It’s our job to care
Allambie Heights Village CEO, Ciaran Foley, was recently interviewed by Liz Alderslade for the Aged Care Guide website for an article titled “How the aged care workforce and providers have adapted to Coronavirus“.
Ciaran’s excerpt from the article is reproduced below:
One facility in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Allambie Heights Villages, has been undertaking a number of new protocols and procedures to keep their residents and staff safe.
CEO of Allambie Heights Villages, Ciarán Foley, says that their aged care facility was preparing for the worst of COVID-19 six weeks ago and put together a COVID-19 action team dedicated to preventing the virus from entering the facility.
“We were using the COVID action team to absorb and then disseminate the information that was coming to us from so many different departments. There was so much information coming at us, it was overwhelming. It was about absorbing and disseminating that information immediately,” says Mr Foley.
Every staff member at Allambie Heights Villages, no matter if they already had the training, was required to do courses around infection control, proper procedures around handwashing and safety, and the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
The facility slowly progressed to a full lockdown last week on Tuesday, which Mr Foley says went very smoothly with staff, residents and their family and friends thanks to the management keeping every party informed early on that the lockdown would be a reality.
While it has been a difficult time, Mr Foley is really impressed with the dedication of staff and the understanding he has seen from residents and their families and friends.
“It is important for everyone to stay confident, stay safe, and remember our residential aged care facilities or the aged care industry, we have experts looking after older people, this is what we do best and this is our job, to care,” says Mr Foley.