Regis Care Partner Update: COVID-19 prevention and support
Regis’ highest priority is the safety and wellbeing of our residents, clients and employees.
Regis Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Linda Mellors recently held several productive conversations with Government and particularly the Minister for Aged Care, the Hon Richard Colbeck, to represent the efforts that aged care providers have undertaken to protect our residents, clients and employees.
We welcome the Government’s recent announcement of additional funding to support aged care providers in their response to COVID-19. We also welcome the voluntary Code of Conduct that has been proposed for visiting older people in aged care homes.
We encourage you to read the endorsed draft of the ‘Visitor Access Code (PDF)’ and provide feedback to the Council on the Ageing (COTA) before 7 May. It is important that COTA hears the views of residents, families, friends and carers so the final Code of Conduct considers the needs and preferences of our residents and families. Please provide feedback at:
www.cota.org.au/policy/aged-care-reform/visitor-access-code
Our family survey recently closed. 90% of respondents support the stringent access controls that Regis put in place. This is in line with our recent resident survey, which found over 90% of residents who responded supported our measures.
This remains a very challenging environment and we continue to work to balance access for those who need it with those who do not want any visitation allowed. As time goes on, we will be able to move to more in home visits. At this point, we continue to make use of the various connection options in between visits such as window visits, garden visits, letters, telephone calls and video calls.
Virtual Tours
We are conducting virtual tours based on the potential residents identified areas of interest. Tours will be conducted via a combination of sharing links, collateral and photos. We will provide more information in the coming weeks.
Flu Vaccination
We have reminded visitors that they must have an up to date flu vaccination to enter our homes as per the Government guidelines. We have strict protocols in place for those visitors who qualify for the limited medical exemptions.
Reinstatement of additional services
We have reinstated hairdressing services in our Club and Reserve homes. Services are half an hour in length with limited options available. Beauty services will be reinstated when it is deemed safe to do so by the relevant State and Federal governments. Our hairdressers are thrilled to able to support residents once again. They are understanding and supportive of our restrictions in place.
Facebook groups for each home
Our homes are finding creative ways to support our residents’ wellbeing both physically and emotionally during this time. We have created a Facebook group for each home to keep families and loved ones informed and connected.
COVIDSafe
We are strongly encouraging our employees and families to download the COVIDsafe app if they have yet to do so. This is a vital tool for keeping ourselves, and our loved ones, as safe as possible. You can download the app here:
For further information
If you would like to discuss the above please contact:
- The Facility Manager at our home directly
- Brad Sandilands, National Business Development Manager on 0435 969 617
- Our national admissions support centre (for advice or for your local Regis aged care home’s contact details) at advice@regis.com.au or call 1300 998 100
We appreciate your support during this challenging time for the community.
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