The ICAN team have systematically gone into Coronavirus COVID-19 prepper mode. At the time of writing this article, North Queensland has been minimally impacted; that is with the exception of the crazy doomsday shoppers. “We have an opportunity to get ahead of the game and re-think our service delivery moving forward,” explained Aaron Davis, ICAN CEO.
“Many of our clients and staff fall into the Australian Government’s definition of ‘most at risk of infection’ category, that includes the elderly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and people with chronic medical conditions,” said Mr Davis. “It’s for this reason we need to take every precaution and are monitoring the health.gov.au website daily.”
Areas that ICAN provides outreach services too, including the Northern Peninsula Area of Cape York, Torres Strait Islands, and Palm Island are all officially closed to non-essential services. “We expect that when there are confirmed cases in Cairns, that Yarrabah will also be closed to non-essential services,” said Mr Davis. “These service delivery challenges require new thinking.”
Fiona Guthrie, Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) CEO sent out a “Coronavirus Preparedness for the Financial Counselling Sector” document to the financial counselling sector nationally, last week. In the email, Ms Guthrie stated, “With coronavirus crisis getting worse by the day, it is going to be more important than ever that we make sure financial counselling services continue to be delivered.”
“Many of us may start to move from face to face service delivery to telephone and video, and also potentially with many financial counsellors working from home. We have put together the “Coronavirus Preparedness for the Financial Counselling Sector” document to explain some of the things to think about in making this shift.”
ICAN Media produced a video to inform clients and staff about the measures it is taking to protect them from COVID-19 infection. The video has been released through a number of social media channels and uploaded to the ican.org.au website. “ICAN is currently developing a comprehensive ‘Special Purpose COVID-19 Business Continuity Plan’,” said Mr Davis. “FCA’s ‘Coronavirus Preparedness for the Financial Counselling Sector’ document will help inform this plan.