Rock Springs Positive Psychology in Atlanta coaches  counselors, and psychologists

Covid19 Updates

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Spring 2022

Effective May 1, our offices are open at Rock Springs by appointment and with proof of completed vaccines (if eligible). We will also remain available for online appointments for those individuals who prefer or need that option.

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As always, we will keep a watchful eye on the next surge of the new variants to understand potential effects on safety.

 

As of this writing, our main focus is on hospital utilization. Because so many individuals remain unvaccinated here in Georgia, we are at greater risk for overrunning our healthcare system and taxing the already overworked healthcare professionals who need a respite from this onslaught.

 

When visiting Rock Springs, we want you to feel safe and welcomed, AND we want you to know that we believe we are doing as much as realistically possible to help maintain that safe environment.

 

We have enhanced our environmental safety here at our offices: each suite runs air filters and UV lights (overnight). We have always made hand sanitizers available and have added more. For the time being, we will ask that our clients enter the building with masks on and only remove them once they are inside their practitioner’s office.

 

If you desire an in-person appointment, we will need a record of your vaccine card uploaded to portal and we are requiring completion of vaccines (vax plus booster for those eligible.)

 

No guests are permitted in our lobby area – if you are a parent waiting, we request that you remain in your car or nearby. While this rarely happened in the past, we cannot permit children to wait for parents in the Lobby. If childcare is an issue, an online appointment is likely best.  (For more about what we need our clients to do if meeting in person, please see our short list here.)

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Be assured that all our practitioners are vaccinated and boosted and are following additional protocols listed here.

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If you are interested in meeting in person, please check with your practitioner for their availability for in-person slots. Our default, for now, will continue to be online sessions. Eventually, we hope to create a scheduling option for online or in-person.

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Please stay safe and well and we will look forward to seeing you soon!

 

APRIL 23

As of April 13, 2022, we are expecting to re-open our practice at Rock Springs during the first week in May. With that said, please be assured that we will also remain available for online appointments for those individuals who prefer or need that option.

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Summer 2021

 

In the first few months of the pandemic last year, we communicated regularly as we wanted to encourage and promote both personal and public health safety during these most difficult times. As a better understanding of the virus finally emerged within the federal and state governments (but not all) and most media outlets (but not all), we reduced our communication efforts but not our careful monitoring of the ongoing crisis. Today, we’re writing to share some important updates on our preparations for re-opening our offices at Rock Springs.

 

As we had hoped when we last reached out earlier this summer, we now have more results from the three areas that we have been monitoring over the past few months:

 

•  The rollout and dissemination of vaccinations

 

• The effectiveness of vaccinations against the first wave of variants in the virus, especially the Delta variant

 

• The recommendations for healthcare professionals

 

Vaccine Rollout

We are simultaneously encouraged and dismayed by the acceptance rate of vaccines. 

 

We are encouraged by the effective of the vaccines, especially in states where the vaccine rates of immunization are high.

 

Currently, however, our state of Georgia is in the bottom 10% of states for percentage of population immunized. While we know that the numbers are much better for the metro Atlanta area, we are still on guard for non-vaccinated individuals and the effect this could have on additional virus mutations. At the time of writing this, Georgia had seen 28 probable deaths over the past seven days and 131 over the past four weeks, both representing increases over the same period before.

 

We are not out of the woods yet, but we are hopeful that we can attain a 70-80% fully vaccinated population here before schools re-open and that children under the age of 16 will quickly be approved for receiving the vaccine safely.

 

The effectiveness of the vaccine

We are relieved to see that early reports show good protection for the first serious mutant, the Delta variant of Covid. While it is not as effective against the variant, it is fairly good and should limit major outbreaks where vaccination rates are above 70% of the population.

 

This new variant is even more contagious than the original and with that in mind, we are holding our breath as people gather for large celebrations and as children begin school in August.

 

 

Our Preparation and Precautions for Re-opening

When we re-open the offices (see below) our precautions will include

 

1)  continuing to offer remote sessions via Zoom as an opportunity.  You will have the option of how you want to work with us.

 

2)  requiring vaccine cards for in-person appointments. The practitioners have already posted theirs on our internal server and we will make these available by request to individual clients. We will ask clients to upload an image of their card to the secure client portal (more on this procedure will be forthcoming).

 

3)  keeping our lobby closed for now and text you when we are ready for you. As before, you are welcome to prepare a cup of tea or coffee or ask for a bottle of water once you are admitted.

 

4)  checking temperatures at the door. If you have a temperature, we will offer two options: return to your car where we will continue the session over Zoom or reschedule for later the first available appointment after you are well.

 

5)  running UV lights overnight and cleaning and sanitizing regularly.

 

 

Recommendation for healthcare professionals

The current guidelines recommend masks for healthcare professionals. While we are ineed a part of the field of healthcare, we also recognize that our situation is slightly different. We expect that with proper precautions when the time arrives, we will be able to meet face-to-face, rather than mask-to-mask.

 

Next Steps

During July, we will continue to monitor and track CDC and WHO recommendations for masks and to understand the risks in meeting indoors. As we continue to monitor cases, hospitalizations, and vaccinate rates, we are hopeful that we will be able to offer the option of in-office sessions beginning in late August or early September. However, we are also supporting our practitioners if they elect to continue to see clients remotely for the time being. If deaths trends continue to be relatively flat, look for an update around the first week in August announcing the date for our re-opening.

 

  

Here to serve

We want to be available to you and any friends, work colleagues, or extended family who need our help. We have treatment strategies that can help individuals cope with the rising anxiety that the pandemic is creating. Please consider sharing our willingness to be of help by referring to our Facebook page or website.

 

If you are a client or former client and need to check in with us, please use our portal or simply reply to this email and we will connect you with a practitioner

 

 

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Sources:

 

Georgia Department of Public Health: https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report

 

Georgia Geospatial Info Office: https://covid-gagio.hub.arcgis.com/

  

COVID-19 Reported Patient Impact and Hospital Capacity by State: https://beta.healthdata.gov/dataset/COVID-19-Reported-Patient-Impact-and-Hospital-Capa/6xf2-c3ie

 

Centers for Disease Control

 

   Coronavirus (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2Findex.html

 

   CDC MMWR- Novel Coronavirus Reports:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/Novel_Coronavirus_Reports.html

 

   CDC Forecasts for US and States: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/forecasting/forecasting-us.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcovid-data%2Fforecasting-us.html

 

 

US Health & Human Services

HHS Coronavirus Data Hub: https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/ea1dc54435624e4ca1a62bde9d1b7570

 

WHO

World Health Organization's Advice for the Public

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

 

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August, 4, 2020

 

During the past five months, the pandemic has sorely tested us. Some of us have lost friends or family; others may have lost jobs permanently or temporarily. In the midst of all this, our communities are grappling with the cause of social and racial justice in ways that have not been seen in a generation. We have lost our much loved Congressman John R. Lewis and have witnessed the disquieting turmoil of what amounts to the deployment of secret police against protestors in Portland.

 

In some ways, our response to COVID-19 and these events has called on us to re-think and re-configure much of our approach to connecting with one another and with you. We have implemented the videoconferencing capability offered through Zoom, brought online a new scheduling and client portal, adopted the use of collaborative software within our community of practitioners, and increased our email communications to you. Even now, we are looking for additional ways to be of more support to our clients, both through virtual technology and by examining ways to re-connect and re-open.

 

One things the pandemic cannot change is our commitment to be available to you and to our community as practitioners of mental health, relational coaching, occupational guidance, and community health.

 

Nor can the pandemic change the commitment to our core values at Rock Springs: courage, compassion, and curiosity. If anything, we find ourselves stimulated to holding these values more closely and to explore how we can translate them into action; activities that will bring about positive changes in our world and in the lives of the families and individuals with whom we work.

 

 

When will we re-open?

With so much change in the air, we understand that the need to have a safe place to explore your heart, mind, and energy has never been greater in this century. We want to reassure you that we will be here and that we will open again as soon as it is safe to do so. As we have said over the past five months, we need to flatten the curve, implement a successful testing strategy with no more than a two-day turn-around, and put tracking into place. Unfortunately, we have not moved as quickly as we might have and are now faced with the complexities before us.

 

At this writing, some will claim that we cannot know what the effects will be of opening schools, but we have looked at the data and are very concerned that we will experience another spike this fall in cases, just in time for flu season to complicate matters. Therefore, for now through October 31, we will remain open for Zoom videoconferencing and closed for office visits.

 

Of course, we eventually want to see you in whatever location you choose. Although we believe a majority are likely hoping to visit us once again in our offices, we also imagine a few of our clients will continue to prefer Zoom even after we are able to re-open the offices.

 

Sometime in October, we will review these issues again, take stock, and share our thinking with you.

 

For now, we encourage you to wear a mask in public places. If you have a child in your home who returns to school, we encourage you to wear a mask inside your home, too. We encourage you to stay home as much as possible and avoid any groups of 10 or more. In those situations, wear a mask and maintain 6-10 feet distance. We also encourage you to vote early this fall, if at all possible, or through mail if you can obtain an absentee ballot.

 

To recap what we said last month, in case you missed it -

 

About our decision

While we know that wearing masks can dramatically reduce the risk of contracting Covid19, it creates a challenge for our work. We believe that it is probably more valuable to see each other's facial expressions and videoconferencing provides this significant advantage under the current conditions.

 

The mask, however, is not the only challenge before us. We have explored what to do with used tissues and what the risks are when individuals may sneeze or cough. There are additional safety concerns, though too numerous for this short note.

 

Aside from individual safety, we are also concerned about the intense pressure this pandemic is creating on our healthcare system. We are also very concerned with the slow rate in adopting masks, which would help alleviate the problem. As we all must come to understand, we are severely taxing our hospital workers and public health efforts. At this writing, many of our Georgia hospitals are out of critical care beds while the case load curve is increasing. 

 

We are closely monitoring the potential effects from some school systems choosing to re-open for in-person fall classes. We certainly understand the strong interest in education and child-care but are very mindful of Warren Buffett’s sage advice: first, you must survive. 

 

 

What We Can Do

We are asking ourselves what we can do as a team and how we can best offer our compassion and service to you and to our community. We certainly encourage wearing masks in public places, maintaining social distance, increasing efforts around hygiene, and all the other recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

If you’d like to participate in one of the tracking initiatives, we recommend the app released by Johns Hopkins: How We Feel. You can download it from your app store or use from your desktop or laptop

 

Here to serve

We want to be available to you and any friends, work colleagues, or extended family who need our help. We have treatment strategies that can help individuals cope with the rising anxiety that the pandemic is creating.

Please share our willingness to be of help by referring to our Facebook page or website. Speaking of the website, we will soon be adding some additional useful links and content for managing your response to the pandemic.

 

Prayers for the Nation

We close this letter with our renewed hope of extending social justice: we support peaceful protests, economic boycotts, and all the tools that Gandhi and Dr King taught. We also strive to understand that psychological repression and class oppression both lend themselves to outbreaks of aggression, overtly and covertly. We stand ready to help you explore how you might use your strengths and abilities in support of the peaceful efforts to embrace social justice.

 

We will re-open as soon as our nation has a plan that is implemented for testing, tracking, and treatment. While we recognize that our nation is making excruciatingly slow progress in these areas (especially in comparison to other nations), it is nonetheless progress, and we will continue to monitor these efforts closely.

 

We believe we can overcome this pandemic if we work together. There are many nations that have embraced the science and sacrifice needed to gain the upper hand. Please join with us in staying safe, wearing a mask, and maintaining social distance.

 

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July 2020

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July 9 - As promised, we are writing today with our status in coping with the pandemic.

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We continue to monitor the course of the outbreak along with its effect on our individual lives, our society, and our work.

 

For now, we remain open for Zoom videoconferencing and closed for office visits. Of course, we eventually want to see you in whatever location you choose. Although we e believe a majority are likely hoping to visit us once again in our offices, we also imagine a few of our clients will continue to prefer Zoom even after we are able to re-open the offices.

 

Sometime in August, we will review these issues again.

​

About our decision

While we know that wearing masks can dramatically reduce the risk of contracting Covid19, it creates a challenge for our work. We believe that it is probably more valuable to see each other's facial expressions and videoconferencing provides this significant advantage under the current conditions.

 

The mask, however, is not the only challenge before us. We have explored what to do with used tissues and what the risks are when individuals may sneeze or cough. There are additional safety concerns, though too numerous for this short note.

 

Aside from individual safety, we are also concerned about the intense pressure this pandemic is creating on our healthcare system. We are also genuinely concerned about that the slow rate in adopting masks, which would help alleviate the problem. As we all must come to understand, we are severely taxing our hospital workers and public health efforts. At this writing, many of our Georgia hospitals are out of critical care beds while the case load curve is increasing. 

 

We are closely monitoring the potential effects from some school systems choosing to re-open for in-person fall classes. We certainly understand the strong interest in education and child-care but are very mindful of Warren Buffett’s sage advice: first, you must survive. 

 

 

What We Can Do

We are asking ourselves what we can do as a team and how we can best offer our compassion and service to you and to our community. We certainly encourage wearing masks in public places, maintaining social distance, increasing efforts around hygiene, and all the other recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

If you’d like to participate in one of the tracking initiatives, we recommend the app released by Johns Hopkins: How We Feel. You can download it from your app store or use from your desktop or laptop

 

Here to serve

We want to be available to you and any friends, work colleagues, or extended family who need our help. We have treatment strategies that can help individuals cope with the rising anxiety that the pandemic is creating.

 

Please share our willingness to be of help by referring to our Facebook page or website. Speaking of the website, we will soon be adding some additional useful links and content for managing your response to the pandemic.

 

Prayers for the Nation

We close this letter with our renewed hope of extending social justice: we support peaceful protests, economic boycotts, and all the tools that Gandhi and Dr King taught. We also strive to understand that psychological repression and class oppression both lend themselves to outbreaks of aggression, overtly and covertly. We stand ready to help you explore how you might use your strengths and abilities in support of the peaceful efforts to embrace social justice.

 

We will re-open as soon as our nation has a plan that is implemented for testing, tracking, and treatment. While we recognize that our nation is making excruciatingly slow progress in these areas (especially in comparison to other nations), it is nonetheless progress, and we will continue to monitor these efforts closely.

 

We believe we can overcome this pandemic if we work together. There are many nations that have embraced the science and sacrifice needed to gain the upper hand. Please join with us in staying safe, wearing a mask, and maintaining social distance.

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June 2020

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As promised in our email last month, we are updating you on our considerations for re-opening the offices at Rock Spring.

 

While we witness an understandably growing restlessness with respect to re-engaging and re-connecting, we remain concerned about the potential impact on our clients’ heath and on our healthcare systems.

 

Cases: Looking at the data in Georgia, it appears that we are hovering around 500 new cases per day. One measurement we are using is that cases begin to decline (rather than plateau or increase). Ideally, we need to see a decline in new cases to move forward.

 

We look at three major indicators, along with other factors.

 

TESTING: We need widespread and ACCURATE tests. We believe that we need at least one-third of the general population in major metro areas to have access before we can move forward. At that point, we can begin to estimate the relative contagiousness that is present in our society. Depending on those results, we may find that further delays are needed to safeguard the public. If you have not yet been tested and suspect that you have had a mild case, we strongly encourage you to seek antibody testing.

 

TRACKING: In order to consider re-opening the offices, we also will need a robust contact-tracking system that is up and running. The State of Georgia is currently recruiting contact tracers. Meanwhile, you can help by voluntarily contributing your health status with an app such as How We Feel https://get.howefeel.org

 

THERAPEUTICS: Until we have a safe, proven, and viable vaccine that has been widely administered, we will need to rely on developing more effective medical interventions and pharmacological therapies.

All these factors are interrelated and complicated. For instance, if the virus could be more easily treated or cured, we may need less emphasis on testing and tracking. If a vaccine becomes available faster than expected, even better!

 

The recent demonstrations for social justice also complicate matters in terms of assessing the situation. Respected public health experts caution the protestors that they can fully expect that they have now been exposed to the virus. It takes about 4-5 days for the symptoms to appear, and 14-21 days before we can declare someone safe who returns to social isolation. In other words, we may have an unexpected wave that starts just as summer starts. Remembering that hospitals have just now begun to clear cases, we run a risk of once again overtaxing an exhausted and depleted system.

 

Because we care deeply about our clients’ physical and mental health, and inasmuch as we can do almost all our work using Zoom, we are once again postponing setting a re-opening decision until after July 4. At that time, we will again assess and communicate with you. Even after we re-open, we will continue to have access to Zoom if you find that more convenient or it feels safer given your personal considerations.

 

We encourage you to continue to practice as much social distancing as possible and to follow the guidelines: masks when out in the public, washing hands and avoiding touching your face. If you have questions or need help, please reach out to any of us. To make an appointment, please visit our online portal at https://rocksprings.clientsecure.me or call our office at 404-721-7409.

 

Thank you for choosing Rock Springs. We value your trust and look forward to welcoming you back along with our colleagues and business neighbors.

 

On behalf of all of us at Rock Springs,

 

 

David F. Harris

Executive Director

Rock Springs Positive Coaching, Caring, and Counseling, Inc.

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May 15, 2020

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We are waiting until around June 1 to make a data-based and informed decision about possibly setting a date to re-open for later this summer.

 

Community life has been through a lot over the past several weeks, and we are all looking forward to being together again. While much in our society is changing, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to you and your safety. Hygiene has always been a priority for our practice, and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. But this situation calls for higher standards, and we want to share with you the infection control procedures we will follow when we re-open.

 

Our offices have always followed infection control recommendations made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As these are updated, we will closely monitor so that we are up to date on any new rulings or guidance.

 

You may notice some changes when it is time for your next office appointment. These changes were made to help protect you and our practitioners. For example:

 

• The check-in sheet will be offered online and will include a few Covid screening questions for in-office visits.

• If in doubt, sit it out. We will encourage you to continue to use Zoom whenever you feel like you may have been exposed or are not feeling well. Even if you need to let us know at the last minute that you want to use Zoom, that will be fine. Just text your practitioner and we will set up a meeting.

• Hand sanitizer: We have always had hand sanitizer available in the lobby, and we will now ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in other places around the office for you to use as needed. 

• Masks: we request that you wear some form of facial covering while in the office.

• UV lights have been added to our common areas. These will be used during non-client hours since prolonged exposure to UV light is not safe for human skin.

• The waiting room will no longer offer magazines, books and other difficult to clean items. In addition, candy and mints have temporarily been removed until we can find a safer way to offer them.

• Lobby access will be limited to two unrelated individuals at a time. Please look in the door prior to entering and wait outside or in our rear lobby. If you prefer to wait in your car or in the atrium, that is fine, too.

• Drink service (coffee, tea, sodas) will be temporarily discontinued until we can find a better alternative for safely serving. We are working on this and hope to have a solution prior to this fall.

• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between clients. We will do our best to allow greater time between clients to reduce lobby time for you. 

• Please come alone to your appointments, whenever possible, or with the least number of people. Do not bring children to wait for you in the office. If childcare is an issue, please use our Zoom option.

• Although you may see infrared thermometers being used in some places, we will not be using them here since we know that individuals can be asymptomatic for 2-3 weeks and still be contagious. However, if you do have a temperature or believe you may, please ask to use Zoom or postpone your appointment.

 

To recap, on or about the first of June, we hope we will have enough information to set a re-open date for later this summer. We will only re-open the offices if we feel that it is reasonable and prudent to offer in-person appointments. Even then, you will continue to have an option of Zoom or in-person so that the you can do whatever seems best for your safety and health.

 

We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we are taking to keep you and every client safe in our practice. We are also open to your suggestions!

 

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Thank you for choosing Rock Springs. We value your trust and look forward to welcoming you back along with our colleagues and business neighbors.

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