Coronavirus – CareChoice

As Australia and Victoria adopts a range of isolation practices to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), CareChoice continues to monitor and maintain is proactive preventative practices. Our active response plan aims to ensure that our essential services are delivered to the community. Our priority is to provide safe services to protect our clients, staff and families. Our management team and team leaders meet weekly to manage and respond to this situation.

We have implemented a specialist coronavirus (COVID-19) Response Team. Staff and clients must advise us if they have been in contact with COVID-19 or have flu like symptoms. This is to be reported to our central email at [email protected]

Our staff are not to work if they are unwell and must have a medical examination to determine if they have COVID-19. Staff with the flu or COVID-19 must self-isolate for 14 days and cannot work until they have medical clearance. Similarly, clients that have been in contact with COVID-19 or have flu like symptoms, will require a medical examination to determine if they have COVID-19. Our teams will develop a plan to protect clients and staff in line with our clients’ support needs.

To-date there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 amongst our staff or clients.

We would like to provide you with key initiatives that CareChoice has taken:

• Our offices have adopted personal distancing procedures. There are restrictions around how we hold and conduct meetings and engage with each other.
• We are utilising IT systems to ensure that our operations can continue 24 hours a day, every day.
• CareChoice is communicating with clients weekly and staff bi-weekly to provide updates, support and training as appropriate.
• All staff are required to complete COVID-19 Infection and Control training. We are also reinforcing hygiene practices and infection control.
• CareChoice has reduced all unnecessary visitors to our office. Any visitor or supplier must confirm they have not been overseas in the last 14 days or have been in contact with COVID-19. In addition, they must agree to adhere to our preventative measures.
• We are rolling out welfare checks for clients who have pre-existing medical conditions that may make them susceptible to the virus and supporting clients to stock adequate levels of food, household consumables and medication.

We also want to support our community. This is a challenging time and we will share positive stories to help us remain connected and positive so we can come through together to come through this experience while supporting you, our staff and our families.

Please check back regularly to see our latest news and how we are responding to COVID-19 to ensure ongoing service delivery. We are looking forward to supporting you during this time.