AN UPDATE FOR VISITORS TO CARA’S SUPPORTED INDEPENDENT LIVING HOMES
Dear customers, families and friends,
At Cara, protecting the health and safety of our customers and our staff is our greatest priority. We are grateful for our Cara Community’s support for the changes that we have made to our services to keep everyone safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also recognise that these restrictions, while necessary, may have been unsettling for you all.
No Cara customer has tested positive to COVID 19
At this time, no Cara customer has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and we would like to thank all of our customers, family and supporters for your cooperation and understanding of the measures that we have had in place to protect the health and wellbeing of our customers and our staff. We have seen some encouraging signs in South Australia with almost two weeks of zero new COVID-19 cases thanks to the commitment of all South Australians to social distancing measures.
Cara has a careful approach to easing restrictions to visitors at SIL homes
Cara continues to receive guidance from State and Federal Governments around our management of COVID-19, and we are pleased to be able to ease some of our existing restrictions to visitors at SIL homes. While we are easing restrictions, we will still be asking all visitors to practice social distancing, which is especially important for vulnerable people, including our customers with disability.
From Saturday May 16, close family and friends will be able to visit their loved ones in SIL, with some guidelines in place to ensure everyone’s safety at this time. We ask for your support with these strategies, which will include:
- All visits to be pre-arranged and booked with staff to avoid more than one set of customer’s visitors being in the home at same time.
- Visits will be restricted to up to two people at a time for a period of up to 30 minutes.
- Social distancing of at least 1.5m to be maintained where possible.
- Please avoid hugging your family member and other customers who share your loved one’s home.
- Staff will be making checks to make sure that you are well before you enter the home, that you have no signs of COVID-19 or the flu, and that you have not returned from overseas or interstate in the past 14 days.
- We ask that you please meet in your loved one’s bedroom, and keep time spent in common areas, such as kitchens and living areas to a minimum.
We would prefer your loved one to remain in their home and not visit your home to minimise the risk of infection to them and those they live with.
We will continue to work alongside our customers and their families to stay connected Our staff will continue to work with your loved ones so you can stay connected through the use of technology including FaceTime, Zoom, Facebook Messenger, Skype, video calling and phone calls. We will also work with you to plan activities for you and your family member outside of the home, where appropriate, where social distancing is able to be maintained.
At this time, we are strongly advising our customers against taking part in day options or other large group activities.
Please, stay home if you feel unwell
While we are easing some visitor restrictions to customer’s homes, we respectfully ask that you stay home if you feel unwell. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, the flu or any other contagious illness, it is important that you do not visit your loved one until you have recovered.
The flu season is fast approaching and this year, it is more important than ever to get a flu vaccination as soon as possible. The Australian Government is urging everyone (aged six months and over) to get the flu vaccine. The flu vaccine is a simple, safe and effective way to protect yourself and others in your community against the flu. We are committed to preventing the spread of preventable illnesses at Cara. We recognise that our customers, children and adults with disability, are particularly vulnerable to infection. We are encouraging all of our Cara Community – staff, customers, their family and important people – to be vaccinated against the flu.
Thank you for your support
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Cara Connect on 08 8347 4588. Again, thank you for your ongoing support and understanding of the measures that we have put in place to protect our customer’s health and safety. Our senior leadership team are currently planning for Cara’s transition out of COVID-19, and we will continue to keep you updated as the situation changes. You will be receiving further information from us regarding the easing of restrictions in the community by the South Australian Government in the near future.
Kind Regards,
Liz Cohen,
Chief Executive
