HALIFAX -- The strength of Nova Scotians has been tested like never before. First with the COVID-19 pandemic, then Canada’s worst mass shooting, and now a tragedy involving a military helicopter.

As residents struggle to cope with the continued crisis, Roy Ellis, a bereavement coordinator with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, says there is no guidebook on how to maneuver through tragedy. However, to stay strong Ellis says you need to be honest.

“I think it is really centrally important to check in on ourselves and slow down long enough that we can actually hear our own heartbeat,” says Ellis.

‘There's a breathless pace to this that doesn't give us a chance to catch our breath, sit quietly with ourselves for a moment and honour what is actually happening inside of ourselves and happening to our community.”

Ellis says, while it is important to stay informed, it can also be difficult.

“We want to be close enough to the pain that we can feel it and know it, but not so close that we're either overwhelmed and drowning, and not far enough away that we're dissociative,” says Ellis.

“The job is to find a nice in-between place where we can touch this stuff, feel it, but also be able to take breaks and know when we've had too much.”

If you feel there's not much to be optimistic about right now, Ellis says that’s okay.

“Grief is not very optimistic, grief is to bring us together in our pain,” says Ellis.

“Our job in grief is to drop into the pain and recognize that together in this pain is where we need to be and that joins us together. Hope comes in small doses and it comes in real human encounters of the heart.”

Halifax resident Jane Finlay-Young says there’s a part of her that does feel hope.

“We're really seeing what it's really like to be human and maybe we will connect more and maybe there will be less division and for that I feel hopeful,” says Finlay-Young.

If you're concerned about your own mental health or that of somebody else, Nova Scotia's mental health crisis line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call 1-888-429-8167. Kids Help Phone can be reached by calling 1-800-668-6868 or by texting 68 68 68.