Com­mu­ni­ty Com­mu­ni­ca­tion: COVID-19 Update

March 30, 2020

April 1, 2020

Dear KYC Community,

In keep­ing with the Gov­er­nor’s stay at home order, KYC will con­tin­ue to oper­ate pro­grams and ser­vices vir­tu­al­ly to sup­port our clients and com­mu­ni­ty. Many of our pre­ven­tion, behav­ioral health, and senior ser­vices have tran­si­tioned to either phone or video con­fer­ence plat­forms, ensur­ing con­ti­nu­ity of care. Emer­gency ser­vices, like our Mobile Cri­sis Response Team respond­ing to peo­ple in psy­chi­atric cri­sis and Adult Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices Team who inves­ti­gates the abuse, neglect, or exploita­tion or old­er adults, con­tin­ue uninterrupted. 

We are serv­ing record-break­ing num­bers of seniors through our Home Deliv­ered Meals Pro­gram and are respond­ing to increased call vol­umes for many of our pro­grams. Our offices may not be oper­at­ing as usu­al, but our teams are active­ly serv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty to ensure the men­tal health and safe­ty of our community.

We will con­tin­ue to keep you, our sup­port­ers and friends, updat­ed as this sit­u­a­tion changes over the weeks to come. If you or some­one you know needs addi­tion­al sup­port through sub­stance abuse pre­ven­tion pro­grams, men­tal health ser­vices, recov­ery sup­port, or senior care, please call us at (847) 524‑8800.

Be well and stay well.

March 17, 2020

Dear Clients and Community,

To safe­guard the health of our clients, vol­un­teers, and staff, KYC is con­tin­u­al­ly mon­i­tor­ing rec­om­men­da­tions from the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC) and the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health (IDPH) as updates on COVID-19 are giv­en. Although offices will remain open, we are tak­ing steps to dra­mat­i­cal­ly decrease the num­ber of clients and staff in our build­ing. We are deep clean­ing hard sur­faces and fre­quent­ly touched spaces at all our offices, as well as agency vehi­cles. We are com­mit­ted to doing every­thing we can to main­tain sup­port to our clients, while keep­ing our com­mu­ni­ty safe.

We are post­pon­ing all train­ings and large group meet­ings, includ­ing pro­gram­ming at our Drop-In Cen­ter at Mount Prospect. We are encour­ag­ing clients who can receive ther­a­py and well­ness checks to do so by phone, and we’re work­ing dili­gent­ly to find cre­ative solu­tions to serve our clients who need us most. Our com­mit­ment to our com­mu­ni­ty is stead­fast and we will remain by your side through­out this unprece­dent­ed time.

Be well and stay well. Please look out for one anoth­er and your­self. We will get through this togeth­er, one day at a time.

March 11, 2020

Dear Val­ued Client,

Your health and well-being while vis­it­ing our facil­i­ties is a top pri­or­i­ty for Ken­neth Young Cen­ter (KYC). While the over­all risk remains low, we know that nation­al cov­er­age of the coro­n­avirus may have caused concerns.

We want to assure you that we are tak­ing pre­cau­tions to ensure your safe­ty dur­ing your vis­it. There is no need to can­cel any appoint­ments. KYC active­ly mon­i­tors infor­ma­tion from the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC) and the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health (IDPH).

Clean­li­ness is a pri­or­i­ty at KYC. We have been work­ing close­ly with the CDC and IDPH and are fol­low­ing rec­om­mend­ed safe­ty and infec­tion con­trol processes. 

If you are show­ing symp­toms such as fever, cough, dif­fi­cul­ty breath­ing or have come in con­tact with a per­son that has been iden­ti­fied as being infect­ed with coro­n­avirus, your first step should be to con­tact your per­son­al doctor.

Per the CDC, stop­ping trans­mis­sion through every­day prac­tices is the best way to keep healthy: 

• Cov­er your mouth with a tis­sue when cough­ing or sneez­ing or by cough­ing into the inside of the elbow. Throw the tis­sue in the trash after you use it.
• Main­tain at least 6 feet between your­self and any­one who is cough­ing or sneezing.
• Wash hands before eat­ing, after con­tact with anoth­er per­son and after con­tact with pub­lic sur­faces. Wash with soap and water for at least 20 sec­onds. If soap and water are not avail­able, use an alco­hol-based hand cleaners.
• Avoid touch­ing your eyes, nose, and mouth. Germs are spread that way.
• Stay home if you are sick. Avoid con­tact with oth­er peo­ple until you are well. 
• See your doc­tor if you have a fever, cough, dif­fi­cul­ty breath­ing, body aches, or are sneez­ing or are fatigued. 
• Resched­ule your appoint­ment to return to KYC when you doc­tor tells you are well enough.

KYC under­stands there is a great amount of media atten­tion about the coro­n­avirus. We will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor as issues arise and will work dili­gent­ly to effec­tive­ly main­tain oper­a­tions with­out putting the health, safe­ty, and well-being of our clients at risk.

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