Our Response to COVID-19
Monitoring
While the COVID-19 numbers in NSW continue to improve, there is currently no easing of the measures DSA has in place to protect our people and participants.
We continue to closely monitor the circumstances and follow the directives of NSW Health.
COVID-19 remains a concern for us all and it is as important as ever to adhere to strict hygiene and social distancing measures.
Our priority and focus remains the health, safety and wellbeing of our participants and employees and we appreciate your continued support and understanding during these challenging times.
Our people are our priority
We continue implementing visitor restrictions and to protect our participants and employees, we have protocols in place for access to our Home Solutions and Mentoring Services sites. Until further notice, only the nominated decision maker will be able to visit the home by appointment only.
DSA has policies and procedures in place to maintain high standards of infection control at our sites at all times. This helps to avoid the potential spread of Coronavirus and other infectious diseases for our participants and also provides a safer workplace for our employees.
Implemented additional COVID-19 precautions across all our services continue to help keep our participants, their friends and families, our employees and the communities we work in safe.
The measures include:
- Restricted visitor access to nominated decision makers only at our Home Solutions and Mentoring Services sites
- Support staff wearing a face mask in all our services
- Updated site access controls and visitor guidelines
- Additional training and support for our staff
On site precautions
All DSA staff involved in supporting our participants are wearing a mask at work to minimise the potential spread of infection until further notice. We are ensuring all our sites have sufficient supplies on hand.
We have developed procedures to enact should we have a close exposure or confirmed diagnosis of infection.
All our sites continue to limit access to non-essential visitors, enhance strict personal hygiene and infection control measures and implement social distancing.
Site access measures (temperature checking, visitor registers and illness/travel history questioning) and strict additional hygiene and cleaning are in place at each of these sites.
These are important measures that can help protect our participants and employees as well as reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
We all play a role in keeping ourselves, our families, participants and communities safe.
Visitor restrictions are in place
Until further notice, all our Home Solutions and Mentoring Services sites are restricting visitor access to nominated decision makers only, and only by appointment. These visitors will be asked to wear a mask during their visit, regardless of where they live or where they have visited.
All non-essential visitors are requested to postpone their visit until further notice, regardless of where they live or have visited.
Visitors are requested to view the NSW Department of Health’s published updates and directives about locations associated with confirmed COVID-19 cases. This advice changes frequently, so visitors should ensure they monitor these lists and follow the advice outlined by NSW Health. If a visitor has attended a COVID-19 hotspot, they are requested to postpone visits to DSA sites and reschedule for a later date.
Ongoing protocols such as site access measures (temperature checking, visitor registers and illness/travel history questioning) and additional strict hygiene and cleaning are continuing at each of the sites.
These important measures can help protect our participants and employees as well as reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
Easy read information for participants
NSW Health also has a page dedicated to Easy Read resources for people with disability. We have also developed story boards and gathered a range of easy read fact sheets for our participants. Resources have been shared to our frontline teams so they can display information on good hygiene and effective handwashing, knowing the symptoms and preventative measures for COVID-19 at all DSA sites.
Impact on services
We are restricting visitor access to nominated decision makers by appointment only at all Home Solutions and Mentoring Services sites until further notice. We have communicated clearly with our participants and potential visitors to request that visits be postponed until further notice, wherever possible.
Measures such as phone or video calls may be utilised to help people keep in touch with family, friends or others and to assist in limiting visits to premises at this time.
Community Solutions day program operations continue provide alternate supports to maintain continuity of service and are continuing to trial the return to service at three sites (Taren Point, East Hills and Blacktown).
We have returned to providing remote supports for our jobseekers in our SLES and DES programs until further notice.
DSA Packaging Solutions operations are continuing at all sites with additional precautionary measures in place, including strict hygiene measures and the use of face masks.
Be assured that our team is doing everything possible to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of the people we support and our employees, safeguarding our people is vital.
