Wungening Aboriginal Corporation
“These audits have strengthened our preparations.”
[L-R] Eva Smith, Acting Corporate Services Coordinator & Kathleen Ryder, Executive Assistant.
Shelter WA received funding from Lotterywest in June 2022 for an Infection Control Program to provide infection control expertise to WA residential and non-residential homeless services, community housing organisations and congregate living facilities.
The aim of the project is to support non-clinical residential and non-residential homelessness services, Community Housing Organisations (CHOs) and Congregate Living Facilities to be better prepared and resourced in infection control management and prevention, in particular COVID-19, and have increased confidence to deal with outbreaks of respiratory diseases.
This project looked at ways to grow the infection control expertise of these providers including through infection control audits of homelessness service provider sites and community housing organisations to provide them advice on their infection control practices. Shelter WA employed an experienced infection control specialist to carry out the infection control site audits. To date, 18 site visits have been conducted with the shared learnings being collated to be shared with the sector at a later date.
Wungening Aboriginal Corporation
Wungening Aboriginal Corporation deliver culturally secure and holistic programs and strategies that inform, educate and address the harmful effects of alcohol, drugs, and other substances on individuals, families and communities and strengthen the mind and body, and heal the spirit. They along with Noongar Mia Mia provide tenancy management and lodging support to residents of Boorloo Bidee Mia.
The program has supported 11 site visits across Wungening’s services including Boorloo Bidee Mia, community hubs and their ReSet family centres.
We spoke with Catherine Wilson, General Manager Business at Wungening around the learnings Wungening had taken as a result of the audits and how it has supported the growth of their internal infection control management capacity. Catherine says the audits allowed them to objectively assess measures already taken.
“When COVID-19 found its way into our workplaces it brought a large amount of uncertainty for staff, clients, and questions on if we could maintain delivery of much needed support to our communities,” Catherine said.
Audit Program Benefits
“They enabled us to objectively assess measures we put in place at that time and that we continue to be vigilant, prepared and doing everything we can to keep our staff safe as we head into winter.
“These audits have strengthened our preparations.”
“These audits have strengthened our preparations ahead of the flu season and ultimately continue to ensure we can continue to do our core work of ensuring that the community is supported and safe should COVID-19 re-enter our workplace again,” Catherine said.
“Thank you to those involved in this important work.”
Infection Control Sector Capacity Building
Following a review of audit feedback from participants, recommendations from the project steering group, and considering the current COVID-19 environment, a project review was conducted and a variance of the initial project deliverables was successfully submitted to Lotterywest.
As a result, the focus of the project shifted to be infection control training and resource development. This includes development and delivery of a suite of infection control training webinars, to support the needs of the sector for increased preparedness.
This will improve the resources, knowledge and education in infection control management and prevention, in particular COVID-19 of the Homelessness and Community Housing (including congregate living) providers in WA and increase their confidence in dealing with outbreaks of respiration infections in general. This will deliver a substantially increased value add and reach for this project as the webinars will be delivered online.
Furthermore, to support increased accessibility, an online member portal will be created and launched later this year, as a centralised vault of resources and where the recorded training will be available.
Infection Control Training Webinars
You can browse the complete list of workshops here.
