Aged care man visits his parents
The chief executive of a Woy Woy aged care home says he knows what it is like to be unable to visit elderly relatives.
"Last week I was fortunate enough to finally visit my parents in regional Victoria," said Mr Matt Downie of Blue Wave Living.
"It has been more than a year since I have been able to last see them because of ongoing state border closures coinciding with when I had time off.
"While we have obviously kept in touch via phone, and shared photos, it's not the same as catching up in person.
"The changes that occur in people over time are never quite relayed via phone and photos.
"So I was very thankful that the border control relaxed enough while my children were still on school holidays, so my parents could finally see their grandchildren again after such a long time."
Mr Downie said that visitor restrictions had now largely been lifted across the aged care sector.
"We welcome any family and friends to visit loved ones in care at BlueWave.
"Residents can now receive as many visitors as they like.
"Visits do have to occur during our visiting hours, and we do have to continue to screen and temperature check all visitors to site.
"Masks continue to be a requirement as it has been clearly established as one of the more effective defences against the risk of spreading Covid.
"We truly hope that the current situation remains, and the certainty of this will only be further enhanced when the vaccine roll out nationally begins.
"Our understanding is that a team will attend site on a particular day or days to administer the vaccine.
"This will certainly be a turning point in the management of Covid, and provide added security to the health and wellbeing of our residents.
"With well over 70 million vaccines now having been administered world wide, nearly three times our national population, it is already having a positive impact in some areas around the world, however there is still a very, very long way to go.
SOURCE:
Website, 2 Feb 2021
Matt Downie, Blue Wave Living