AN UPDATED STATEMENT TO OUR COMPASS COMMUNITY REGARDING COVID-19

March 16, 2020

Dear Compass Community,

Now more than ever consistency, community and peer support are critical for the health and well-being of our children, adolescents, and families. With every crisis there comes opportunity to learn, support, and grow with one another. In the best interest of balancing the precautions of “social distancing” with the importance of continuum of care, we are transitioning to virtual session options (TELEHEALTH) until concerns about the spread of the Coronavirus through social interaction begin to subside. We are very fortunate to live in a time when this technology is available, offering the opportunity to continue the mission to support clients and their families, despite the challenges faced in our current social climate.

Disruption in schedules can often create feelings of confusion, worry, and fear. Our goal is to minimize discomfort or unease with this transition: 1) by avoiding an “interruption” in your/your child’s daily/weekly schedule 2) by continuing to offer access to the skills sessions and counseling services that many rely on for their social/emotional well-being and feelings of accomplishment and success. In a time of such uncertainty, consistency and normalcy are the dynamic-duo that fortify a person’s resiliency and ability to cope. It is our mission at Compass to be at-the-ready to offer such support to your family system.

We will be shifting to these platforms as early as this week. We hope this opportunity offers you an alternative to suspension or cancellation of services; and further limits disruption to your/your child’s schedule.

If you are a BCBS or Tufts subscriber, we encourage you to reach out to your benefits coordinator to learn whether or not your plan offers telehealth.

If you are currently a private pay client at Compass, please reach out to your Compass provider to discuss booking virtual sessions with him/her.

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A Message to clients/families about COVID-19

Dear Clients/Families,

The spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is a challenging and everchanging situation. The health and wellness of our service providers, clients, and families is extremely important to us. As concern about coronavirus becomes more widespread, we will continue to carefully monitor the situation.

We're advising all Compass employees, clients, and family members to wash their hands when they arrive at Compass and to follow the health and hygiene guidelines issued by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention.html

Compass is taking extra care to disinfect touched surfaces, counters, doorknobs, chairs, and other common surfaces. The sterilization procedures of the common areas are done multiple times a day.

The World Health Organization has said that ways to help children cope with stress during this time include keeping to regular routines and schedules as much as possible, or help create new ones in a new environment, including school/learning as well as time for safely playing and relaxing.

We have discussed the need to be prudent of symptoms of persistent cough and flu and to stay home if necessary. Likewise, we ask our clients to be cognizant of the same and we will work diligently to reschedule your appointments if necessary. We know several companies are allowing staff to work from home over the course of the next few weeks. Unlike an absolute quarantine we trust this should not preclude you from keeping scheduled appointments. We will continue to use a common sense approach and trust you will as well.

Preventing the spread of COVID-19 and any other virus such as the cold or flu can be easily done through common hygiene practices. The CDC provides a simple list of things you can do to protect yourself and others. With all of that, common sense, extra care in hygiene habits, washing of hands etc should be standard parts of everyone’s routine.

If you have questions regarding our practices protocols, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your clinician directly. We look forward to seeing you at your next appointment. 3/14/2020