You will all have read and heard a lot of information and media coverage about the global spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). Emergency planning is well underway to deal with the spread of the virus in Australia.
Here at Cara, we are committed to keeping our customers, children and adults with disability, and our staff of Possible People safe. One of our values is ‘We are Careful’ and taking a careful approach of our management of the COVID-19 outbreak is extremely important to us.
Cara has measures in place in an effort to protect our customers, employees and families from the spread of the virus.
We will also regularly update our website and Cara’s Facebook page.
We are continuing to follow the advice of Commonwealth and State Governments and regulatory bodies for staff who have returned from overseas locations. We are reviewing our policies and procedures and have developed a Cara COVID-19 Response Plan to ensure that the quality of our service continues during these challenging times.
What are we doing to help prevent the spread of the virus in our Cara Community?
We are also stepping up our infection prevention processes at customers’ homes, Cara services and Cara offices, which includes but is not limited to:
- Ensuring staff follow current self-isolation requirements, as set out by the Commonwealth Government.
- Postponing any events or large-scale meetings which could present a risk to our Cara Community – this includes the postponement of our Possible Picnic at the Adelaide Zoo on Sunday, April 5. Customers would have received a hard copy invitation in the mail. We will advise a new date in the future and thank you for your understanding as we postpone this event.
- Communicating to staff and visitors to our sites about the importance of staying home if they are unwell;
- Increasing the amount of hand sanitiser, antibacterial wipes and other cleaning solutions available to staff to clean customers’ homes and promote the importance of good hand hygiene amongst our staff – staff can follow their normal procedure to order supplies.
- Providing regular updates to staff, customers and families about our infection control measures and pandemic planning as the situation changes.
What does this mean for you?
We value everyone in our Cara Community, and supporting the health and safety of our customers and staff remains our highest priority. This is a situation that is continuing to evolve and we’ll continue to keep in touch with you. We will be providing regular updates to our Cara Community by email. If you are a customer or an authorised customer contact and you have not received any of our COVID-19 email communications, please contact our Cara Connect team and provide your email address so that we can keep you up to date. You can contact Cara Connect by telephone on 08 8347 4588 or via email at connect@cara.org.au to update your details.
If you have any specific questions relating to individual situations, please contact SA Health’s Communicable Disease Control Branch (24 hours, 7 days a week) on 1300 232 272. We ask our customers and their important people to support our infection control processes and protect people with disability as they have been identified by health experts as a vulnerable group.
Please do not visit customer homes or other Cara services at this time if you:
- Are required to self-isolate. The most up-to-date information is at www.health.gov.au; Have been in contact with a recently confirmed case of COVID-19, or
- Are unwell, especially if you have symptoms cough, shortness of breath and fever.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact the Cara Connect team on 08 8347 4588. Thanks to everyone in our Cara Community for working together during this time.
