Caretakers Cottage continuity of service plan - Covid 19
1st April 2020
Caretakers Cottage is committed to maintaining and adapting our programs to meet the needs of homeless young people with safety and care.
Crisis Refuge.
We have reduced our numbers from 10 to 8 as this number is much more sustainable in a setting where clients need a lot of direct support and entertaining. We are still accommodating under 16’s though our intake assessment is very heavily directed to supporting parents to maintain their yo8ung people at home.
We have a functioning residential youthworker team with contingencies should members become isolated at home. We have the capacity to enable indigenous workers to isolate.
We have a contingency of engaging a number of workers who have wwc and experience who will come in if needed.
Should we have a resident who is tested positive, we do have a bedroom and bathroom that can be allocated specifically to that young person though is not ideal as the room is off a hallway that leads to the kitchen. We are talking with DCJ and our peak body Yfoundations about the need to establish a safe setting for young people who may test positive.We will not be able to accommodate a young person who is not compliant and willing to be in this setting with all of the attendant separation and isolating requirements.
We have participated in the zoom meeting by the industry partnership group and have met every standard and more as presented in that workshop so I am confident we have a safe environment.
Our client group has changed over the past week so we are able to do new intakes when beds become available. We are putting stronger focus on accommodating young people from the local district of South Eastern Sydney.
Our casework and youth work teams have a large number of outreach clients who are being sustained with regular phone contact. This outreach community has been widened to include young people and their parents who have been involved with Caretakers over the past 2 years, my reading of the response is that it is important to continue to provide reassurance and support to negotiate income and educational needs during this crisis.
Today we can survive indefinitely based on current information, where it will become more difficult is when someone tests positive though we have the capacity to think creatively when that situation arises.
Transitional housing Options
Options is full so the only new placements will be when a resident moves out. Our caseworkers are all working from home and have the responsibility to contact each resident every 48 hours. This is to be working well and will continue to be the primary way of imparting casework.
Staff are also providing food parcels to the door when required and have conducted a number of intake interviews by phone. Matching new residents into a shared house is highly complex at the best of times so should a vacancy become available in a share house we need to firstly gain the confidence of the current residents that we are not introducing someone who will put them at further risk. Where we can confidently match clients we will though the safety of existing residents must not be compromised.
Many of our clients are students so we have been supporting their capacity to engage in home education
The current operations are sustainable well into the future.
Many of our clients will have lost their casual work and have less capacity to meet their rent obligations, this is an issue to be resolved with our Community Housing Provider as they too are concerned about falling revenue. We will need some intervention from DCJ Housing should this become a bigger issue.
Management
Our Board is being informed of developments and are able to participate in zoom meetings so that side of the organisation remains unchanged and functional. The CEO remains at the helm however we have the luxury of each program being overseen by a manager who has very broad responsibility for their program so should the CEO no be able to perform, managers will run their programs.
Caretakers Cottage is open for business and functioning well so the issues of continuity of services have been well explored and we are happy with the point we have arrived at. By the same token we are confident that we can modify as needed and meet the challenges ahead.
Entity Out of Home Care.
Currently Entity is providing 4 residential beds in our Sylvania property with full youthwork support and casework input. Similarly, we continue to support 8 young people living independently in the community and aftercare for ex residents.
Our program is set to expand to accommodating up to 20 young people living independently in the new financial year so some transition of the program will occur as we approach July 2020. All referrals must be made through the dept. Communities and Justice and all young people in the Entity program are in the care of the Minister for DCJ.
Contacts
Caretakers Cottage crisis accommodation 12 to 18 year old young people
9389 0999
HYAP outreach and family support 9389 0999
Options transitional housing 9388 9341
Entity Out of Home Care 9554 5017