Published 2nd March 2021
Reminder: new information to prepare for the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out
Earlier this week we published new information—a readiness toolkit—on our website for residential aged care facilities to prepare your facility, workers and residents for COVID-19 vaccination clinics.
Residential aged care facilities should familiarise themselves with this information and start planning.
We encourage you to share this information, particularly around consent, with your residents and their families, carers and loved ones.
In addition to the readiness toolkit, more information is available on our information for aged care providers, workers and residents page.
A second COVID-19 vaccine, by AstraZeneca, has been granted provisional approval by the TGA for use in Australia for people 18 years and older.
This means the vaccine has met the TGA’s rigorous standards for safety, quality and efficacy.
You can learn more about COVID-19 vaccines on our website.
Pfizer vaccine doses arrive in Australia
More than 142,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have arrived at Sydney airport. This is the first shipment of 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine the Government has secured for Australia.
Keep up to date with trusted information
You can find more information, including translated information, and subscribe to receive the COVID-19 Vaccines Updates on our COVID-19 vaccines website.
The Older Persons Advocacy Network is bringing together an expert panel to discuss consent for COVID-19 vaccination and how people can be supported to make informed vaccination decisions.
Register here for this free and online webinar on Tuesday, February 23, at 11:30 AM Australian Eastern Daylight Time.
Phoenix Australia, one of the organisations delivering trauma support to the aged care sector, has created an aged care specific resource website.
It offers information and tools to support those who have had traumatic experiences, and trauma recovery resources for carers and aged care providers.
The website currently contains information for:
The resources will continue to expand, and we will notify you as they develop.
The Department is creating resources to help you share information about the grief and trauma supports for aged care, and will provide more information on where to find downloadable content and how to order printed resources for your facility.
Translated content:
The Department has arranged for an initial round of radio and editorial scripts that have been shared with SBS radio and ethnic media.
They are available here for your use:
We encourage you to share this content to assist in the promotion of the program to ensure those who require the support know how to access it.
We’ll be in touch as future resources and Communications products become available.
Updated advice on visitation for residential aged care facilities (Visitation Guidelines) during COVID-19 has been released. The updated advice includes information on the prevention of deconditioning of residents in residential aged care facilities during COVID-19.
Guidance on single site workforce arrangements and types of visitors has also been provided, with an emphasis on the importance of Essential Care Persons on supporting the wellbeing of residents.
Providers are strongly encouraged to read the guidelines. They are designed to support the aged care sector to boost preparedness at the provider, local, state and national level.
Certain jurisdictions may have more specific requirements/arrangements in place based on their relative risk profile. Providers should stay up to date with the directions in their State or Territory as many are now being revised.
From 11:59pm 17 February 2021 Victoria has returned to COVIDSafe Summer restrictions. These are in place across Victoria.
A person is not to enter a Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) if they:
There have also been changes to visitor restrictions, Visitors are permitted in the following circumstances:
RACFs must continue to minimise workers working at more than one site as much as practicable and all workers must wear surgical masks at all times.
See the Enhanced COVIDSafe Summer Residential Aged Care Facilities factsheet for further information on restrictions in residential aged care facilities.
Advice for Aged care workers providing services in the community – Home Care Packages (HCP) and Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP)
Aged Care Providers are also reminded to stay up to date with advice and Directions on the Victorian Government’s Department of Health and Human Services website and to check for these updates regularly.
The availability of the Australian Government grant funding to support implementation of single site workforce arrangements has ended as of 17 February 2021 in line with the removal of Greater Melbourne as a Commonwealth Hotspot.
Support for Aged Care Workers in COVID-19 (SACWIC) Grant funding is available to providers for out of pocket costs incurred for the activity period of 13 February to 17 February 2021. Providers may now apply for
SACWIC funding for this activity period via Grant Connect until the grant closes on 30 June 2021.
The safety of residents and workers in residential aged care is the highest priority and the Commonwealth continues to encourage providers to limit their workforce mobility where possible.
NSW Health advice for aged care providers has been updated as at 18 February. Providers are encouraged to read the directions in full.
The key messages for this update are:
All staff and visitors must wear a surgical mask inside the facility.
WA Health has advised that Visitors to Residential Aged Care Facilities Directions No 6, have been revoked, see here.
This means that Visitors to Residential Aged Care Facilities Directions No 4 (which can be found here ), now apply to all of Western Australia.
Professor Lyn Gilbert and Adjunct Professor Alan Lilly have been commissioned by the Department to undertake a national review of COVID-19 outbreaks in Australian Residential Aged Care Facilities.
The review will examine lessons learnt from the management of COVID-19 outbreaks and identify critical factors which could reduce the risk of future outbreaks of COVID-19 and increase the likelihood of rapid detection and timely response to COVID-19 or any other infectious disease outbreaks.
The review is not service specific, instead drawing general conclusions from providers’ experiences, including those who managed to contain the spread within services. The review will provide recommendations to Government on how preparedness and responsiveness to potential future outbreaks may be supported, monitored and evaluated.
The team are seeking a cross section of representatives from Residential Aged Care Approved Providers to contribute to this work, through participation in a series of online workshops.
The workshops will be undertaken in the first and second weeks of March and will provide an opportunity to inform the review and its recommendations. Each workshop has fifty places and is scheduled for 2.5 hours during the specific dates below:
In order to access a range of views and perspectives, each Approved Provider should only nominate one (preferably an executive member) person to attend, who can represent the views of the Approved Provider.
Participants can register here.
Should you have any queries with regard to the workshops, please feel free to email us at: agedcarecovid19review@gmail.com and we will get back to you.
The workshops will complement online surveys (coming soon) which will be directed to the RACF-level and a series of interviews with providers which are already underway.
We look forward to your support in this endeavour and thank you for your ongoing commitment to people living in residential care.
Source:Unknown Author, 2021, Department of Health (https://www.health.gov.au/)
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