A statement from Kara Foscholo and Amanda Semaan (Directors of Active Ability)
In response to the rising health alerts surrounding COVID-19, Active Ability would like to provide our clients and their stakeholders with information surrounding our proactive approach to preventing the spread of this virus.
As front-line community health providers, COVID-19 is impacting our usual service provision methods. In order to ensure continued client and staff safety while retaining continuity of care and best practice, we are implementing the following procedures with our team commencing Monday the 16th March 2020.
Day to day hygiene practices to minimise risk of transmission:
Human coronaviruses are spread from someone infected with COVID-19 virus to other close contacts with that person through contaminated droplets spread by coughing or sneezing, or by contact with contaminated hands, surfaces or objects. Most COVID-19 cases appear to be spread from people who have symptoms. As such, Active Ability is enforcing the following precautionary measures for the safety of the community and our team:
- Active Ability staff will not see any clients should the staff member be experiencing any symptoms of illness (specifically a fever, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath).
- Active Ability staff will not see any clients who have symptoms of illness themselves (specifically a fever, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath). In order to ensure this is the case, you can expect that your Active Ability staff member will ask appropriate questions pertaining to your health and wellbeing at the time of confirming an appointment, or first thing before entering your home.
- Active Ability staff will practice correct hand hygiene and droplet precautions as a protective measure, including:
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- Employing the 5 moments of hand hygiene, which can be reviewed here: https://www.hha.org.au/hand-hygiene/5-moments-for-hand-hygiene
- Maintaining a 1.5m distance where practicable
- Not offering physical contact in greeting or farewell (for example, a hand shake)
- Cleaning of all equipment used during a client session before and after use, as per hand hygiene recommendations.
- Active Ability staff are currently suspended from all overseas travel for work purposes. Any Active Ability staff member who chooses to engage in overseas travel for recreational purposes will need to self-isolate for 14 days on return.
- Active Ability staff will follow the direction of the NSW Health COVID-19 tracing team if they are instructed that self-isolation is required. In this case, that Active Ability staff member will immediately return home and commence 14 days self-isolation. Active Ability will then make contact with you, as their client, to notify you of cancelled sessions.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at hello@activeability.com.au or phone our team on (02) 8678 7874 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm).
To review the source that has informed the development of our policy, please visit:
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/alerts/Pages/coronavirus-faqs.aspx
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus.aspx