Dear Friends,
I am wishing you and your family health and safety during these unprecedented times. I wanted to let you know that, despite the current challenges, Evergreen is continuing to move our mission forward. With your help, so much progress has been made to create a better world for people with disabilities and we can’t afford to take our foot off the gas now—or ever. I appreciate each of you and look forward to seeing you all again once we have beat this virus.
I wanted to update you with the latest information on what Evergreen is doing to keep all of our staff and the people we serve safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have received updated information and directives from oversight agencies to limit exposure and mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus COVID-19 on our families, people served and staff. The following guidelines and protocols have been put into place and will be monitored on an hour-by-hour basis. We will notify you when/if they are changed and when they are lifted.
Further, we have developed a plan of action for every community home and service should any staff member or person served test positive for COVID-19. Even though we know it is not probable that every one of our community homes would have to be quarantined, we have planned for assuring staffing and services, and the highest level of safety for all, should the worst-case scenario occur.
Please review all of the following sections below as they include pertinent information on safety precautions, visitation to our locations and our upcoming Celebrity Waiter Dinner event in Shreveport, Louisiana, which will be postponed.
Evergreen programming and living changes for the people we serve
- Altered, reduced capacity and/or modified many of our day training programs
- All individuals living in our ICF homes will remain at home and staff will provide modified day services in the home
- All outings into the community will be modified depending upon the location to remove group setting and public locations
- All non-essential medical appointments will be rescheduled to when it is safe to do so
- Enhanced cleaning, disinfecting and constant hand washing precautions will be enacted
- Every state has a specific plan that addresses actions to be taken in extreme cases
Visitor restrictions
All individuals will be prohibited from entering Evergreen’s community homes, supported independent living services and day training programs. Limited exceptions will apply:
- The people served by Evergreen
- Any individual providing necessary health care to a resident
- Essential staff. All staff who do not work directly with the people we serve will work remotely or in an office where people we serve do not have access
- Representatives of the state and federal government seeking entry as part of their official duties
Further, all individuals who enter an Evergreen facility and/or have physical contact with the people we serve will be screened with the following criteria:
- Temperature check
- If they were infected with COVID-19, they must have two consecutive negative test results separated by 24 hours
- No person showing, presenting signs or symptoms of, disclosing the presence of a respiratory infection, including, cough, fever, shortness of breath, or sore throat will be allowed access
- No person who has been in contact with any person(s) known to be infected with COVID-19, or with someone who has close contact with someone known to be infected with COVID 19 within the past 14 days will be allowed access
- No person who traveled through any airport or flown on any plane within the past 14 days will be allowed access
- No person who traveled on a cruise ship within the last 14 days with be allowed access
Celebrity Waiter Dinner in Shreveport, Louisiana will be rescheduled
Due to guidelines from the CDC to limit social gatherings to under 10 people for the next 8 weeks, we will be postponing this event. We will update you as soon as we have selected a new date. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Please know that Evergreen Life Services is working diligently to protect the lives of the people we serve, our staff and our stakeholders. We appreciate your understanding of these changes to the usual operations of Evergreen Life Services. Let’s all pray for and support each other.
Sincerely,
Sue Buchholtz, CEO