The Center’s Response to COVID-19

We hope you and your loved ones are well. The Center remains open and our dedicated staff continues to care for all our clients during this difficult time. The administrative team at The Center is monitoring the COVID-19 situation very closely and we are operating with an abundance of caution to protect the teens in our care.

• We paused admissions until Monday, March 30, at the earliest. This date will be re-evaluated at that time. When we do resume admissions all clients who are admitted will be carefully screened and must have had no exposure or symptoms for at least seven days.
• We have limited our staffing to essential personnel only (direct care staff, nursing, doctors, maintenance, finance, food services, therapist and administration). Interns are no longer on campus
• Staff is screened prior to each shift:
  • We ask staff if they have traveled since their last shift
  • We ask about current symptoms: headaches, dry cough or muscle aches
  • We take everyone’s temperature: If it is 100.4°F or greater, they will be sent home immediately.
• We have instructed all staff to follow CDC recommendations of social distancing and frequent hand washing when they are off-campus.
• We continue to be diligent with sanitization and hand washing for clients, staff and the facility.
• We replaced the following with web conferencing until it is deemed safe by the CDC, county and city governments:
  • In-person, on-campus family visitation
  • In-person, on-campus family therapy and treatment plan staff
  • Intensive outpatient therapy sessions
• We cancelled client passes and outings until it is deemed safe by the CDC, county and city governments:.
• School has resumed and we are following all Southwest School’s recommendations. We are working with teachers to provide assignments and virtual instruction as needed.
• We have contacted parents/guardians and informed them of our procedures and restrictions. We will continue to stay in regular communication with them
• We remain in consultation with the facility’s medical doctor and nursing staff to ensure any potential risk to our clients is addressed immediately and in accordance with guidelines set forth by CDC and county/city officials.
• Procedure for client screenings
  • Nursing “sick call”
    1. Nursing on site 7 days a week and 8 hours a day and are on-call 24/7
    2. Clients are seen weekly by assigned psychiatrist and nurse
    3. Internal medicine physician on-site twice monthly and on call 24/7

• • If a client’s temperature is equal to or greater than 100.4°F, that client will be isolated and special procedures will be followed to care for that client and to protect the other clients and staff

As we are in a rapidly-changing environment, we are constantly monitoring the CDC, city and state recommendations.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Robert Woods, CEO