A MESSAGE TO OUR COMMUNITY

Samantha Rillie, CEO, Real Life Skills Support Services

The rapid spread of Covid-19 over the past few weeks is dramatically affecting people around the world. We would like to take a moment to communicate our commitment to doing what we can to help keep you and our team safe during this time.

First and foremost, we are doing our best to make thoughtful decisions based on the most current information available. We are following the recommendations of the Australian Government and World Health Organisation (WHO). As things are changing so rapidly we can only take it day by day and act accordingly. It is also important to note at this time, these are precautionary measures to help prevent the spread.

Real Life Skills Support Services will continue to provide support to our current and future clients to maintain continuity of support. We will however need to enforce new precautionary procedures to ensure the safety of our team and our clients.

High-Risk Clients 
If you believe you fall into any of the below categories, please let us know and so we can continue to support you in the best possible way.
·  Heart Condition
·  Diabetes
·  Lung Condition
·  High Blood Pressure
·  Other chronic health conditions
·  60 years of age or over

Home Visits/ Individual Supports
Home visits will continue as per normal but with a few extra precautions to ensure the health and wellbeing of you and our team. Real Life Skills has implemented a number of procedures and protocols so that your home visit is still valuable and making progress towards your goals.

Group Activities
As of today, Tuesday 17th March, group and social activities have been postponed until further notice this includes cooking classes. We will endeavour to keep you updated as the situation and circumstances change. We hope to return classes and social activities to normal as soon as we can providing it is as safe as reasonably possible to do so. If you would like us to provide support one on one please contact us.

Service Delivery
To minimise risk to you and others Real Life Skills will be following the below procedures:

1.  Reducing physical contact
· Avoid any physical contact where possible
· Avoid contact with frequently used surfaces

2. Reduced Movement
· Social distancing outside of the workplace, which means cancelling non-essential travel, no overseas travel, limiting non-essential contact and avoiding all large gatherings.
· Social distancing within the workplace. This includes working from home, limiting contact with other team members, and reducing face to face meetings and consultations.

3. Screening
Prior to consultations or appointments the Real Life Skills administration team will ask you the following questions:
· Are you or anyone in your household feeling unwell?
· Have you or anyone in your household returned to Australia within the last 14 days.

4. Self-Isolation
· If you have had recent close or prolonged contact with someone who has entered Australia in the past 14 days it is recommended to self-isolate.
· Self-isolate for 14 days after returning to the country.
· If you have come into contact with any confirmed case of Covid-19, get tested and stay in self isolation for two days if negative test is returned.

5. Increased Hygiene
· Sneeze or cough into your elbow or upper arm or a tissue and immediately throw tissue in the bin and wash your hands.
· Wash hands for a minimum of 20 seconds regularly.
· Carry hand sanitiser in places where hands cannot easily be washed.
· Avoid touching your face.
· Stay home if unwell.

6. Increased infection control procedures
· Frequently touched surfaces such as light switches, car surfaces, door handles, tables, toilets, basins, kitchen benches, reception benches are cleaned daily using disinfectant and disposed of appropriately in sealed bags.

7. Reporting
Real Life Skills will abide by government mandated reporting procedures meaning:
· Advising you if a member of our team has been confirmed with COVID-19
· Likewise, please advise us with 24 hours if you have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

We want to do our best to ensure we don’t put anyone at unnecessary risk and actively work towards minimising the spread of the virus as effectively as possible. While many of us may remain unaffected given the right precautions are taken, we have a responsibility to ensure those in our community are protected as much as reasonably possible.

If you would like to continue services but would prefer no face to face contact, please let us know and we can easily accommodate this request. If you would like to discuss anything further please do not hesitate to contact us.

We thank you and appreciate your understanding. We look forward to picking up where we left off very soon. Stay safe and keep look after each other.
 
Real Life Skills Support Services Team.