10 June 2021

Dear Residents

As of 11.59pm tonight, Thursday 10 June, I am sure we are all pleased to hear of more restrictions being eased in regional Victoria.

Despite this, the government health directions relating to visitor restrictions for aged care homes have not changed and still apply.  Disappointingly this means that residents in our aged care Homes can still only have visitors for ‘end of life’ reasons, and Harmony Village Independent Living Unit residents are not permitted to visit the aged care home.

On a more positive side, the community room at Harmony Village can now be accessed by Independent Living Unit residents, with the following restrictions:

• a cap of 10 people at one time,
• all visitors to the community room will be required sign a Doutta Galla health status attestation,
• must wear a mask whilst indoors, and
• cannot enter the aged care home from the Community centre.

We encourage you to stay updated with information about exposure sites, and if you have symptoms regardless of how mild, please get tested.  Please continue to take care of yourselves and each other, wear a mask when required, maintain social distancing, and continue to practice hand hygiene.

We urge you to follow carefully the COVID safe setting requirements that are published by the State Government and remind those who are eligible that vaccination is one of the steps in helping to stop the spread of the virus.

Also, I would like to let you know that all my general communications, are available on the Doutta Galla website at https://www.dgas.org.au/coronavirus-updates/ and can be accessed at any time.

If you or your family would like more support during this time, you are welcome to reach out to the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) is an independent, free service to support older people and their family members during COVID-19.  Families can call OPAN on 1800 700 600 if they would like to talk with someone about the COVID-19 situation and its impact, or if worried about a loved one and need to talk to someone.  Elder Rights Advocacy (ERA) is the Victorian OPAN member who will be providing direct individual support to older people and their families and can be contacted through 1800 700 600.

Yours sincerely,

Vanda Iaconese

CEO