With COVID-19 at the forefront of our thoughts, we cautiously headed into 2021, hopeful of a better year. Well, it was a year…but was it a better year than 2020? Not really. The pandemic has dominated our lives since day one. We’ve all had to adapt to a ‘new normal’, although what that looks like is different for every person. For us, the result has been a year spent mostly online, alone, and isolated. Such is the remote workplace. But in saying that, it’s our incredible team and our technologies that keep us connected. Zoom meetings became the norm with our comfortably working from home, but still, we feel, some Zoom meetings could have been emails!
Blog
LASA Fusion Summer edition 2021: Are you just reporting incidents? or are incidents an integral part of your governance, risk management, safety and continuous improvement systems?
LASA Fusion Summer edition 2021: Are you just reporting incidents? or are incidents an integral part of your governance, risk management, safety and continuous improvement systems?
COVID-19 outbreaks: WorkCover investigates residential aged care providers
The health and wellbeing of Australians in residential aged care facilities has been a critical concern throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In Victoria, a number of facilities have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks, particularly throughout 2020. Sadly, many of these outbreaks resulted in the deaths of residents.
Booster shots for residents could start early November
Aged care residents can expect to start receiving COVID-19 booster shots in the coming weeks, if the regulator provides approval, the federal aged care minister has announced.
Victorian State Government expands vaccination requirements: all authorised workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19
In the latest mandate, the Victorian Government has announced that a large group of ‘authorised workers’ will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by 26 November 2021. Authorised workers must have had their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by 15 October 2021, in order to attend a work premises.
Home and CHSP workforce: mandatory vaccination
Late yesterday, DH VIC confirmed that in-home and community aged care workers are in scope for mandatory vaccination requirements as part of the CHO’s COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination (Workers) Directions. For the avoidance of doubt, the Directions will be amended shortly to clearly identify in-home and community aged care workers as in scope.
50% of aged care residents are malnourished – how can we fix this problem?
Aged care residents have unacceptably high rates of malnutrition. Malnutrition Week – October 4-8, 2021 – provides an opportunity to look at the causes, and ask what more can be done.
Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination reporting requirements for CHSP and NATSIFACP providers
Reporting of the COVID-19 vaccination status of the aged care workforce of Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) and NATSIFACP home care providers will become mandatory from October 2021.