Response to Coronavirus COVID-19

 in Arc Mediation News by

Given the nature of the mediation process, the recent COVID-19 outbreak poses particular challenges to delivering our service. We’re taking the following steps to mitigate any chance our team has of contracting or spreading the virus.

  1. Client meetings will be by prior appointment only. Enquiries about mediation services should be made by telephone (051 348336) or via our contact form;
  2. Any ARC mediator who is feeling even mildly unwell won’t be attending meetings nor visiting our office or meeting facilities. At present none of our mediators are unwell but this policy will be pursued without exception;
  3. We’re asking any client who feels unwell and who has symptoms of illness such as a high temperature, coughing or sneezing to let us know so we can postpone their meeting, or use video conferencing instead;
  4. We will not progress a meeting with a client who appears ill and we regret any inconvenience this may cause;
  5. We won’t be shaking hands with any client and will be maintaining social-distancing protocols;
  6. Hand sanitisers have been installed throughout our office building. Our team has been told to use them at each ingress and egress of the offices and we’re encouraging clients to act likewise;
  7. We’ve postponed presentation & seminar events until the end of March, to be reviewed at that time;
  8. We’re using video conferencing facilities, phone & email wherever possible instead of face-to-face meetings. We’ve been using these technologies for non-local clients for several years and we believe that online mediation can be very effective.

We’re hopeful that the measures being taken by the Irish Government will help slow the spread of the virus and that the emergency measures will be lifted promptly when they’re confident the threat has passed. Our normal service will resume in line with government advice. As new advices are given, we may have to impose further restrictions and we’ll keep existing clients informed via our website, twitter and email.

These are extraordinary circumstances as we celebrate our 10th year of business and very different to what our team anticipated just weeks ago. The safety of the public is paramount and must override any commercial considerations.