These are unusual times and I understand for some people quite stressful.

As a disability provider, Delando will continue to operate and provide our usual service.  This will continue unless otherwise advised by the Federal or NSW Government.

In keeping with the advice from the government the New Focus Day Program, will be open as usual; however, we will be making a few adjustments to our service provision.

This will mean that we will:

• Have more in-house activities, such a music and dance and art and craft
• External activities will be more focussed on outdoor activities

Additionally, we will be seeking to do activities in smaller groups and have our morning tea and lunch in two groups, thus increasing the space between people.

We have implemented no touching, and everyone is doing really well; there is a lot of waving and smiling happening at Delando at the moment.  We have increased our cleaning regime and encouraging everyone to wash their hands much more often. This is working ?

We will continue to attend the movies and go swimming, unless we are otherwise advised by government; if you, or your family member, or guardian only want to do in-house activities, please let us know and we will abide by your instructions.

Our weekend activities will at this stage continue; however, we have decided to do the activities in smaller groups.  So, for example if six people were going to an event, we would have two groups of three; this means we can create space in cars etc.

We will also continue to provide support to people living the community; we know that social isolation could create challenges for people, so we want to ensure you that we will continue to support you and/or your family member.

Supported Employment is also business as usual. Our supported employees have received a memo today; this outlines that we are continuing to work and if that changes, we will seek to deploy people to other areas and/or provide some short-term financial support.

We have developed a spread sheet that outlines how we will be communicating with everyone, as  monitoring anyone who might vulnerable during this time.

Our accommodation service continues as usual.

In regards, to the NRL State of Origin match in Adelaide we are unsure of what will happen.  So, for those who have purchased tickets through Delando, just hang onto your invoice and if you have paid and the match is cancelled, you will be fully reimbursed.  We will let you know once we know. Thank you for your patience.

If you have any questions or you would like to discuss anything with me, please feel free to contact me.  If I am unavailable, Karen Stevenson, our finance and administration manager can also assist you.

To ensure your confidence that we, at Delando are upholding our obligations, we are adhering to the following instructions:

Safework NSW describes the coronavirus symptoms as follows:

• The most common symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are a new, continuous cough, runny nose, shortness of breath or a high temperature.
• For most people, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild infection.

If you have any of these symptoms you are instructed to:

• to stay at home if you are sick – even if the symptoms are mild, and
• that any unwell workers with compatible symptoms to those of COVID-19 be sent home immediately, and advised to:
  • Call their General Practitioner
  • Call healthdirect on 1800 022 222 or
  • Visit their local Emergency Department
• Contact Delando immediately

If you are sick and you have not informed us of the symptoms of your illness, we will make direct contact with you to ask you about the nature of your illness. Normally we would not make this enquiry; however, the advice from the Federal Government is that, to ensure the safety of all, we do need to make enquiries, so we can maintain a virus free workplace.

And for everyone – please remember to:

• Clean your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand rub/sanitiser.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing and sneezing or use your elbow, not your hands
• Avoid close contact with people unwell with cold or flu-like symptoms and stay home if you have these symptoms.
• Avoid touching your face and avoid shaking hands with others.
• Try to maintain a distance of 1.5 metres from others as much as possible and avoid crowded places.

For your peace of mind, please know that if we were informed of anyone associated with Delando diagnosed with the virus, we would follow the NSW Health Departments advice.

Thanks everyone, I know that you are trying to do your best and it is appreciated.

Shelly Sabey

CEO