Your sober living home manager is a key part of what makes your sober living home run smoothly. Thinking about a reality in which they are removed from the picture can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be a catastrophe.
With COVID-19 looking like it’s going to be around for a while, it’s important to plan for the possibility that your sober living home manager might get sick.
Here’s what sober living homes can do now to set up leadership contingency plans for COVID-19 and beyond.
Prevention is the Best Policy
The best way to handle the novel coronavirus at your sober living home is to prevent any of your residents—or your managers—from getting coronavirus in the first place. Be sure that residents are all aware of their responsibilities around social distancing, cleaning high touch surfaces, avoiding touching their faces, etc.
We’ve written elsewhere about some of the best policies sober living homes can adopt in order to reduce the risk of viral transmission. Be sure that your sober living homes are taking the virus seriously and continuing to employ safer practices around socializing, working, and sharing living space. Even as states begin to “reopen” for business,
it’s important that sober living home operators stay vigilant. We know that residential settings are one of the most inviting environments for COVID-19.
Take Stock of the Sober Living Home Manager’s Duties
Even with carefully executed prevention strategies in place, it’s possible that someone at your sober living home—potentially even your sober living home manager—could get COVID-19. If your sober living home manager does get sick, she could be out of commission for quite some time. It’s important to have a back-up plan in place so that your sober living home can continue to function.
Have your sober living home manager make a list of their most important duties now. Make sure they include things like onboarding new residents, arranging drug testing, and processing monthly fees.
Decide in Advance What Can be Delegated at your Sober Living Home
Ask your sober living home manager what duties can be easily delegated to a resident in case of emergency. Which residents would be willing to step up if needed? Encourage your sober living home manager to have a conversation with potential “helper” residents about this possibility so that they are prepared in advance.
Some tasks—like drug testing and anything having to do with financial transactions—are not suitable for in-house delegation. With your sober living home manager, figure out how to get those important duties covered in case of emergency.
If you own more than one sober living home, could a manager at another location step in for these tasks? Would you, the owner, need to step in temporarily? Do you have a trusted alumni who might be willing to be on call for essential duties?
Make Continuity Seamless with Easy Information Sharing
One important thing you can do today to prepare for emergencies at your sober living home is to invest in a centralized repository for all the little details that go into running your sober living home. When information is unintentionally hoarded by sober living home managers, it makes it much harder for someone else to step in if needed.
The Sober Living App is like the “external brain” of your sober living home manager. This all-in-one custom software solution designed especially for sober living homes is accessible on any device, anywhere, at any time. Use it to create and process paperless new resident applications, track new resident leads, create chore plans, manage beds, process resident payments, log important contact information, and more. The resident portal lets residents easily access all of their reminders and make monthly payments all from the convenience of their phone.
With a software solution like the Sober Living App, anyone who has to fill in for an ill sober living home manager will have everything they need to pick up right where the manager left off.
Let Your Sober Living Home Residents in on the Plan
Now that you have a plan, let residents know about it. Discussing the plan in advance means that if it comes time to implement, there will be less resistance from residents about a change in their routine. Getting everyone on the same page about the contingency plan now avoids some of the chaos and confusion that can go along with a COVID-19 diagnosis at your sober living home.
We’re Here to Help
The team at the Sober Living App is dedicated to helping you and your residents through this exceptionally tricky time with software solutions designed to tame the most irritating and time consuming aspects of sober living home management. See why more sober living homes are making the switch to the Sober Living App and claim your free trial now.