Surrounded by flowers

The pressure on mental health services continues so that every morning the inpatient unit is full and there is at least one person waiting (in Emergency Department, the Custody Unit, or at home) to be admitted as soon as someone is discharged. Inpatient staff work hard to discharge patients appropriately; on one day last week six people were discharged and for a few days we did have "room in the inn". I feel for the staff as their efforts seem to make little long term difference. I know that the discharges are appropriate as the readmission (within 28 days) rate is one of the lowest in the country. Working remotely and by AVL means I am a little impotent, except for supporting the others.

After nearly 8 hours of such work, I took myself out for a jog as the tide came in to the Southend. Nice photos of a white-faced heron, a Tuturiwhatu, a couple of masked lapwings, and a single Kotare ended up being relegated to the unused pile when a Kereru perched in a flowering tree in front of the house that belonged to S' mother.

As feared and at the same time expected, the number of new cases of Covid reported yesterday jumped considerably. I am hoping that this reflects more people choosing to have a test early on in being symptomatic after the success of Super Saturday. Reading about it, it seems clear that the citizens of New Zealand have taken back agency in the response to the delta variant of Covid. Most people have accepted that even though the vaccine is not 100% preventative of infection. the vast majority of admissions with Covid are unvaccinated, even though they are the minority in the population now. 

Today is the end of the ninth week we have been in lockdown; five weeks at Level 4 and the last four at Level 3. The sun has shone all day today, and for the first time since early autumn I felt really warm during today's run. 

Things could be worse.