McCallum's response to COVID-19

To our broad McCallum Community we’d like to share with you our plans and responses to the Coronavirus and be clear about what our primary objectives are during this time.

The Board of McCallum has declared that the risk to persons contracting the Coronavirus as an extreme risk to the organisation and its people. As such the management team has implemented our Emergency Reponse Plan which defines our purpose and actions during this time.

Our primary objectives are;

1. To minimise the risk of illness to vulnerable people,
2. To reduce transmission of the virus, and
3. To limit interruption to services.

We understand that our organisation provides crucial services to some of the most vulnerable members of our community so we wish to reassure you that we will not panic , nor make rash decisions during this emergency. We will apply calm and considered actions that meet with our three core objectives. Our communication to you from this point forward will be prompt and direct as circumstances demand.

Our Emergency Response Plan follows standard principles of good emergency management and consists of four phases:

• Prevention – actions undertaken in advance of the emergency to mitigate the impact on our community. For example, we have increased cleaning regimes across the business, mandated re-training for staff in Infection Prevention and Control and heightened awareness of the virus.
• Preparedness – actions directed at modelling alternate service delivery mechanisms, sharing information with our community, creating and testing response plans.
• Response – actions directed at suspected or known outbreaks which may include quarantine or isolation of individuals, and
• Recovery – actions to coordinate the process of reconstruction of services.

McCallum has developed and enacted Emergency Response Plans for each of our separate programs, sites and homes. These plans have been developed in consideration of the individual health and support needs of your loved one and include:

• Working diligently to ensure we have sufficent goods, particularly personal hygiene items and food availability. At this stage we are confident in being able to maintain supplies
• We have increased the health and hygiene and cleaning practices at all sites
• We are in constant communication with our workforce and requesting flexibility to ensure quality service coverage.

Despite our best endeavours McCallum concedes that it is unlikely to be able to entirely stop the virus of impacting our participants and staff and by extension our services. Should individual families want to remove their loved ones from service we understand and will support your decision. We are mindful however of the impact changes to routine can have on an individual.

While our intent is to maintain services as far as practicable we have taken the decision this week to defer all camp events. This decision reflects our key objectives and was done after consideration of the heightened risks that travel presents.

We know other public facilities in Ballarat and St Arnaud are closing, but please be assured that we will modify our programs as best we can to continue supports.

Finally, we have placed below a list of the key personnel and their contact details that you may wish to call to discuss your individual needs or concerns. Our program areas (i.e. Accommodation Services, Employment Services, Day Programs and Individual Support Services) will communicate separately with you as the need arises.  All staff can be contacted by calling (03) 5334 1921.
 

We continue to take our advice from both Federal and State Government Health recommendations and rulings. We commit to providing you with further communication as this situation continues to evolve.

McCallum is doing all it can to continue to maintain services to our Community.
 

Yours Sincerely,

Tyrone McCuskey

Chief Executive Officer