Dear Friends, Family and Colleagues of Opal,
We, at Opal, are in this unprecedented time with you. Being in the “epicenter” of the US coronavirus pandemic, we are feeling the reality of all the disruption and uncertainty as the community responds to stop the spread of the virus. We are holding the many layers of implications of what the government is issuing in terms of community response. As a mental health clinic serving eating disorders, we are highly attuned to both the need to continue to treat our most vulnerable clients while also supporting the efforts of the community to slow the spread of the virus.
As such, we have made some key decisions to both continue offering in-person treatment for our higher level of care clients while minimizing impact of the spread. We are closely paying attention to the Washington State DOH , CDC and WHO recommendations and are closely following their protocols. We recognize that this is an ever changing situation so our policies and decisions can and will change if needed.
- We have moved all of our single visit outpatient services to telehealth. We see this is a way of protecting our clients and staff, and minimizing the traffic in to Opal.
- We are following the best practices for screening for the COVID-19 for everyone entering the Opal space.
- We are following best practices of self-isolation when needed for both staff and clients.
We are also living into our values of relational attunement, radical openness, responsiveness to research, and embracing messiness + imperfection. This is a time of crisis that is impacting all people regardless of our differences. We feel deeply called to be for each other, offer grace, and support to those at most risk.
“The Appetite” podcast plans to release an episode that will address the mental health implications of this pandemic.
In this together,
Julie, Kara and Lexi
