How you can help people stuck in isolation during the Canberra lockdown

For people like Kingston's Claire Bruen, that's how she is surviving isolation. The Canberran is on day 11 of isolation after a recent trip to Sydney. With no family in Canberra, she has had to rely on friends dropping off food, walking her dog Winston and even checking her mail as she lives in an apartment block.

"I'm very privileged to have such great friends. Moments like these remind you how lucky you are," Ms Bruen said.

As support networks such as Ms Bruen's get a workout in the past few days, it's not surprising to find that Canberrans are some of the country's most considerate people.

A study - conducted for Helga's and developed by McCrindle - released on Tuesday, found that 60 per cent of Canberrans consider other people's needs either all the time or very often.

So with all that in mind, how can you help your fellow Canberrans during the lockdown?

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The first step is knowing who you should reach out to. This can be pretty simple if you have a strong network. But how about those in your immediate area? How are your neighbours going?

The ACT government has a Know Your Neighbour form that you can download from its website. The idea is you fill out the details and indicate what you're happy to help out with and then pop it in a neighbour's letterbox. It even has a box you can tick if you're open to having a chat over the phone. Who knows? It may just be the ice-breaker you need for a life-long friendship.

This one is the big one - and fairly obvious. If you're dropping off groceries (or anything, for that matter), always leave them at the door to be collected after you've left.

And think about cleanliness when you are doing these things. It doesn't take much to sanitise your hands before picking up a coffee to drop off to a friend, for example.

When people come to collect Ms Bruen's mail, she washes her hands and her letterbox keys before dropping them over the balcony for a friend to collect.

"I don't want to make anyone sick. I would just hate that," she says.

"When people come to walk my dog, I wash his harness and his little jacket and his lead, wash my hands, put him it all on him, then I wash him down with the doggy wipe. Then I put my mask on, toss his treats out into my corridor and then hook him on my door as my friends come up the lift."

It doesn't take much to perform little acts of kindness.

Remember when Canberra was in its first lockdown and everyone put their teddy bears out for the kids walking by? Where are those teddies now?

And are you really going to eat all of that sourdough yourself? How about dropping some off to a friend? Or even order some goodies online to be delivered to their door?

At the end of the day, even just a phone call can go a long way.

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