Author: Chris Mar

Dear Families, Friends & Representatives,

Following consultation with the Public Health Unit, we are pleased to inform you that the outbreak in Easton Park Units has been declared over.

As a precautionary measure, all visitors must continue to wear surgical masks due to cases in the community.

We thank everyone for their support and understanding whilst our team managed this latest Outbreak.

The Whiddon Team

Dear Residents, Families and Employees,

I am writing to let you know that earlier today, we had an incident in our Memory Support Home at Whiddon Kelso. A resident in our MSU recently returned from an extended stay in hospital, and this morning exhibited aggressive behaviour resulting in minor injuries for some of our employees and residents. The families of impacted residents have been contacted.

Our team acted swiftly and compassionately to contain the situation, and in line with our procedures, both Police and Ambulance attended to support our team. The resident involved in the incident was safely transferred to hospital for assessment and specialist care.

We are grateful to our team, residents, and visitors for your understanding at this time. This has been a distressing incident for all involved and we are supporting the team with extra staffing and counselling.  We are taking this opportunity to also review our procedures to ensure we can continue to provide a safe and welcoming environment for our residents, employees, and visitors.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call me on 1300 738 388.

Kind regards

Sharni Latham

Residential Services Manager

Whiddon Kelso

Dear Whiddon Temora – Greenstone Families, Friends, Representatives and Employees,

This Saturday, January 11th, our Greenstone Lodge home will be undergoing planned electrical work. 

The planned work will commence at approximately 8:30AM and conclude at approximately 4:30PM – during which time Essential Energy will provide a generator to ensure the comfort and safety of our residents is maintained.

Essential Energy will be replacing a high-voltage cable, which will result in brief power outages at the start and conclusion of the work (at apprximately 8:30AM and 4:30PM respectively). We anticipate the outages will last approximately 30 minutes each.

Our team will be on hand to minimise impact, monitor the situation and assist residents as needed.

We understand that this may cause some inconvenience, and we appreciate your understanding as we work to improve the safety and reliability of our electrical systems.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

The Whiddon Temora Team

Dear Families, Friends & Representatives of Taylor House,

Please be advised that Whiddon Taylor House currently has x 3 residents with confirmed COVID-19 cases:

• Straughen 2 Wing has two resident cases and is in ‘outbreak’ status
• Christie 1 Wing a single resident case and is in exposure status

Please note:

• Visiting may still occur during this period, restricted to resident rooms.
• Visitors are required to follow our safety precautions including:
  • RAT to be attended on entry and N95 mask to be applied prior to visiting Straughen 2
  • Regular handwashing and use of hand sanitisers are strongly encouraged. Hand sanitising stations are available throughout the care home.
  • Maintain appropriate social distancing whenever possible. Visits should be conducted in resident rooms or on balconies.
• All visitors are encouraged to consider postponing any visits if they are unwell or experiencing any flu-like symptoms. The safety of our residents and team members is our number one priority.

We thank everyone for their support and understanding while our team manage this outbreak.

The Whiddon Team

Dear Families, Friends & Representatives,

Please be advised that Whiddon Sir David Martin – Level 2 (Leslie Lock 2) – remains in COVID-19 Outbreak with 6 active cases.

Please note:

• Visiting may still occur during this period, restricted to resident rooms.
• Visitors are required to follow our safety precautions including:
  • RAT to be attended on entry and PPE / N95 mask to be applied prior to visiting Leslie Lock 2 area.
  • Surgical masks need to be applied prior to visiting all other areas of SDM.
  • Regular handwashing and use of hand sanitisers are strongly encouraged. Hand sanitizing stations are available throughout the care home.
  • Maintain appropriate social distancing whenever possible. Visits should be conducted in resident rooms or at the internal courtyards.
• All visitors are encouraged to consider postponing any visits if they are unwell or experiencing any flu-like symptoms. The safety of our residents and team members is our number one priority.

We thank everyone for their support and understanding while our team manage this outbreak.

The Whiddon Team

Dear Families, Friends, and Representatives,

Please be advised that the community transmission of COVID-19 has increased from low to moderate levels across NSW and QLD.

As such, Health advises that masks should be worn by visitors and employees when there are moderate or high levels of respiratory viruses circulating in the community.

Therefore, for everyone’s safety, Whiddon is requiring all visitors and staff to return to mask-wearing while visiting and strongly encourages postponing any visits if experiencing any respiratory symptoms.

We will continue to review these requirements as the community transmission levels change.

Thank you for your ongoing patience and support.

The Whiddon Team

The mental health and wellbeing of everyone here at Whiddon is extremely important to us. The wellbeing of our people is a shared responsibility, and we want to use every tool available to us to ensure you’re all thriving.

We’ve partnered with Hapstar as our new employee assistance program (EAP) to provide health and wellbeing support with their online platform, app, and virtual therapy team that you can book online in real time.

Through Hapstar you can:

• Connect and book a session with a qualified coach or therapist.
• Build your own personalised action plan to focus on improving your wellbeing.
• Access in the moment support when you need it most.
• You can access Hapstar on your mobile or desktop device.

How can you access the new Hapstar EAP?

1. On your own personal Mobile Phone

• Search for the Hapstar App in your App Store and download it.

2. Via a Whiddon Mobile phone or Tablet device – 

• Click on the Hapstar App

3. Via a Whiddon PC –

1. Either click on the Hapstar icon via ‘MyApplications’; or
2. Go to  www.hapstar.app and click ‘Login’ (this link can be used on your personal PC)

Tap ‘Sign up’ with your @whiddon.com.au email address, then follow the one-time registration process.

Dear families, friends and representatives of Whiddon residents and clients,

As you may be aware, the Australian government has announced the shutdown of the 3G mobile phone network. This means that older mobile phones that only operate on the 3G network will no longer be able to make or receive calls, send texts, or access mobile data.

We understand this may affect some residents and home care clients who rely on their mobile phones to stay connected. We encourage you to check in with your loved ones to ensure their mobile phone is compatible with the newer 4G or 5G networks.

If their phone is not compatible, they will need to upgrade to a newer device. Many options are available, and your loved one’s current mobile network provider can assist with choosing a suitable replacement.

For more information about the 3G network shutdown, please visit the official government website:

https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/media-communications-arts/phone/mobile-services-and-coverage/3g-network-switch

– Whiddon

Dear Families, Friends & Representatives,

Please be advised that we currently have a COVID-19 exposure at Whiddon Moree in our Perry James Wing with 1 staff member and 1 resident currently testing positive for COVID-19.

All visitors and staff are requested to wear surgical masks when inside the facility except and follow the direction and guidance of staff specifically when visiting Perry James Wing.

Please note, visiting may still occur however, we ask you refrain from visiting if you are feeling unwell or showing any signs of cold and flu symptoms. The health of our residents and employees is our utmost priority.

For now, the following precautions are still in place at our care home, including:

• • Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) are required by all employees and visitors before entry.
  • Surgical masks are to be worn
  • Regular handwashing and use of hand sanitisers are strongly encouraged. Hand sanitizing stations are available throughout the care home.
  • Maintain appropriate social distancing whenever possible.
  • Visits should be conducted in resident rooms.

We thank everyone for their support and understanding while our staff manage the situation.

The Whiddon Team