Life within a Retirement Community during the Christmas Holiday period dealing with the Omicron virus

Brisbane based Retirement Operator – Reside Communities pro-actively planned for the opening of Queensland borders and the Omicron variant of Covid, anticipating likely impacts in early December 2021 and throughout the festive season.

From the outset, Chief Operating Officer Craig Syphers’ prime focus was on the health and wellbeing of residents and staff.  The first need was to ensure adequate “at village” staffing, particularly when village staff began to be impacted by Covid testing and/or close contact isolation between Christmas and New Year.

Essential planning and implementation throughout this period and continuing in January 2022 includes:

• Daily welfare checks with all residents in Reside villages;
• Strict guidelines and enforcement on safe visits of contractors and relatives;
• Securing RAT kits for essential staff;
• Separating Reside Village staff into discrete Teams – A and B to ensure safety, service and business continuity; &
• These teams operating different shifts in each village.

Craig and the Reside Senior Executive Group are also the back-up team (Team C) should the need arise withing the villages. Craig noted that “Residents and their families were very appreciative of our focus on their health and safety”.

Originally published by The Source which is the preeminent Retirement Village Publication; reproduced with permission.