Q&A: ‘Driveway therapy’ among ways nonprofits adapting during pandemic
COVID-19 has hit everyone hard, especially the populations served by the Children’s League of Connecticut.
The group of 11 nonprofits advocate for the care of children and young adults, including those with behavioral health challenges and developmental disabilities.
Lynn Bishop, executive director of NAFI CT which provides services to children with a wide array of needs, was recently named the statewide league’s president.
She spoke to Hearst Connecticut Media recently, offering some insight on how the pandemic is affecting those most vulnerable.
Before COVID, what were some of the challenges facing children and families, especially those with developmental disabilities?
A lot of it is how do we sustain some sort of family connection that’s healthy? You always want a family connection somewhere, whether it’s a parent, aunt, teacher, etc.. How can we make sure our services are sustainable when they’re not with us? That’s key. How can we sustain our services and continue our funding? It’s not like we’re a for-profit making money. We want to keep these services operating and the best way we can do this is to hire the best employees we can and train them ... but without proper funding, it’s hard to do that.
Q: How has COVID posed additional challenges, especially across the different areas where your members are working?
A: It hits our clients and families and then it hits our staff and families. Who’s laid off? Who’s furloughed? We have a ton of foster homes which do amazing work and now they have foster kids and potentially bio kids at home and doing online work ... that's been difficult for these families and our own families and staff. How are we taking care of not just people we service, but people we work with as well? We had to figure out ways.
Q: How are nonprofits responding to the COVID-19 pandemic?
A: It’s been a combination of a few things. A lot of organizations within CLOC were able to implement telehealth quickly which is a good sign for the future. Some, we couldn’t stop services, so we’re doing driveway therapy. We’re meeting them in the park. There are families we want to keep eyes on. It’s thinking outside the box. How can we be creative and how are we talking to the state? A lot of it is creative thinking.
Q: You work with children with developmental disabilities, in foster care, etc. What are some of biggest issues in each of these areas?
A: For a lot of the kids in congregate care settings, (it was) not being able to see their families in person. Imagine being 15 years old in a residential treatment center ... and for five months, you couldn’t see your family in person. That’s been very, very challenging for some of our kids. There was such a loss there of that connection. For the in-home clinical services, where these families need this intensive support and it’s the lack of support we’re able to give them. In person, you gauge and understand a family a little bit different. There was a loss of that connection. We do a lot of intensive work with our foster families not being able to go into the homes, that was very hard. (And when it comes to technology) did the families have what they needed? It’s happening all over this country. It’s not just Connecticut. But how do we rise above it knowing is somewhat of new norm while hoping to go back to old norm?
Q: What challenges will you be facing in the next few months?
A: Angst around state funding — how is that going to impact nonprofits? We’ve all gone through layoffs or furloughs. Can we bring those people back? A lot of kids use school as an outlet. The schools are aware of things because they see kids. That's been missing. What now are teachers going to see that they’ve been missing six months? There’s such chaos in family units itself. How is that going to work out? There’s a lot of mental health issues going to be exacerbated because of COVID.
Q: What trends are the nonprofits in CLOC seeing across the board?
A: A big trend was the job loss and increased men
NAFI CT Executive Director Lynn Bishop
tal health concerns we haven’t fully seen that we’re nervous about. I’d say some families not wanting telehealth, because it’s not what they can grab onto... (because of that) we’re seeing families worse off. I’m sure we’ll see the effects of kids missing school six months on the mental health side. And what’s the isolation doing? There’s no solution yet. People are feeling so isolated. I’m worried for my own employees and families with the cold weather coming. If we’re in the middle of pandemic in winter, what’s that now going to do? I think weather is a factor as well.