devastated people’s lives emotionally, physically, economically, and spiritually. We spent our time, every day, counting the escalating numbers of deaths feeling helplessly overwhelmed with fear. It has been a catastrophic time, a true nightmare.
Although we are not yet completely out of danger, we celebrated the discovery of vaccines and waited patiently for our turns. At present, we have reached the green zone and continue to wear masks and practice social distancing in our quest to protect ourselves and others.
After more than 19 months of social isolation we now have the opportunity to go out and explore the places we had to avoid. There is now hope for an eventual return to the normal. We must pick up the broken pieces that the virus has ravaged. We have become more attuned to ourselves and others. We have learned so much about love and loss, about attachment and abandonment, about the importance of appreciating the small things and the bigger things, never taking anyone or anything for granted. We have suffered plenty.
We need to take control over whatever we can do for ourselves. As a community, we need to maintain a united front to put an end to this terrible pandemic. We need to continue to wear our masks, maintain social distancing and get the first, followed by the second dose of the vaccine.
At AF we understand the extent of the devastating impact that COVID-19 has had worldwide. We are here to help you and your families work through the adverse effects that this terrible virus has had on children, parents, extended family and other relationships. AF will continue to provide counsel and support.
July 2020
At the end of 2019, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, a health and humanitarian crisis that resulted in tremendous suffering and drastic changes to our lives.
The world is currently grappling with the devastating effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic. It has affected so many spheres of our lives: emotionally, psychologically, socially, economically and politically. It has taken precious lives, resulted in total family disequilibrium and left many unemployed and in precarious financial states. We find ourselves in a cataclysmic moment when the pandemic is both the virus and the source of anxiety. We are all anxious and it is undeniable, the threat of contagion is real. The lockdown and quarantine have resulted in isolation and the temporary interruption of social relationships. Children have lost contacts with their peers both in the classroom and in schoolyards. Youth who rely on peer groups for consolidation of their identities and for socialization needs, including the building of relationships with others in the social system, are suffering greatly. Parents rely on community resources for their children’s optimal physical and emotional development including learning social skills, and different ideologies. Parents and children are now at home. Some parents are unemployed and facing economic and other hardships. Some others, in the midst of this pandemic are experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and moral injury. These are truly unprecedented times.
At Aquarium Foundation, we believe that it is our responsibility to maintain our psychoanalytic minds and make the space necessary for children and youth in need. We understand the anxieties that this precarious situation stirs up. It requires that we re-think and reorganize our individual and collective well-being. At Aquarium Foundation, we believe that expanding access to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy has become an urgent task.
We will accommodate the frame to meet the needs of those who are in need. We have transitioned from face-to-face to virtual clinical sessions and despite some occasional technological pitfalls, we believe that it works very well.
We will provide grants for families in need, as well as provide consultation to primary care physicians, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychoeducators in schools and other professionals in the field of mental health.
It is our goal and our mission.
