To families, whānau and friends,
As I’m sure you know, the country remains in Alert Level 4. We’re continuing to follow Government guidelines and best practice to help keep the people we support and our staff safe.
Unfortunately, this means that visitors are still not allowed to any of our disability care services, even on compassionate grounds.
If you have family members and friends in our services, including IDEA Services and Choices NZ, we will continue to keep you updated. Please feel free to get in touch if you haven’t heard from us yet.
We’re making sure our bubbles are as small as possible and as I have already mentioned, are not allowing any visitors to our services. This is in line with advice to the Aged Care Sector.
We know this is hard for people and hope it won’t be for long. We’re talking with the people we support about this and supporting them to be connected via phone or online through tools such as WhatsApp. As I said in my last update, we know this doesn’t work for everyone. If it doesn’t work for you and you want to connect with a person in our services urgently, please talk to us.
We are also continuing to support those people who live in our residential services to get outside for fresh air but not to attend services where people gather.
A reminder that day base services for people who live with family or other providers are suspended during lockdown.
Under Alert Level 4 there are no visits to properties except for urgent health and safety maintenance, using agreed protocols. Please go to the Accessible Properties website for contact information if you would like to get in touch.
Except for support workers, all other staff are working remotely but will still be available by email or phone.
Wecare.kiwi and Awhi-at-home are both operating so that families and individuals throughout New Zealand have access to support, connection and information.
Take care and stay well.
Ralph Jones
IHC Group Chief Executive