Dear Wallara Families,
As you will know, we are in a Stage 4 lockdown now and we wanted to let you know what this means for our services.
We actually sent a letter out to everyone on Friday and it may be that some of you haven’t received that yet. Sorry for the overlap but the situation changes quickly and we don’t have emails for all our families.
There are no active cases of COVID-19 at Wallara.
Following the Premier’s press conference this afternoon on the stage 4 restrictions in relation to workplaces we are awaiting on a specific workshop for disability services which is scheduled for tomorrow. However at this stage we know:
- Accommodation – The wearing of masks and limited exercise and other rules that apply to us all in Stage 4 also apply to the homes we support. Our Accommodation staff are being briefed and we are working closely with them to ensure they are supported as much as possible for this important work. The mood in our homes is good at present and we keep thinking of ways we can support them all. One small example of that is the free 1 hour show that I am hosting every Wednesday by Zoom to provide some light entertainment. Last week our special guest was Paralympian Don Elgin and this week we have a special guest from the St Kilda Football Club which is one of the hottest teams in the AFL. If any families want to join that call they are very welcome.
- Logistics – Any distribution centre or warehouse needs to be scaled back to minimise the numbers of employees working at the site. Wallara Logistics has already done this and many of our corporate customers have products that are needed by supermarkets or chemists so we don’t see this affecting us much at this stage. We recently divided the warehouse into 2 hubs with separate entrances, lunch rooms and toilets, to create 2 teams. All the daily checks we do on temperature etc continue and we are lucky to have plenty of space.
- Day Services – We are waiting on more information regarding our ongoing provision of 1:1 support. We know the families receiving this support value it greatly but we are also being advised by DHHS and others that we need reserve staff ready to go in the event of infections or having staff in isolation waiting for test results. No decisions have been made yet. A reminder about the Online classes that continue (see below) and the weekly 1 hour video call on Wednesday at noon (see above under Accommodation).
- Wallara Online – This service continues. All the presenters are working from home already.
That’s all for now. We will keep you updated as soon as possible.
Regards,
Phil
