As we all work to navigate the uncertain waters surrounding the current pandemic health crisis, COVID-19, Uplift Family Services’ clinical staff have continued to provide essential services to the children and family members we serve, even during the shelter-in-place mandate.
One such team provides our Continuum of Crisis Care Services, which operates out of the Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) at our Campbell headquarters 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This small building houses between 15-20 staff members at any one time, plus the children who are admitted on a psychiatric hold for being in danger of harming themselves or others.
In an effort to show our appreciation for these incredible staff members, who while taking every precaution to protect their own health, continue to care for each child who comes into the CSU, we reached out to our community to raise funds to buy both the children and staff pizza and wings.
Our original goal was to raise $375–enough to cover food for all three shifts.
Instead, in just three days, we were able to raise more than $3,500!
Our amazing donors also sent along some heartwarming messages for the team:
“Thanks for all your hard work you’re doing to keep these families safe and feeling loved and taken care of. We all need to unite together in these difficult times and help one another.”
“You are needed every day–thank you for being there! You are the BEST!”
“Thank you, Crisis staff, for all your work and dedication, particularly during the current pandemic!”
“Thank you, Crisis staff, for all you do to help the children of Uplift Family Services.”
The staff were taken aback and touched, and Clinical Director Karen Meagher said it was great for morale. And, due to the overwhelming generosity of our Bay Area-based community, we’ll be able to send pizza to all three shifts at the CSU for the next few weeks!
In addition, we’ll be sending pizza to our Autism program staff, who also continue to make personal sacrifices to support the greater good of our communities and our mission.
We Couldn’t Have Done This Without You, Our Community
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to everyone who contributed to supporting our front-line mental and behavioral health staff. They–and we–truly and deeply appreciate your support!
We’d also like to say a huge “THANK YOU!” to Mountain Mike’s Pizza, who generously offered a discount and delivered the pizza.
More About our Crisis Services:
Continuum of Crisis Care in Santa Clara County includes services for children and teens up to age 18 with imminent mental health needs and who may be a danger to themselves or others. Services include:
- The Mobile Crisis Team, which is available 24/7 to children and teens who are in acute psychological crisis
- Community Transition Services, which provide skill development, parenting support, safety planning, and access to ongoing community-based behavioral and mental health services
- The Crisis Stabilization Unit, which is available for children and teens on a psychiatric hold who receive short-term emergency assessment and stabilization instead of going to the hospital
- The Placement Services and Crisis Stabilization Response Team, which supports children and teens as they transition from Santa Clara County’s Receiving, Assessment and Intake Center to a community setting, or helps to stabilize them in their current community setting.
More About our Autism Services:
We have taken applied behavior analysis, an evidence-based practice that facilitates the development of social, communication, and daily functioning skills, and created our one of-a-kind Specialty Applied Behavior Analysis program, which combines applied behavior analysis services with our wraparound philosophy. Specifically, wraparound aims to keep children and their families together through individualized services developed in a family-centered, team planning process, and are provided at home and in the community.
After piloting this program, which serves children, teens, and adults with autism, we officially moved to full program implementation in 2019. With the rising prevalence of autism, which now affects as many as 1 in 40 children, and the scant number of agencies that provide the necessary support, there’s a tremendous need for these services.
