We did it! Cairns exits the three-day lockdown.

Woman in wheelchair on the beach with the sun behind her on the horizon, with her arms extended up in joy and her left hand holding a large bunch of coloured balloons.

Well Done Cairns! This morning the Premier of Queensland announced that Cairns will be exiting from our three-day snap lock-down; matching the restrictions of those within the South East of the State.

This is exciting news for us all and here, at Independent Support Solutions (ISS), we are now looking at what service provision will look like over the next 10 days during this time.

Direct services will be able to carry on as normal, with the added requirement that support team members will need to wear masks and follow all other community COVID Safe requirements:

  • Diamond street House will look to re-open ASAP. The coordinator will be in contact with the support teams and Participants around the house and visits.
  • ISS Operational Team will be working a mixture between in the office and from home to ensure social distancing within the office occurs. During the next two weeks, we ask that you only attend the office if required so we can limit the number of visitors at this time.

If any Participants of ISS require additional support during this time, please don’t hesitate to contact your relevant coordinator during office hours, or ISS on (07) 42488109.

If any team members of ISS require additional supplies of masks or sanitisers, please get in touch with the relevant coordinator.

We have a number of people requesting ‘only vaccinated staff’ following lockdown. The difficulty ISS has regarding this is the vaccination has not been mandated by the Health Department. Until this time, this is not something we can mandate within the service.

Currently, just 40% of the ISS team have confirmed with us they have either received one, or both vaccinations. ISS will continue to promote and encourage everyone in our community to be vaccinated and recommend if anyone has any concerns/queries about the vaccination, please speak with your doctor.

All Support staff and Office team members are required to wear masks whilst they are working, checking in or out through the Queensland Government QR codes where necessary, regularly wash or sanitise hands, and confirm a temperature of less than 37.50°C prior to support in a group environment and ensure they stay home and get tested if sick. ISS has made the commitment to reimburse the cost of the flu shot for any support team member who would like to obtain it; and will work with any support team members to support them in obtaining a vaccination.

However, ISS is not able to enforce all support team members to disclose their vaccination status; nor can we mandate this requirement within the service. Should the Government change their directive regarding the Disability Support Workforce, this may change. If you make a decision that you would only like vaccinated support team members, this is something we can work with you on; however, it will impact the number of available support team members.

Please contact your coordinator directly to discuss any specific personal concerns and how we can all work together to alleviate risks and ensure everyone is safe.

All the restrictions can be viewed on the Queensland Government Website.

The ongoing requirement to stay home and get tested is more important than ever, please ensure if you have any concerns, you isolate and seek a COVID test.

We are looking forward to when the impact of COVID starts to dissipate. 

Until this time, please stay safe and healthy and contact us if you need.