BUSHkids Annual Report 2011-2012

GM

Early intervention and multidisciplinary work Dr Shelton provided an informative presentation on the evidence supporting the importance and effectiveness of early intervention. He highlighted the need for parent education and awareness from pre conception. This added weight to the proposal that our service should become more focused on early intervention and education. Intake The intake process for referrals was a big topic for discussion and workshopping. With input from mentors, Dr Shelton, clinical Council members and BUSHkids staff, it was determined that referrals from parents were the most logical and that the time from referral to ‘first contact’ was often far too long. Changes such as parent referrals, intake interviews at the time of referral and screening opportunities were all suggested to improve efficiencies. Our mentors and staff – • Helen Dimond for the Speech Pathologists • Karlee Wiles for the Occupational Therapists • Jane Morgan for the Psychologists and Family Health Support Workers • Chelsea O’Brien, Clinical Services Manager • Kathryn Healey, Service Delivery Coordinator – played a vital role in the effectiveness of our 2012 Annual Conference. Thank you to you all. STAFF MATTERS We continue to employ the same staff numbers in each centre, including a Psychologist, Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist and Family Health Support Worker, with a Family Health Support Worker in Inglewood. Professional development As an organisation we place great importance on the professionalism of our staff and as much as possible facilitate the constant updating of their skills. This has been done by supporting targeted professional development activities. We will continue to support staff in this way in the coming year.

Mentoring Mentoring of frontline professionals plays an vital role in ensuring the delivery of quality clinical services to our clients, and 556 hours of supervision of clinical staff were provided in the 2012 year; we will continue our mentoring program throughout the coming year.

Mentoring July 2011 - June 2012 Speech Pathologists Occupational Therapists Family Health Support Workers Psychologists – Provisional Psychologists – Registered

Number hours supervision

110 110 110

136

90

TOTAL hours

556

Distances travelled Total BUSHkids travel during the last year was more than 90,000km driven around Queensland.

CENTRE

km

BUNDABERG

4,730 6,353

DALBY

EMERALD

12,736

INGLEWOOD MOUNT ISA

5,072 3,805 3,500

WARWICK

BRISBANE - GM

18,075 3,6671

BRISBANE - Maintenance

I want to express my sincere appreciation to all our staff for their contribution to the organisation: our clinical teams delivering services and caring for the children and families under their care, our mentors for their wisdom and knowledge in supporting our clinicians, our clinical leaders involved in setting our clinical direction, and our administration support teams including Ingrid for her dedication to our donors, and Kaylene, our accountant, ever watchful of our budget and investments and ensuring our staff and bills are paid on time. We could not have achieved what we have without each of you. Volunteeering Volunteers bring enthusiasm, experience, much- needed additional skills and fresh ideas, as well as their labour, time and energy. They are another link with the community, another way of attracting sup- port, another way of ‘spreading the message’. Vol-

Professional development July 2011-June 2012 Number of staff who applied for professional development

Totals

21

Days

106.5

12