Page 5 - Silver Linings Issue2

Michelle Dias, Senior Residential Counselor, receives her COVID-19
vaccination from Charge Nurse Carol Boscarino, RN. Healthcare personnel were eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccination during Phase 1a of Connecticut’s rollout plan. 76% of Silver Hill employees were vaccinated in early 2021.
At Silver Hill Hospital, every department had to rise to the occasion and make the necessary adjustments to ensure the safety of its patients and staff, while at the same time, continue to provide the best possible treatment of mental illness and substance abuse. Keeping the doors open throughout the pandemic was critically important as the uncertainty and stress of COVID-19 created a mental health crisis in the country.
“It was a difficult year in a lot of ways with the pandemic and putting in place
a lot of infection control measures, which have been incredibly successful,” Michael Groat, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer, says. “We had a less than one percent infection rate, which is stunning. That’s a credit to a number of staff who have coordinated that effort.”
Our Incident Command Team, led by Peter Porcelli, Director of Safety and Support Services, spearheaded our efforts to address safety and other
vital policy concerns in the hospital’s response to the crisis.
Here’s a look at some of the adjustments that various departments made and how your support helped to make it happen.
Clinical Adaptations
The mental health implications of the pandemic were early and significant. Silver Hill had to adjust quickly to keep its doors open without interruption. Sending patients home and halting new admissions could have had disastrous consequences for those patients.
Outpatient services switched to a virtual format almost overnight thanks to the knowledge and hard work of the IT department. Inpatient and residential treatment continued seamlessly with extra precautions put in place, such as wearing masks, social distancing and more frequent housekeeping put in place. .
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SILVER LININGS MAGAZINE | ISSUE TWO | 2021