“I’m happy today,” she said.
The Vivid Living client is spending the day with Tanya and has just sat in on a science live stream with other clients in the building.
For the most part the experiment, involving balloons, has been a lot of fun, though Lauren has one major issue with it.
“I don’t like the balloons popping,” she said.
While she is happy spending one-on-one time with Tanya, she is also missing the way things normally operate at Vivid Living.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are far fewer people around the building than there would normally be, but Lauren is making do during her time at the facility.
Though there have regularly been things for her to do.
“She’s been doing a lot of arts and crafts,” Tanya says.
“She loves colouring in and music, so we’ve found a lot of things around that we can do as well. It’s not the same as what we are used to, but we are finding different things we can be involved in.”
Under normal circumstances, Lauren would be going out into the community and spending more time with her group.
So she is missing that interaction, especially with only being in Echuca one day a week.
“As much as the one-on-one is great, it’s not the same and people absolutely miss going out and spending time together, and Lauren is one of those people. It’s usually busy and there are a lot of people around and talking. And she misses that.”
But one thing Lauren does not want to do is talk about why things are like they are.
Like many, she is sick of hearing about COVID-19.
“I don’t like it,” she said.
“She thinks people talk about it far too much,” Tanya added.
“We try and avoid discussing it around here as much as we can. Every morning it is briefly brought up, but more as a reminder of what people can and can’t do in terms of the rules.
“Outside of that, it’s just a reminder that we need to wash our hands regularly if we want to keep doing things.”
Fortunately, Lauren knows that eventually everything is going to go back to normal, and the people around Vivid Living will return, meaning more and bigger activities.
“She’s going to be really happy to see everyone come back,” Tanya says, as Lauren agrees.
But for now, Lauren's enjoying the one-on-one opportunities while she can.
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