Live the Life You Want

To Whom It May Concern:

At Cheyenne Habilitation and Therapeutic Center, one of our goals is to maintain a caring environment that is safe for all of our participants, staff, and visitors. Due to growing concerns about COVID-19, we want to share this status update with you.

Currently, we encourage all participants and staff members, to take practical steps to minimize potential exposure to all illnesses. This includes minimizing physical contact as much as possible, washing hands multiple times a day thoroughly for at least 20 seconds, disinfecting high surface touch areas multiple times a day, and encouraging anyone with any symptoms of illness to remain at home. We also encourage our staff members to educate our participants on this current situation that is affecting our community and country. Staff should share only factual information to our participants that can be found from the Wyoming Department of Health's website or cdc.gov. Staff are to communicate to coordinators any needs of our residential homes, such as: lack of groceries, cleaning products, and paper products. We will be doing our best to ensure that no participant goes without any necessities.

Cheyenne Habilitation and Therapeutic Center, Inc., with caution, will be following Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon's recommendation to limit large community gatherings and events. At this time, Cheyenne Habilitation and Therapeutic Center recognizes the population of individuals we serve are at high risk for the COVID-19 virus and has made the decision to shut down our day habilitation site to minimize the potential exposures. The change in place will consist of our residential participants to remain in their homes or homes in their area. C.H.A.T. has set up several "base homes" for our participants to go during the day where we will be mixing together a few participants to keep them home safe in a secure site. Participants that are only serviced for day services, will need to communicate to C.H.A.T. if they wish to continue to get day services while our day habilitation site is closed. If so, the participant can receive services at one of our "base homes."

Currently, many businesses and organizations across our community are closing their doors to also minimize potential exposure to our participants such as Special Olympics, Arc of Laramie County, the Element Church, and several others. C.H.A.T. will be cancelling all community activities such as bowling, karate, and other activities we usually offer our participants throughout the week until further notice. Scheduled appointments such as counseling, doctors appointments, speech appointments, will still occur as scheduled unless the entity themselves close their doors to services.

Our administrative office at 1100 Storey Blvd will remain open for business. We ask stakeholders to minimize any unnecessary visits to our office building to allow us to minimize any potential exposure. C.H.A.T. wants to remind staff that they can still turn in documentation electronically, per our internal policy. C.H.A.T. Center Inc will still be hosting any team meeting scheduled at our office but we ask our visitors to wash their hands and stay home if they are exhibiting any symptoms. We are happy to host phone conferences with any stakeholders that cannot attend team meetings due to this.

At this time, there are no confirmed cases of the virus in our area however there is one confirmed case in Wyoming. As news is confirmed, C.H.A.T. Center Inc will be following and listening to the advices from the CDC and Wyoming Government officials. The Laramie County Health Department continues to monitor the situation and post updates to their website, http://www.laramiecounty.com/_departments/health/index.aspx as they become available.

As a way to prevent and minimize risk exposure we ask staff members and entities that come in contact with our participants follow the following procedures:

· Avoid contact with people who are sick

· Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth

· Wash your hands on a regular basis

· Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when sneezing or coughing, then throw the tissue in the trash

· Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects, railings, light switches using a disinfectant spray or wipe.

· Use hand sanitizer when available

· Staff members will need to stay home if they are exhibiting any symptoms

Ultimiately, we ask staff members to come to work if they are healthy and work extra diligently when working with our participants in maintaining a clean and safe environment for them. C.H.A.T. Center Inc will be working diligently with any of our participants who are sick and follow any recommendations given by medical professionals.

We apologize for any inconvenience this situation this may have caused. We will be continuing business as scheduled to the best of our ability. We want to thank our staff members and participants in advance for following along with the changes we are making as a precaution to keep our participants safe. We will update all entities if there are any further changes and give any more information as we receive it.

Sincerely,


Megan Bonney
Policy and Retention Coordinator
Cheyenne Habilitation and Therapeutic Center, Inc.