We wanted to take a moment to check in and update you about how we’re currently thinking about covid, the office, and our community. We miss seeing you! We miss having tea together and conversations free of internet-snafus. We also really value the ways in which technology has allowed us to continue working together while following public health safety guidelines. 

 

Our current plan is to continue seeing clients via telehealth until it is safe to do otherwise. As a therapy practice there are many factors that go into this decision. From a logistics perspective, we’re grateful that insurance companies are (thus far) continuing to permit telehealth as a covered expense. We’ve also taken into account our commitment to your privacy-- if we were to return to the office and someone were to be diagnosed with covid-19, we would need to participate in contract tracing, which in Maryland could require a client to share that they’d been to the Growth Center and lead to complications around identifying other clients who were in the office and may have been infected. 

 

Further, as you may remember, our office is in a basement with few windows and therefore limited air circulation. Knowing what we know about the virus, we don’t believe that the built environment of our office is ready for a return to in-person. In all likelihood, that won’t be feasible until there is a vaccine and/or broader safety measures accessible across the city. We know that covid-19 is hitting BIPOC and low-income communities the hardest; a return to the office sooner than is safe is not only harmful on an individual level, but on a community level. 

 

We look forward to one day sitting in our cozy office with you again. Until that time, we are happy to meet you on the internet. 

 

With warmth and care,

The Growth Center

8/21/2020