There is a great deal of both useful and unhelpful information circulating about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and what organizations are doing to prepare. This is to let you know that New Hope Integrated Behavioral Health Care (New Hope) is taking every precaution to minimize the risk of exposure and prepare for every imaginable eventuality. This is in accordance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines and in coordination with The State, County and Municipal health agencies where we have facilities. While New Hope is unaffected by COVID-19 at this time, we are taking every measure to protect our clients, their families and our employees without raising unnecessary and unhelpful levels of anxiety. New Hope has updated its emergency operations protocols with specific instructions for managing the COVID-19 risk. These include the following actions that have already been taken and communicated to clients, families and employees.
We have:
Canceled all unnecessary visitation of any kind and, where necessary, limited access and exposure where visitation is deemed necessary;
Insured that visitors to all facilities are screened for COVID-19 symptoms, or risk prior to being allowed entry;
Instituted a revised and redundant screening process for admissions that includes questions about recent fevers, travel overseas, and family member/close acquaintance risks to reduce the possibility of introduction of the virus into our treatment environments. Anyone deemed a possible risk to our clients or staff will not be allowed into our facilities;
Developed specific health and safety protocols for any current clients presenting with flu-like symptoms, including emergency quarantine procedures in residential settings;
Instructed all Outpatient clients to seek appropriate medical care and to stay home if they are sick;
Completed and continue to reinforce protocols with all employees for handwashing and hand sanitization and are monitoring both employee and client compliance with these washing/sanitizing practices;
Disseminated both Flu and COVID-19 prevention information and instructed staff to stay home until medically cleared of risk for contagion;
Increased sanitization of equipment and areas;
Completed readiness assessments at each site and increased inventories of supplies that may be necessary should a mandatory quarantine be required;
Made remote family/loved one and other remote visitation (telehealth) available so that travel and unnecessary exposure is limited.
The safety of our Clients, employees and the public at large remains our top priority. We will continue to closely monitor this situation as it unfolds and be ready to take additional precautions and provide updates as they are called for.
If you have questions or would like further information, please reach out to our Access Center; option #3 at (800) 705-HOPE (4673).
Thank you for your understanding as we do our part in managing through this risk to public health and safety.
Tony Comerford, Ph.D.
President & CEO