Our thoughts are with all our Members, their families, Helpers and Staff who live in Victoria. Lockdown has been extremely challenging, and we are continuing to work hard to maintain services, safety and wellbeing for everyone.

Five Good Friends strongly encourage and support vaccination. This includes vaccination against Influenza and COVID-19. Since vaccines for COVID-19 have become available Five Good Friends has been urging all Helpers, Staff, Members and their loved ones, to get vaccinated. To ensure that Helpers have the support they need during this time, we are regularly communicating with them. Our strong belief is that vaccination is the most important thing we can do to keep our community safe.

Recent changes announced: Vaccination required for authorised workers

This week, public health directions have been released by the Chief Health Officer in Victoria stating requirements for authorised worker roles to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination by set dates. Information for workers who are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is available on the Victoria Coronavirus website. Five Good Friends Helpers are considered authorised workers. The public health directives outline that from the 15th of October 2021 to attend work Helpers must provide evidence that they have:

• received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, or
• have a booking to receive the first dose by the 22nd of October 2021, or
• have a medical exemption evidenced by an authorised medical practitioner. Learn more about eligibility for an exemption here.

What does the vaccination mandate mean for Members?

The safety and well-being of our members is our priority. To continue supporting Five Good Friends Members, all Helpers living in Victoria must comply with the public health directives and timelines.

If a Helper does not provide evidence of their vaccinations or vaccination booking to Five Good Friends by the specified dates, then we are required to remove the Helper from all visits until they provide the information. Please be assured we are doing our best to ensure this is not the case by contacting, encouraging and assisting all Helpers to receive the vaccination and meet the public health directives.

Helper education and support

We have been regularly communicating with Helpers about the vaccination since the beginning of this year and trying to prepare Helpers for the possibility of mandates which we expected would be rolled out across the country. From the beginning of the pandemic, we have been regularly sharing clear, credible, and objective information from peak health, scientific and Government bodies. We have also been aware of the growing misinformation in the community.

To address this, we recently ran a webinar with Dr Paul Griffin, Head of Infectious Diseases at the Mater Hospital. Dr Griffin is one of the country’s leading experts on COVID-19 and Vaccination. We provided a link to all Helpers to encourage them to watch it. You can watch the webinar here.

We have been supporting Helpers receive a vaccination by assisting with updating visit times and contacting Members to ensure they understand why changes to their schedule are required. Since March, we have also been providing Helpers on the Five Good Friends platform a letter confirming the important role they play in the community and their eligibility for vaccination.

What happens next?

We understand for our Members that changes to Helpers can be difficult, so we have asked for as much notice as possible from Helpers of their vaccination status. If a Helper is unable to meet the required timelines, we have asked them to advise us as soon as possible to ensure we can organise alternative Helpers for our Members. Helpers who are vaccinated must provide Five Good Friends with a copy of their Immunisation and Vaccination History. This is assigned to their profile and a verification is published in the app.

Thank you for your patience and understanding

We are grateful you have chosen Five Good Friends and appreciate your patience and understanding as we work with these new public health directives. If you have any questions please contact our Member Services Team on 1300 787 581 and select option 1. We will continue to diligently monitor the COVID-19 situation and do our best to provide safe, flexible, kind and consistent support.

Yours Sincerely,
Simon Lockyer
CEO of Five Good Friends