Resident & Representatives Newsletter

Resident and Representative Newsletter #2

We are all eagerly awaiting the news of the roll out of the COVID-19 Vaccine with an announcement from the Prime Minister that we may start the process mid February 2021.

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.

Hospitality at Ananda

On a lighter note I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our Ananda Aged Care Hospitality Team.

Kamal (left) at a cooking demonstrations A1 Hope Valley

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!

Once again thank you all for your ongoing support and feedback it is greatly appreciated ….  2021 it is going to be a better year!!!

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