Westhaven’s Response to COVID-19 in August 2021

Dear Families and Friends of Westhaven,

As the current lockdown has been extended until Friday 10 September 2021 we thought it was important to keep you updated on how we are responding to this crisis.

Westhaven staff, including front line Support Workers, Team Leaders and Managers have been working tirelessly to ensure that we are able to maintain our standard of support to all our participants and their families. Everyone has done an amazing job to come together during this difficult time to support our participants and children and young people (CYP) who live with Westhaven.

We are not through to the other side of this crisis so we will need to continue to follow government guidelines around restrictions, social distancing and, of course, good hygiene and handwashing protocols.

We will get through this and Westhaven is in a strong position to continue to provide services to people living with a disability to achieve our mission and purpose of “live how you choose”.

General Update

We are continuing the proactive measures taken earlier in the month to protect all of our people. These include:

• Conducting daily health checks for all participants and CYP as well as rostered staff.
• Prioritising training to our staff including infection prevention control and personal protective equipment (PPE) guidance.
• Providing COVID vaccinations to our participants who consented to ensure safe care.
• Tracking staff who have received their first, second or both COVID vaccine injections and evidence of receipt.
• Temporarily ceased centre-based community programs/WBS and providing support to our participants and CYP at their place of residence, where possible.
• Developed business continuity plans for our Dubbo services to ensure we can continue to provide care for our people.

When the lockdown lifts in the Dubbo Local Government area, it is important that Westhaven takes a cautious approach to re-opening of services and normal operations.

We will continue to provide updates as we follow the guidelines set by NSW Health to ensure the safety of all our participants and staff.

We thank you for your understanding and patience during this time. If you require any further support or information, please contact your team leader or Westhaven Admin who will direct you to the appropriate contact.

If you have any feedback, questions or concerns, please reach out to covid19@westhaven.org.au We thank you for your continued understanding and kindness in your communications with our staff as we continue to keep you updated.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Bynon
Operations Manager
Adult Services