We realize you have likely received many communications about COVID-19 but wanted to add our voice since you are a valued part of our homeopathy school community. As members of the homeopathy community, we do recognize there may be varying opinions, theories, and discussion regarding the handling of this situation on a larger scale and we commend those in our community who are working creatively and collaboratively from a homeopathic perspective to find solutions.
As an accrediting agency, it is part of our duty to oversee the safety of our member schools, their students, staff, and faculty, and therefore necessary to provide the following statement.
We encourage you to keep abreast of, and be in compliance with, any advisories issued by the CDC/national health service, as well as your state/province, county and municipal Health Departments, many of which are providing extensive guidance about COVID-19 at this time through teleconferences and webinars. This may require daily monitoring since the situation varies considerably depending on the locality and can evolve rapidly from day to day. You may wish to assign a staff member to take responsibility for this.
Here is what we would like you to know or consider:
- ACHENA operates largely on a virtual basis already, with our Commissioners and reviewers scattered geographically throughout the US and Canada. This means our day-to-day operations are unlikely to be affected.
- The activity ACHENA foresees that might require modification within the next few months is our ability to conduct site visits. If your school moves forward in the accreditation process and is determined to be ready for a site visit, it may be necessary to make arrangements that do not involve Site Visit Teams traveling to your school. We will inform you if this becomes necessary.
- If your school holds either regular or intermittent in-person classes and in order to protect your students, staff and faculty, we ask that you take precautions to guard against the spread of COVID-19 that are appropriate for educational institutions and workplaces in your locality and relevant for the size, location and type of facility used. You could consider asking members of your school community to immediately inform the school if they develop symptoms of fever, dry cough and shortness of breath. You might also wish to consider conversion to audio-video conferencing instead of in-person classes.
- Regardless of whether your school runs in-person, blended or distance-learning program(s), we ask that you inform students, staff and faculty to take appropriate individual self-care measures commensurate with guidelines issued by state/province, county and/or municipal Health Departments that can help protect them from contracting COVID-19, and remind them that these information sources need to be monitored frequently. Due to varied known susceptibilities to this virus, be sure to inform your school community that additional self-care and protective measures may need to be taken by individuals who are older than 60yo and/or have certain chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or lung disease.
- If your school runs an in-person clinic, we ask that you take appropriate measures issued by your state/province, county and local Health Departments for health care facilities. Please take into account reporting requirements where relevant, as well as other precautions appropriate for your locality and stage of the outbreak. Based on these assessments, it may be advisable to convert your clinic to audio-video conferencing.