It’s with great excitement that I announce the COVID-19 Pfizer Vaccine has finally reached our shores……….
We are now awaiting the “official call” to advise us the day that Ananda Aged Care Hope Valley and Findon will participate in the vaccine roll out.
All residents and staff working in Residential Aged Care are eligible to participate in Stage 1 of the vaccine rollout.
The COVID-19 vaccine is not mandatory at this time, and we can appreciate that this is a personal decision.
We are attaching the Australian Government Consent Form for COVID-19 Vaccination as it contains information about the vaccine and an official consent form.
If you wish to have the COVID-19 vaccine we request that you and/or you representative read the attached consent form information and sign the consent form as soon as possible so we are ready when we get the official call to roll out the vaccine.
The vaccine consists of x2 injections on two different days – generally 2 weeks apart. This will be communicated by the health professional who is administering the first vaccine and they will advise the date of the second vaccine.
Copies of the Consent Form and information have also been left at our Front Receptions.
We will communicate once we know the exact date but are anticipating commencement within the next two weeks.
Over the past month we have received some amazing feedback and recognition of our staff from residents and families.
Ananda will be hosting its Annual Staff Recognition event shortly as it was delayed in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Today I would like to acknowledge the following staff that I have received highly commendable feedback about:
Findon: “A huge thanks to Taffy for all his assistance with mum and our email requests etc. He is always willing to assist and we really appreciate his tenacity and guidance. This has been very helpful especially whilst Daniel has been on leave….. Having said this, we must commend Cecilia also as she is fantastic with mum and always wonderful with us. Always understanding and always following things up for us and we know we get a straight & honest answer from her, good or bad. She is very approachable and very helpful. Elise is great also. She always has a smile on her face, talks a little Italian to mum which is fantastic and makes mum laugh too. Special mention & thanks also to Huong, Tee, Fune, Teena, Thelma, Rose and Mahafreen. They always say hello and make the time to chat.”
Hope Valley: “Can I ask that you officially thank Adam and Jin for their care and treatment of dad tonight as they not only did a good job but showed compassion and concern for his welfare. They are both a credit to Ananda.”
Thank you all for your ongoing support of Ananda and its amazing staff, it is greatly appreciated.
From Monday 23rd February 2021 we no longer require you to phone ahead and make a booking to visit family and friends at Ananda, you are welcome to come and visit between 1-5pm daily.
We will still go through the Entry to Site Checklists including a temperature check but you are all welcome to visit.
Be continue to practice social distancing, ensure you wash your hands (soap with water or hand sanitiser) and if you are unwell with cold/flu like symptoms please stay home and arrange to get a COVID-19 test.
Please note in the event to visitation we will advise ASAP as we follow Emergency Management Directions for RACF and Cross Border Travel.
2021 …. It’s looking up
Thank you all for you continued support, feedback and encouragement.
Kind Regards
Ananda Management
Please help us be ready for a very busy and complex process to immunise 300 staff and 200 residents in a very short time frame.
Please carefully read and print the form and fill it in, and bring it with you on the day of vaccination (to be confirmed but possibly next week).
Bring your phone with OnePassport app to evidence your vaccination and keep it in your immunisation wallet.
You must do this to have your record on file at Ananda.
If you do not want to have the vaccination inform the Director of Nursing asap. If you have questions please discuss with your health professional eg GP prior to vaccination.
Many thanks!
Please help us be ready for a very busy and complex process to immunise 300 staff and 200 residents in a very short time frame.
Bring your phone with OnePassport app to evidence your vaccination and keep it in your immunisation wallet.
You must do this to have your record on file at Ananda.
If you do not want to have the vaccination inform the Director of Nursing asap. If you have questions please discuss with your health professional eg GP prior to vaccination.
Many thanks!
Further information regarding the vaccination can be read below:
Before the vaccination:
After the vaccination:
We have now received confirmation that the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccination has been TGA approved and is being prepared for rollout to Residents and Staff living and working with a Residential Aged Care Facility. Rollout is to commence late FEB early March 2021.
We have received notification that all aged care facilities will commence the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine rollout at the end of February 2021.
We have all endured a difficult year with COVID-19 and all the restrictions that have been put in place, as we move to a “new normal”. We now have a chance to “tackle” COVID-19 head on by participating in the national vaccination program.
What we know about the Pfizer Vaccine is that it is now TGA (Therapeutic Goods Act) approved for use and administration in Australia.
As Residents residing in a residual aged care facility and aged care workers we are classed in the first category to receive the vaccine first.
The vaccine comes as an injection that is administered in x2 doses x2 weeks apart.
The vaccine is currently NOT MANDATORY in Australia, however we support and encourage residents to consider participating in the national vaccination program.
The 2021 Annual Influenza Vaccine is MANDATORY for all staff and anyone visiting a Residential Aged Care Facility as it was in 2020.
We can appreciate the nervousness and apprehension around the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine so please find attached some resources for reference and further information to keep you all informed.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-05/when-will-you-get-the-covid-19-vaccine/13112610
In the coming days / weeks staff across both homes will be speaking with Residents and / or their Representative to go through the consent process.
Visiting our Homes Update
We continue to support visitors at Ananda and follow the directions as set out by SA Health via the Emergency Management (COVID-19) (RACF) Directions and the Cross Borders Direction which are quickly often updated frequently depending on the national COVID-19 situation.
At present anyone entering SA from Greater Perth, Greater Melbourne and parts of NSW are not permitted to enter a Residential Aged Care Facility until a negative COVID swab has been received. This information does change frequently and we have the most recent Directions on display in both our homes.
We continue to watch closely the situation unfolding in Perth, Melb and now NSW regarding the new UK and South African strains of the COVID-19 virus.
Our residents and staff safety continues to be paramount.
Please remember to book your visits to the home so we have an going account of who is entering our homes and upon arrival complete the Entry to Site Checklist including a temperature check. Although we have relaxed our visiting times we must always know the total number of people in the home to ensure we meet social distancing guidelines.
We ask if you are visiting that you visit your loved one in their room and/or in a dedicated area in the home away from other residents.
Bain Marie Service
IT’S BACK …………….
Both Hope Valley and Findon are now enjoying the Bain Marie service at lunch and evening meal time. It is so wonderful to see residents enjoying the meals and choices.
At Findon, residengs “cheered” the frst day it came back and although we can only have up to 8 residents in the HUB dining room at once, it has been lovely seeing different residents attend.
One resident gave Chef Suresh a “thumbs up” followed by a request for seconds.
Well Done Kamal and Team it’s been a long time in welcoming the Bain Marie service back …… but it’s been worth the wait!!!
Person Centred Software
It’s exciting times ahead as we prepare to “GO LIVE” with our final phase of Person Centred Software or PCS.
We already have PCS fully embedded in our Findon home and from October 2020 we introduced this to our Hope Valley with great success. It am so pleased to announce that from Wednesday 10th February 2021 we will now “GO LIVE” in A2.
PCS will be our comprehensive Nursing Care Plan, Assessment, Progress Note and incident management system, as we move away from “paper based” documentation. You will see staff refer to green or black electronic devices that are password protected with resident care details.
PCS allows us to develop and implement individualised “planned care days” for each resident to truly represent resident focus care. This is done in consultation and collaboration with residents / their representative and strengths are commitment to a “partnership in care” model approach.
It has been wonderful to see the calibre of individualised care already seen in PCS in A1 and we can truly see the care that is being provided to the residents.
The idea behind PCS is that Clinical, Care and Wellness & Engagement staff will be able to input data to identify how we are meeting the residents individual care needs.
Staff have undertaken training in PCS and have educational resources and tools to support and guide them in the final phase of the PCS roll out. Our Project Lead Belinda has been busy inputting resident data and supporting staff as we transition to PCS.
PCS provides our staff with every residents individualised “planned care day” which has been developed to meet the residents care needs. PCS provides staff with the residents nursing care plan and progress notes.
Every resident will be undergoing a reassessment and having their care plans updated including their Integrated Clinical and Lifestyle Care Plan. Matt has done an excellent job with this for our residents in A1.
There is a COVID-19 contact function so we can quickly see which staff have been in contact with a resident in the event a COVID-19 swab result is positive or we have been advised by SA Health of a “close contact”.
For our night duty staff they are able to do nightly checks by using individualised QR codes that will be located by every residents bedside indicating that the residents care needs have been met overnight.
This is a monumental time for Ananda as we complete the process of moving to electronic documentation and providing evidence to support we are truly resident focused.
A huge thank you to our PCS Project Lead Belinda who has been instrumental in rolling out PCS.
We “GO LIVE” with our final phase of PCS in A2 on WEDNESDAY 10th FEBRUARY 2021………
For our Findon Residents/ Representatives it is hard to believe that you went LIVE with PCS on 18th FEB 2019 (almost 2 years ago) and you are all using the system so well evidencing Resident Focused Care.
Once again on behalf of all the Ananda Staff we thank you all for your ongoing support and encouragement it is very humbling.
As we get more information on this exciting news we will keep everyone posted.
We are waiting with baited breathe the current COVID-19 situation in NSW, Victoria and Queensland as their positive case number fluctuate.
As per SA Directive noone from NSW can enter a Residential Aged Care Facility – we have previously provided our families and representatives with this information and we go through this upon entry into our homes.
We have now received information that Greater Brisbane has placed their aged care homes into a lockdown with a confirmed case of the new COVID-19 (UK) strain in a staff member working in hotel quarantine.
We have taken the additional safety precautions of not allowing visitors to enter our homes who have recently returned from Queensland (on or after 2nd January) we ask that you do not enter our homes for 14 days as per the SA Health guidelines. As this is breaking news we will provide further updates as they come to light.
Our residents and staff safety is paramount.
Can I please take this opportunity to remind all visitors to the home that they must sign in via our reception and complete the Entry to Site Checklist including a temperature check.
This is part of SA Emergency Management Direction for RACF and to ensure we have all the correct details of anyone who is in our homes in the event of notification of a positive COVID-19 case we can liaise with SA Health contract tracing team.
On a lighter note I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our Ananda Aged Care Hospitality Team.
Kamal Verma is our Hospitality Manager who oversees the service functions of Cleaning, Catering and Laundry across both Hope Valley and Findon.
Our cleaning team are on site 7 days per week undertaking cleaning services across our homes including our resident’s rooms, general areas, dining rooms, lounge rooms and reception areas as well as behind the scenes in the back of house areas. After hours our clinical and care team sweep and mop the floors overnight to reduce the risk of and resident slipping or falling. The cleaners work throughout the morning and afternoon to ensure high standards of cleanliness in the home.
Our maintenance team also assist the cleaning team with carpet and floor steam cleaning to give the flooring a deep clean and freshen up. Our maintenance team also clean outside of the home including pressure cleaning some of our equipment and external fencing perimeter.
We use an external gardener across both homes to ensure our gardens are looking beautiful. We do have to thank our resident “green thumb” Carolyn in Hope Valley who has turned out A2 gardens into colourful masterpieces that get lots of compliments from our residents. Thanks so much Carolyn we are so proud abs grateful for your efforts.
Our laundry team work Monday – Friday at Findon and Monday – Sunday at Hope Valley washing and drying our resident’s personal laundry. The teams start from 7.30 / 8am and commence washing the clothes received from the PM shift and overnight and collect more personal linen throughout the day to wash and dry. It is so important all clothing is labelled so in the event it goes missing we can locate it. Sometimes clothing is mixed up with sheets and towels and accidentally sent to our external laundry contractor “Spotless”. If labelled personal linen does come back but may take up to 4-6 weeks. If we know personal clothing is missing we contact Spotless for them to keep an eye out and return to us ASAP. Our laundry team take pride in ensuring all residents clothes are clean and that they have plentiful supply. In event a resident is running low on clothes the Clinical Team will contact the family / representative to organise additional clothes to be provided.
We have recently recruited new cleaners and laundry staff I am sure you will join with us in welcoming our new team members.
Finally our Catering Team have been enjoying bringing the new summer menu to everyone that was introduced in early Dec 2020. It was great to be able to have a number of residents across our homes join us for a taste test of the new menu items with some great feedback. We have all been missing the Bain Marie service which I am so pleased to announce we are about to recommence. We are just going through our risk management processes to ensure we can recommence safely. At this stage we are looking at doing the Bain Marie at lunch time initially with up to two meal sitting 11.45 – 12.15pm and 12.15 – 12.45pm so we can ensure social distancing measures are in place……….. Exciting times ahead!!!
Kamal is currently working with our dieticians and clinical staff on reviewing the menu to better meet the needs of our residents with specific care needs to encourage greater independence with their nutrition. We are looking at “finger food” and the presentation of meals. In February we are excited to hold our inaugural Nutrition Committee with our Dietician, Hospitality, Clinical Teams and Ananda Board. This is an opportunity to further review our menu in a collaborative and consultative manner … watch this space!
He will be running around a 6.6km circuit at Glenelg, starting and finishing at the Red Heart statue next to the Jetty and base will be next to the Wigley Reserve Playground and Tram Side Kiosk.
Staff and some residents will be joining Michael throughout the day to thank all staff in aged care during an unprecedented year, which is also International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Come down during the day and bring the kids to the impressive new playground, or have a coffee!
Support Michael and all our staff by posting a positive message on the Ananda Facebook page between 6am and 6pm tomorrow. Ask Michael questions and our roving reporters will try to get a reply or a video during the day or he will answer after.
The run ambassador is Holdfast Bay Mayor, Amanda Wilson, who will start the run at 6am!
Michael hopes to keep moving for 12 hours with the disclaimer he will stop if injured! His previous record was a 66km beach run in 2015 but this proves to be a big challenge wearing PPE to acknowledge the year of COVID19 and the impact it has had on everything we do at Ananda Aged Care and the amazing fortitude and resilience of our staff in learning new skills.
I am sure you will all join with me and the rest of Ananda breathing a sigh of relief.
It has been a difficult past nine months as we have all delved into the unknown.
Our focus has been clear throughout this pandemic to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all residents.
From the moment COVID-19 was declared a pandemic we have been aware that vulnerable people our residents are mostly at risk.
Their resilience and strength over the past nine months has been inspiring and humbling as they put their trust in us to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
So what is changing …….. From Monday14th December 2020 we are so pleased to inform you that the limit of visitors each resident may have each day has now been removed, so residents will be able to have more than 1-2 visitors for linger periods of time.
We will still need to screen all visitors to the home which includes an “Entry to Site Checklist” and temperature check so at this stage we will continue visitation from 1-4pm daily.
This allows our residents the opportunity to enjoy lunch time service prior to receiving visitors.
Where possible we will support visits in the Residents rooms and/or in one of our outside garden areas (weather permitting) to ensure we are practicing social distancing.
Under the new Directions all visitors to the home are still required to wear face masks until 23rd December 2020 in line with government advice.
Visits to support end of life care and for palliative care / compassionate grounds will continue to be exempt and in discussion with Senior Management.
As a reminder please continue to practice social distancing not only in our homes but in the community, practice good hand hygiene and if you are unwell please delay your visit to our homes and get if required get a COVID-19 swab test.
To enter our homes (and as per the Emergency Management Directive) it is a requirement you have had the 2020 Flu Vaccination
Ananda has applied for a COVID safe QR check in code that once received we will have on display for all visitors to “check into Ananda”
We will keep you up to date as we head into this festive season as there may be further updates around easing of restrictions from SA Health and the Sa Police Commissioner.
Our staff across our homes and Head Office have stood tall during this time and day in day out have been here supporting and caring for the residents of Ananda – they are our true heroes showing us what Compassion, Comfort, Care means.
Our Board and Management has been truly inspired by their courageous effort – they are all truly ANANDA STARS……….
We are looking forward to celebrating our Annual Ananda STARS at a future event, following the postponement due to COVID-19 and the Stay at Home Directive.
We are looking at the UK at the moment and to quote the Prime Minister of Australia “we have a front row seat” observing the COVID-19 vaccine roll out in the UK ………. Hoping for great outcome and wait for news for the Australian vaccine!!!!!!!
We celebrated our Annual Christmas shows a little different this year…….. On Tuesday 8th Dec at our Findon Home and Thursday 10th Dec at our Hope Valley home we celebrated Christmas with a delicious lunch filled with savoury and sweet treats while being entertained by the incredible Dino ……. I heard that some of our staff and management also participated to the joys (and laughs) of the residents. I have had a “sneak peek” of Kamal’s Christmas Day lunch menu and it sounds delicious. Although COVID-19 has taken many things from us this year the joys of the festive season, our families and staff coming together and a real sense of community is stronger than it has ever been.
If you are planning on taking your loved one home Christmas Day can you kindly let our Admin Team know (at reception) by Friday 18th Dec so we can finalise our menu and ordering.
If you are taking a resident out we will go through a Risk Management Checklist with you and the Resident as part of our record keeping and for trace contact purposes in the event of further COVID-19 outbreaks.
We continue to embark on this “new normal” and as we all work together and continue to do the right thing …. And work towards the road map to recovery.
Kind Regards
Ananda Management
Our staff access this simple observation tool to assist our quality audits and regularly complete it in various areas of the home. We are now making it available for residents, representatives and visitors to complete so we receive helpful external feedback. Please feel free to spend 5-10 minutes to complete this form on your mobile ‘phone or tablet, or home computer.
*These fields must be completed
I write to highlight recent press conferences with SA Health and The Premier, and would like to bring to your attention the following:
I thank you for your ongoing attention, care and commitment to help us to help you all keep our Ananda Aged Care community healthy and well and certainly we look forward to supporting important time with loved ones later next month and into 2021.
Kind regards,
Dr Pooja Newman, MBBS
Please tell us your email address so we can quickly contact you and provide updates to you.
We continue to live in uncertain times in South Australia and we recognize the significant threat that COVID19 pandemic poses for our vulnerable elderly. We have been proactive to develop continuous improvements and take opportunity to refine our infection control practices ongoing. For this reason, I am opting to keep our organisation at a heightened level of COVID19 risk until December 1, at which time this will be reviewed and this includes restricting movement of senior staff between our homes as much as possible.
Karen Daniels-Goddard will continue to be available to you as our Director of Nursing supporting staff, families and residents with clinical aspects including care provision, quality monitoring and compliance and clinical communication with all stakeholders for best practice resident care and wellbeing. Karen will continue to take clinical lead across the organisation, and while she is currently based at our Findon home, we hope this will change to be across both our homes before year end.
Michael Page complements our senior leadership at Ananda in his Workforce Executive role across Ananda Aged Care. He takes lead on workforce training & development, recruitment, administration and human resources, workplace safety and compliance and progression of ongoing opportunities for staff education especially dementia care and infection control. At the present time, Michael is based at our Hope Valley home, but we envisage this too will change in December.
Do not hesitate should you have any questions and I trust you will continue to take care of yourselves and help us to keep our residents safe in South Australia.
Kind regards,
As we all know we are “not out of the woods yet” with the Parafield Cluster being far outreaching with a number of schools and businesses closed for 14 days quarantine.
As our Hope Valley home is located in the vicinity of the schools impacted by the Parafield Cluster and a number of our staff and families having children (and grandchildren) that go there we made the unprecedented decision last week to swab test our staff and residents at Hope Valley in an effort to reassure our community and safeguard our residents and staff during this time.
I am very pleased and relieved to report all results to date have been negative.
We have a second swab test being conducted on Wednesday 25th November in line with the recommended swab test on days 2 and 12.
Our initial prescribed ”state lockdown” was scheduled for 6 days but in light of information obtained by SA Health that was decreased and the “Stay at Home” Directive was revoked on Sunday 22nd November at 00.01am which was a relief for all South Australians.
However in Aged Care we are very much still on high alert as we care for the most vulnerable people in the state.
The Emergency Management Directive (COVID-19) Form 14 came into effect from Sunday with specific obligations around entry and access to Residential Aged Care Homes.
I am very pleased to announce we are re-opening our homes to support families visit their loved one, for short 30 min intervals initially and as well monitor the current situation we hope we will be able to increase those visits.
All families must book into a visit via our friendly Reception Staff with booking from 1pm to 5pm (4.30pm being the last booking).
Face masks must be worn when at either of our homes as well as adhering to the Site Entry Checklist including a temperature check. If your temperature if above 38 degrees you will not be permitted on site.
Please ensure you practice social distancing and sanitise your hands on entry and on exit of the home.
Visits will take place in a resident’s room (if in a single room) or alternatively in a designated area or one of our gardens.
We will continue to support additional and extended visitation for our residents receiving palliative/end of life care,
We ask that if you become ill within three (3) days of visiting our homes you notify us immediately and please go and get a COVID-19 swab test – the risks otherwise are too great. This allows us to more diligently trace contact to ensure the safety of our community.
We will continue to separate our homes with a dedicated staffing model working in each area. I can appreciate it is difficult to not have access to the whole home, but by limiting full access to the home we can reduce a potential outbreak.
It has been great to see so many residents and families taking up the offer of Face time and Skype a great way to stay in contact with your loved ones it you are unable to visit.
Please also contact us via contactananda@anandaagedcare.com.au for further information.
Once again thank you all for your support and patience during these very challenging times.