This article was contributed by San Benito County Behavioral Health.
County Behavioral Health responded to state and local stay at home orders to reduce the spread of COVID-19 while still recognizing how essential your behavioral health care needs are. Your County Behavioral Health Department never closed and continues to provide the full array of services that our community has been accustomed to accessing.
Following a detailed risk assessment and implementing prudent COVID-19 prevention planning, we made sure to adapt and provide services by utilizing protocols, procedures and methods to safeguard the safety of our employees and the public.
Safety Protocols and Physical Distancing Measures in accordance with California’s Resilience Roadmap and guidance from our state and county public health have been implemented.
To safeguard the health and safety of our staff and visitors, we implemented prevention planning processes and procedures such as increasing our staff’s awareness on preventing the spread of COVID-19 through control measures, scaling back the number of in-person appointments in our clinic by offering options for alternative ways to receive services, while still making available in person appointments when preferred or essential, asking screening questions to identify illness and available temperature scanning, mandatory face coverings for staff and visitors while in the clinic common areas, or in enclosed areas when more than one person is present, cleaning and disinfecting protocols. These are some examples of the precautions we have taken to maintain everyone’s safety and to assure we remain open to serve you.
Although we continue to be available to see you in person at our facility, due to the ongoing nature of the coronavirus we are highly recommending all non-urgent appointments be held in a virtual platform whenever possible and appropriate.
We have made available for you an array of easily accessible options to receive services, whether it is via telephone, tele-video, or zoom.
Our experience during the last several weeks of the COVID-19 crisis has shown that many people rather than coming to our office in person, have preferred utilizing virtual visits in recognition of social distancing measures and to also minimize risks for all.
As we continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation, County Behavioral Health remains committed to updating our stakeholders and maintaining safe delivery of our programs and services for you.
If you or someone you know is in need of mental health or substance use treatment, please contact our Behavioral Health office at 1131 San Felipe Rd., Hollister, CA 95023, or you can call (831) 636-4020. You can also visit our website for additional information: http://www.cosb.us/county-departments/health
