COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the safety of our clients, staff, and community must be our top priority.
We are now encouraging all clients and their providers to make alternate arrangements for sessions, including the use of telephone or video conferencing.
Before attending any face to face appointments, please complete our COVID-19 Self Assessment.
If you have symptoms or may have been exposed to the virus, please cancel your face to face appointment and contact the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (1-877-721-7520) or Telehealth (1-866-797-0000).
Similarly, we will not hesitate to cancel sessions, or move to video or phone sessions, if we are not well.
We may be able to arrange video or phone calls to replace face-to-face sessions; please contact the office.
Information about telepsychology can be found here.
At a minimum, it is now important for all people in Ontario to be engaged in self-monitoring, which includes avoiding unnecessary contact with others. Anyone with symptoms, a history of travel, or who is at high risk (over 60, or with chronic conditions) should be engaging in self-isolation.
We are still permitting face-to-face contact in office meetings, assuming that both the provider and the client have passed our screening, and are at comparatively low risk in the event of an exposure. However, social distancing appears to be the best tool we have to limit the spread of the disease. Therefore, we urging providers and clients to seek alternatives to face-to-face meetings, unless it is absolutely necessary that the session occur face to face.
Note that some services, such as psychoeducational assessments, may not be possible without face-to-face meetings. In this case, please speak to your provider. These may still go ahead, if the child, their family, and the provider remain healthy, but we are also happy to discuss rescheduling to a later date.
It's important to remember some key facts.
It's true that the mortality rate from COVID-19 is not overwhelmingly high (about 2-3%). However, it is substantially higher than it is from the seasonal flu, and will strongly affect those who are older, or whose health is compromised. Even among healthy young adults, this virus can be dangerous; and those who are lucky enough to escape the worst symptoms can easily spread the virus. Therefore, everyone must take precautions against this pandemic.
Here's an interesting statistic: The seasonal flu is fairly contagious; one person with the flu infects, on average, 1.4 people. As each infected individual goes on to infect others, after 10 generations, the first infection turns into 14 infections. COVID-19 is more infectious; one person with COVID-19 infects, on average, three people. And after ten generations? If completely unchecked, that one infection would turn into 59,000 infections.
If we work together as a community, we will be able to limit the scope of the pandemic. Evidence shows that early interventions, such as social distancing, can slow the spread of the disease in the population; this can prevent the medical system from being overwhelmed and will help to save lives. But to achieve this, we all have to take action, even if we’re healthy and at low risk.
In the meantime, we expect to be able to continue providing most of our services throughout the duration of the pandemic. We wish you and your family good health. And we look forward to seeing you face-to-face once again!
--Dr Jonathan Douglas & Dr Robin Mitchell
We are now encouraging all clients and their providers to make alternate arrangements for sessions, including the use of telephone or video conferencing.
Before attending any face to face appointments, please complete our COVID-19 Self Assessment.
If you have symptoms or may have been exposed to the virus, please cancel your face to face appointment and contact the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (1-877-721-7520) or Telehealth (1-866-797-0000).
Similarly, we will not hesitate to cancel sessions, or move to video or phone sessions, if we are not well.
We may be able to arrange video or phone calls to replace face-to-face sessions; please contact the office.
Information about telepsychology can be found here.
At a minimum, it is now important for all people in Ontario to be engaged in self-monitoring, which includes avoiding unnecessary contact with others. Anyone with symptoms, a history of travel, or who is at high risk (over 60, or with chronic conditions) should be engaging in self-isolation.
We are still permitting face-to-face contact in office meetings, assuming that both the provider and the client have passed our screening, and are at comparatively low risk in the event of an exposure. However, social distancing appears to be the best tool we have to limit the spread of the disease. Therefore, we urging providers and clients to seek alternatives to face-to-face meetings, unless it is absolutely necessary that the session occur face to face.
Note that some services, such as psychoeducational assessments, may not be possible without face-to-face meetings. In this case, please speak to your provider. These may still go ahead, if the child, their family, and the provider remain healthy, but we are also happy to discuss rescheduling to a later date.
It's important to remember some key facts.
It's true that the mortality rate from COVID-19 is not overwhelmingly high (about 2-3%). However, it is substantially higher than it is from the seasonal flu, and will strongly affect those who are older, or whose health is compromised. Even among healthy young adults, this virus can be dangerous; and those who are lucky enough to escape the worst symptoms can easily spread the virus. Therefore, everyone must take precautions against this pandemic.
Here's an interesting statistic: The seasonal flu is fairly contagious; one person with the flu infects, on average, 1.4 people. As each infected individual goes on to infect others, after 10 generations, the first infection turns into 14 infections. COVID-19 is more infectious; one person with COVID-19 infects, on average, three people. And after ten generations? If completely unchecked, that one infection would turn into 59,000 infections.
If we work together as a community, we will be able to limit the scope of the pandemic. Evidence shows that early interventions, such as social distancing, can slow the spread of the disease in the population; this can prevent the medical system from being overwhelmed and will help to save lives. But to achieve this, we all have to take action, even if we’re healthy and at low risk.
In the meantime, we expect to be able to continue providing most of our services throughout the duration of the pandemic. We wish you and your family good health. And we look forward to seeing you face-to-face once again!
--Dr Jonathan Douglas & Dr Robin Mitchell
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