BUSHkids Annual Report 2018-2019

CAHS

Ongoing renewal in core clinical services mixes technology and old-fashioned outreach The interwoven strands of BUSHkids Children’s Allied Health Services (CAHS) have been fundamental to our multidisciplinary clinical approach for many decades and, while all the elements of this proven service delivery model continue to evolve according to identified needs, community capacity-building remains at the core.

Our Allied Health teams are typically comprised of members of three core clinical disciplines — Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology and Psychology — reinforced by the skills of experienced Family Health Support Workers. Numbers vary between locations, as do the mix of programs and services offered, which are customised to the specific needs of the local communities and surrounding regions. Shared expertise is freely transferred between our Centres, with our staff able to remotely cover vacancies or help with complex case needs in other locations. Over the past year, we have introduced administrative assistance roles to support our Allied Health teams, enabling the therapists to spend more frontline time providing care, support and education, improving outcomes for children and their parents, carers and families. Even as the fast-growing capabilities of BUSHkids’ teleHealth program have enabled greater reach of our CAHS services across Queensland, the triple strands of our traditional approach — at-Centre, in-home or via regional outreach — continue to underpin and inform our organisation’s work. Allied Health services are also delivered across a range of education settings, from schools to kindy and long-daycare centres. As always, we remain focused on reaching families who may be particularly vulnerable due to geographical isolation. Many thousands of kilometres continue to be driven in outreach to families across the regions from our Bundaberg, Dalby, Warwick, Emerald and Mount Isa Centres. For those beyond practical driving distance, our ability to deliver teleHealth sessions direct into family homes and education settings has hugely increased the opportunity for capacity-building in parents and educators. Our CAHS teams continue to play an active part in the year- round calendars of fetes, festivals, education and family days and other events, collaborating with other agencies, service providers, local councils and business supporters in their local communities. Regardless of location, method or technology, however, the fundamental principles of our CAHS services inform all we do.

Supporting the developmental, social-emotional-behavioural and educational needs of children is best done holistically in the context of the family setting and their local environment. Building the capacity of parents, educators and their local communities is key to cementing progress for the future. CAHS competencies cover the gamut from balance, sensory processing and mindfulness to anxiety, sleep patterns and concentration, as well as communication (stuttering), self- care (toileting) and behaviour (parenting and peer play). Rarely does a single issue present itself in a child or family; more often, it is a complex combination of interacting symptoms and underlying causes. Here, our Family Health Support Workers are adept at effecting introductions and building confidence with a child and their family to devise and prioritise a care plan with one or more of the AH disciplines. From the wide range of programs in which our staff have been trained and accredited a selection appropriate to the clinical assessment is provided, either one-to-one, in a group or education setting or, increasingly, via teleHealth . The challenges of recruit and retention of Allied Health staff in regional areas of the State remain a constant. Some of this is due to distance or to changing personal circumstances but we understand that, in the main, time spent with BUSHkids is an essential experience-building step in career progression and that has its own greater rewards. In this, we continue to commit to the ongoing professional development of staff, and our organisation-wide ‘Lunchbox Learning’ sessions delivered via teleconference have proven particularly effective. An example of topics includes:  Allied Health telepractice  Working with parents: family-centred practice  Working with educators: what do teachers really want  Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). BUSHkids Allied Health services are made possible through continued state funding from the Department of Education and Queensland Health . We also direct funds within our organisation to further supplement government funding, always aiming to increase the number of children and families able to access BUSHkids’ services.

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