What specific measures are we taking within our facility to increase the safety of our employees, families, and their guests?

While our nation continues to feel the increasing impact of the coronavirus, the Collins & Stone Funeral Home is still available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We remain committed to helping families honor the lives of their loved ones through meaningful services and gatherings while respecting the unique challenges brought by the Coronavirus.

Our response to immediate needs and scheduled services is flexible. At this time, the CDC, the National Funeral Directors Association, and the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association have advised that traditional visitations and funeral services can safely continue with size limitations. 

We provide the following options for your care and safety in response to the Coronavirus:

• Funeral Livestreaming allows your loved one's services to be broadcast live over the internet to everyone or to a select audience. 
• Online Memorial Tributes allow individuals to sign, leave comments and post pictures of loved ones.
• Immediate burial or cremation with a private memorial now 
• Immediate Burial or cremation with a public memorial at a future date
• To minimize public exposure, payments may be made online at collinsandstonefh.com. 
• If called upon, we will diligently seek an alternative location for a service.

As with all matters, at Collins & Stone Funeral Home, we are approaching the Coronavirus pandemic and its ramifications by educating ourselves with all of the available facts, disseminating those facts to our staff and the public and taking necessary precaution. The health of your loved ones and ours has been at the forefront of our minds as we have worked proactively over the last few weeks to face this current challenge.

Information unfolds about the Coronavirus almost hourly. There are many aspects of it that we are still learning about. Check our website, collinsandstonefh.com, often for current information.

Most importantly, our licensed funeral directors and embalmers are continually educated on communicable and infectious disease. Our continuing education infrastructure requires us to annually apprise ourselves of the latest risk factors, as well as safe and strategic handling of remains using Universal Precautions. But again, knowledge is key to understanding how the disease is transmitted to help reduce the chance of being exposed or inoculated. At Collins & Stone Funeral Home, we are following CDC best practices throughout our facility.

• We have increased the frequency of disinfecting all areas (including wiping down doors, door frames, and handles, light switches, public restrooms, telephones, pens, keyboards, etc.)
• We have instructed our staff to remain home when they are sick, throw used tissue in the trash immediately and thoroughly washing their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Additionally, we encourage all to cover their mouth and nose with the insides of their elbows when they cough or sneeze.
• We have adopted social distancing practices by limiting arrangement conferences to 4 family members. When we greet one another, we encourage our staff and families in our care to refrain from hugging, kissing or shaking hands.
• We have increased access to hand sanitizers in our arrangement rooms, lobby, and employee workstations.
• We are complying with governmental restrictions regarding public gatherings. 

In addition, all employees will continue to follow CDC best-practice guidelines to prevent the spread of viruses and we encourage our families and guests to do the same: Stay at home when you are sick. Wash hands frequently. Cover mouth with tissues when coughing or sneezing. Avoid people who are sick with respiratory symptoms.

We are speaking with local clergy and community officials to discuss how we can work together in recognizing the threats with coronavirus. Funerals are for the living, and we will be diligent in our response during this pandemic to ensure the well being of the families we serve, the greater community, and our staff. We are members of both the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) and the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association (NFDMA). Only a portion of all funeral homes belongs to these organizations. The NFDA and the NFDMA set standards for the best funeral homes in the country with comprehensive education and resources that are critical in times of concern. This allows us to be leaders in times of tragedy and uncertainty. 

As for gatherings for funeral and celebrations of life services, we plan on proceeding as we have in the past; unless directed otherwise by the local government. Although we take great pride in offering well-maintained and clean facilities, we are taking greater measures with 

careful attention to areas of frequent contact by others such as doorknobs, phones, and faucets. We will be active during gatherings by monitoring and disinfecting areas frequented. We will assure there are plenty of tissues for visitors, antibacterial soaps or wipes, and 

sanitizer gel readily available. As we mentioned, this pandemic is new to all of us, so if you have helpful suggestions, we are more than willing to listen.

Remember, we’ve faced tough times before. We will get through this TOGETHER