At Citizen Advocates, we have one goal: to improve the lives of others. We do this by providing individuals and families with high-quality mental health, addiction recovery and intellectual and developmental disability services. In addition to these quality clinical services, our skilled care team offers supports to promote individual health through stable housing, job training, transportation – and more. Because we are a healthcare provider, we believe we have just as much of a responsibility for ensuring and promoting community health and safety as a hospital does. Our commitment to community and global health was especially strengthened during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the ways that we responded to this health crisis were by offering:
- More mental health services to our community
- Mental health support to caregivers
- A massive amount of information technology infrastructure so our outpatient clinics and day habilitation facilities could continue to support upwards of 8,100 individuals and families with remote services
- 34,100 meals to children in grades kindergarten through 6th with nutritious food
- Safe ways to build community at our resident homes
Another important way that we responded was by encouraging all staff at Citizen Advocates to get their COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. In non-pandemic times, our employees would generally have to use their paid time off for medical appointments. But, during this global crisis, we wanted to do everything we could to increase vaccination and let our employees be vaccinated during work hours. This was made easier because we volunteered to serve as a vaccination Point of Dispensing, or POD, site.
In addition to encouraging our staff, we also encouraged those we support to get vaccinated. We care for many vulnerable individuals, especially those who are receiving supportive housing. As a vulnerable population, they were given the opportunity to receive the vaccine early and to date, over 90 percent of individuals living in a residence operated by Citizen Advocates have chosen to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Importance of Vaccines
Now more than ever we stand behind all efforts to vaccinate our community, both locally and globally. In fact, we must continue to embrace sound, medically proven prevention tools like hand washing, face masks, social distancing and vaccines as our clear path out of this public health crisis. We support and applaud the scientists who have worked in record time to deploy these literally life-saving tools. We are committed to supporting the health of our tightly-knit communities every day.
“As a healthcare organization, we take seriously our commitment to protect the health and safety of our community,” says James Button, CEO of Citizen Advocates. “We know that the impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis have been devastating. By striving to keep our staff and the individuals we support safe and healthy, we are keeping their families and loved ones safe and healthy as well.”
“The vaccine, among other proven health and safety precautions, remain our strongest tools in combating the newer and more contagious form of COVID-19,” said Dr. Joshua Frank, Chief Medical Officer for Citizen Advocates. “The vaccines we have developed are safe, highly effective, and are widely available through your doctor, local hospital, public health department, pharmacy and other locations.”
Vaccination is clearly the primary way to put this pandemic behind us. We hope you will join us in our dedication to keeping our community safe and healthy by getting vaccinated.
Please visit https://www.vaccines.gov/search/ to find a vaccination clinic near you.
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