I read through the document - (which I must say looks to me to be cut and pasted from the wording of each Health directive, there doesn't seem to be any advice or imterpretation by the lawer in their own words of what the mandate means to us as an organisation)

I admit my focus was on QLD - however I cannot see where Support Coorodinators fall into the examples of a Health Care worker

‘High-risk settings’ include early childhood, primary and security educational settings, corrective service facilities, police watchhouse and some areas of airports.

There are specific directions for:

Examples of a healthcare worker include an employee or contractor of a disability accommodation service, support worker providing services in supported independent living NDIS funded psychologist or occupational therapist providing in home support for an NDIS participant’s wellbeing (whether a registered or unregistered NDIS provider), non NDIS support person that provides in home assistance to a person in residential aged care;

Please see the advice from the aged care facility that my father resides in.

To assist families, we have attached a visiting protocol flowchart for reference. This will explain visiting arrangements whether your vaccinated, unvaccinated, or visiting a loved one.

Please remember to adhere to the below:

• All visits on site or off site MUST be booked in at reception.

• Visiting hours are from 8:30am to 4:30pm 7 days. This is based on 2 people per visit for a

  maximum of 4 hours

• TGA approved Rapid Antigen Test is to be completed daily on site before visiting your loved

  one.

• NoosaCare is providing 1 free RAT kit for one visitor per resident per day i.e., there are a

  maximum of 2 visitors per resident per day, the second visitor is to bring their own TGA

  approved RAT test kit.

• Face masks remain mandatory for the duration of your visit at any Aged Care facility.

• Wash hands before entering and leaving the facility

• Stay 1.5 metres away from others where possible

• Stay away when unwell

• Follow requests from the NoosaCare staff to help keep staff and residents safe

Jeder could potentially to do a risk assessment on the above advice

COS could follow this direction and safely have face to face with our Participants.

Thanks @Julie Anne Carrington. You raise a good question- are visitors and employees/workers classified differently under the Mandate (please correct me if I am wrong in my summary/assumption)?

Its also ok to concentrate on your state (QLD)- I would not expect everyone to be all over each of the jurisdictions.

From my perspective- they are classified differently based on:

1. This Direction applies to a person who is seeking to enter and remain in a residential aged care facility as a visitor for the purpose of visiting or providing support to a resident of that residential aged care facility, or to provide products or services on a voluntary basis, as part of their role with an organisation other than the residential aged care facility.

   Note: a person who is an employee, a student undertaking placement, or a volunteer engaged directly by a residential aged care facility is not considered a visitor who is subject to the requirements of this direction but is considered either a residential aged care worker or a worker in healthcare who is required to comply with the Workers in a healthcare setting (COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements) Direction (No. 4) or its successors.

To me, if we receive payment for the supports we provide (which would be classified as a Health Care Worker- as we are certainly promoting wellbeing) we would not be classified as voluntary and as such the mandate conditions apply.

Thoughts?

I realise the differance betwwen visitors and employee's - from the CEO of the care facility

"We have been working within grey areas of the mandate to assist families to visit their loved ones".

I know there is a clear point of difference between visitors and employee’s - grey areas is my point how can we be creative working within the guidelines.  

I'm not really good at deciphering this type of jargon and agree that there doesn't seem to be any actual advice from the lawyer only copied information from the government information. From a little google search there seems to be another update as of June 17, link below. Does this make this information outdated? I am also aware that the pandemic status has been extended to September 2022 which I believe allows for such mandates. However we don't know what is going to happen after that.

https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/file/Public%20Health%20(COVID-19%20General)%20Order%20(No%202)%202022_220617.pdf

What is important to me is that we have options for those who do not wish to either get vaccinated or do not want the boosters. We have done well to date with having the option of working non face to face and as long as this can continue I would be grateful. I don't think anything is certain for the long term until the pandemic is over.

I look forward to further discussions on Monday and I will advocate for wider collaboration opportunities and simplified information share.

Thanks Mic- I will have a look at the info.

The update to the NSW Mandate includes:

Update: 15/06/2022-

Explanatory note The object of this Order is to repeal and remake the Public Health ((COVID-19 General) Order 2022 with the following amendments—

(a) the removal of the direction that persons who enter nightclubs, strip clubs, sex on premises venues and large indoor music festivals must register their contact details,

(b) the removal of the direction that only fully vaccinated persons may be on premises where a large indoor music festival is being held.

Hi, apologies for anyone that missed it, but the Jedlet Notes can be found: 2022 06 20 Mandate by Jurisdiction Jedlet .docx