Important update: Adjustment to visitor restrictions (Community Houses)

From Brightwater CEO Jennifer Lawrence:

In March, Brightwater restricted visitors to, and client movement from, all of our residential sites to keep your loved ones safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To date all of our sites remain COVID-19 free.

Since 19 March we have been regularly reviewing our visitor restrictions.  Given that Western Australia has slowed the infection rate, we have made the decision to relax some of the current restrictions.

From 1 May 2020, we will be allowing families to safely visit their loved ones, on a restricted basis.   

These restrictions are:

• All visits must be pre-booked. Details of the site booking email and phone numbers have been emailed to all primary contacts of our clients.
• Visitors will be limited to only four nominated people per client to ensure the number of people moving in and out of our site is reduced. Please discuss this with your family prior to booking to determine who those four people within your family will be
• Visits will be restricted to designated time blocks as advised by your site
• Entry will be restricted to designated point of entry as advised by your site on booking – this will ensure appropriate screening is in place (see below). It may be a different entry point than you have used before
• Social distancing and good hand hygiene will apply at all times
• Each client will be able to have one allocated visit per day, with a maximum of two hours of visitation per day and a maximum of two people at any given time
• Visits will be restricted to a designated visiting area. You will be advised of the area when you book
• In the event that your loved one is, or two or more residents within your loved one’s site are, undergoing COVID-19 testing, all visits will be suspended until results are known. The site will notify you if this is the case
• Visitors can only visit their relative and should not access any other areas of the site
• We recommend that you have your flu vaccination before you visit.  We will ask you if you have been vaccinated this year
• Have your temperature checked prior to any visit by our staff upon arrival
• In line with Government guidelines, visitor screening procedures will be in place and we will ask you to:
  • Complete a questionnaire and the following people will not be allowed to enter
    • Visitors who have returned from interstate or overseas in the last 14 days
    • Visitors who have been in contact with someone confirmed to have COVID-19 in the last 14 days
    • Visitors with a fever or symptoms of a respiratory illness
    • Children under 16 years, except in special circumstances

Other important information

We will still have in place all other current methods of communication with your loved ones, so if you don’t have to visit, this does remain the best way to keep them safe. 

We still encourage you to consider skype calls, phone calls and emails where possible.

COVIDSafe App

As you are aware the Government has launched the free COVIDSAFE app to assist with contact tracing in the event of a positive COVID-19 test. We encourage you and your relative to download this App and we ask that you support them to do so.

You can find out more about the App here.

Intrastate Travel Restrictions

If you are in a different State Government intrastate zone from your relative’s facility, please apply for a GTG Pass here.

Regular Reviews

We will continue to review our visitor restrictions, as we have done to date.

The safety of our community is our priority and if we have to we will review this process again and provide you with an update if we need to make any changes.

It is important that this visitor process is managed to ensure the continued safety and well-being of all of our clients, so we thank you for your continued support in keeping everyone safe.

We are in this together.