Looking to the future with (a bit of) optimism - at last! 

With the recent news that two separate but similar COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech & then Moderna) have early Phase 3 (the final 'trial' phase) results indicating efficacy rates of around or above 90% ... well, I have found myself feeling a bit, but just a bit, more optimistic these last few days (despite now having to self-isolate myself for 14 days with my mum who has just tested positive herself!).

But, and I do feel that there is a bit but coming, I worry that we in our Intensive Interaction community have a massive job in front of us - not just to crack on from where we left off, but initially to gain back our undoubtedly lost 'social and emotional' ground, and fully reconnect with those important people and services around us. I also feel that we will have to contend with some very necessary (in infection control terms) caution in fully returning to all our Intensive Interaction practices, 'pure and simple', in all circumstances. 

Some particular aspects of our Intensive Interaction practice may need to be more gradually reintroduced for some people - both practitioners and recipients alike (and I am not assigning roles within those two categories; sometimes I have felt that I am the recipient of some Intensive Interactions, sometimes the practitioner!). It may be that it will take some of us (practitioners and recipients alike, as above), some time to reclaim our natural, confident and intuitive style of engagement whenever PPE and social distancing are deigned to be unnecessary - and that won't be any time soon, especially so for our more vulnerable people. 

Aspects of skin-to-skin contact, or very close proximity, or say, using breath rhythms on someone's cheek, spring to mind as aspects of practice that may still be some way off in some care and educational contexts. Also, some people may have now got used to us being less hands-on, seeing us in some version of PPE, sensing our increased social distancing (Hands, Face, Space!), and so may need time to gradually readjust to less strict infection control procedures; as may we as practitioners. 

It may also be that in the short/medium term the financial resources available to us may become tighter, both in public and private domains; some money may be redirected to physical health and recuperation issues, not social or emotional aspects of care. It may even be that in some services some roles may not be restored post furlough, and some services may take this opportunity [sic] to radically restructure. In many respects, the future looks uncertain; the 'new normal' may not be a mirror image of the old one - especially so at first.

But however daunting it might seem currently, when we can we need to get our Intensive Interaction fully back out there. The sight of vulnerable loved ones being parted by the virus has been truly heart-breaking, and I feel that there is therefore a societal yearning to reconnect socially and emotionally with all those important to us. 

During this pandemic it has been clearly evident that never before have so many people across society (even our now Covid-accustomed Prime Minister) had to acknowledge how vitally important positive, intensive, social interactivity really, profoundly, absolutely is ... for health as well as for the sake of love and happiness! It has been taken for granted for too long (although not by us). 

But when we do get the chance to fully get back out there, we will need to be understanding about some people's (and some service's) reluctance to move quickly in getting back to some kind of 'normal', new or otherwise; but it is essential that we do so, for so many people's sake.