BUSHkids Annual Report 2011-2012

EMERALD

Another highlight was the annual Multicultural Festival, which show- cased the Tongan, Fijian, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Peruvian, and Irish communities, to name a few! November saw the inaugural Brigalow Beatz Arts and Music Festival held in Clermont. It was a fantastic weekend for young and old, with ARIA award-winning musicians and cultural workshops on offer. ACTIVITYAND OUTPUTS With Dysart joining our outreach services (along with Blackwater and Clermont), the Emerald team is trialling a new model of service delivery, focussing on increasing family involvement in therapy. This will be reviewed at the end of the year, with hopes to implement on a permanent basis in 2013. Our speech-language pathologist has also run two articulation and two literacy groups, and our OT provided one fine motor groups to external clients and two to clients on the waitlist. The family health support worker also facilitated Friends for Life, Fun Friends, Body Think, Pals and assisted with the facilitation of SLP and OT groups. IN OUR COMMUNITY The SLP provided an in-service to all teachers in the area, regarding completion of SLP screeners and how to make appropriate referrals.

A clinic in Blackwater now offers paediatric occupational therapy and speech-language services and, after prolonged vacancies, the Education Queensland Allied Health team is now fully staffed. On a side note, the Division of General Practice has amalgamated with another region and is now known as Medicare Local. IN OUR OFFICE Our new solar panels are taking advantage of our wonderful sunshine to power our centre. The new branding on our car is a real head-turner, with staff receiving many comments and being stopped and asked about our service. The centre and gardens are looking immaculate after all of Brett’s recent hard work! Everything in the centre is in working order, with our troublesome printer now running again.

THEYEAR IN GENERAL We are now completely resourced again and back up and running at full capacity post-floods. We’ve received great community feedback and participation in the various groups run throughout the year ( staff receiving some delicious edible feedback too!). Our OT and speech pathology outreach services have been extended to Dysart. Feedback has been very positive, and the school and community have been very grateful BUSHkids changes: Lucy Waldby started as our OT in March; we farewelled our provisional psychologist, Jeff Mitchell; Family Health Support Worker Bronwyn White left us in September and speech pathologist Teneille Webster in October. AROUND OURAREA This has been a tumultuous year for our region’s families, with the announcement of several mine closures across our service district. As many families in the Central Highlands work in the mining sector, this means many client families relocated at short notice. This also led to many staff changes in schools and other agencies with which we’re involved. On a brighter note, Emerald now has a new shopping centre, enticing lots of visitors to town. involvement in their region. It has been a big year for staff

EMERALDWISH LIST ITEM As a centre, our wish list

includes technological advances in the form of updated (faster) computers, colour printing facilities and access to an iPad, to provide even better services to our community.

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