Childcare Services to help during covid19

Julia Hood, Ph.D., LP, BCBA-D, NCSP

If any of you are like me, you are trying to juggle work, kids, cooking dinner, yard work, cleaning the house, and everything else in our lives.  As if that isn’t complicated enough, now we are needing to do it all while social distancing and keeping our families home.  I did it for two weeks and then I broke down crying because I was feeling so overwhelmed.  I felt like I wasn’t focusing enough on work, I wasn’t focusing enough on my kids, and I couldn’t keep it up.  So what did I do?

I wish I had some magic wand that I could have waved to make it all work, but I didn’t.  My solution was to take my kids back to childcare.  I am fortunate to work for Valley Behavioral Health and one of the reasons I am so fortunate is because they have employee childcare at the Pingree Center.  My kids have both been there since they were just a couple of months old.  It is their home away from home and I love the center, the staff, and the environment.

The Utah Department of Health has asked that childcare services stay open if possible and even expand to accommodate all of the families who are trying to continue to work with children home from school.  We followed the guidance of UDOH and expanded our childcare for all Valley Behavioral Health employees and the community that includes their school-age children who are no longer in school.  We also opened separate emergency childcare that is available to healthcare and public health workers and law enforcement, public safety, and first responders.

Through One Utah Child Care, the state will pay for these essential employees who can access childcare for their children.  There are a number of emergency childcare that families will be referred to if they qualify.  What makes us different than the other emergency childcare that have opened?  We are able to access age-appropriate materials because we are located at a program that already served children of all ages.  We are also using our highly trained childcare staff to provide services, meaning that your child won’t be with an untrained staff or individual.  They will be cared for by staff who are specially trained to provide services to children, understand developmental levels and needs that are appropriate for different age groups, and know how to engage kids and facilitate learning.

If you are an essential employee and would like to access our emergency daycare through One Utah Child Care you can find information here.

Get in touch with us if you would like more information about our childcare programs.