BUSHkids Annual Report 2019-20

COVID-19 • BUSHKIDS ACTIONS TIMELINE BUSHkids creates a dedicated COVID-19 website page to keep families and the public up-to-date on where to find the most accurate information as well as what BUSHkids is doing to keep staff and families safe. Traffic light poster goes up on every Service Centre door. BUSHkids puts in place additional precautions in response to the spread of COVID-19 to keep our staff and the public safe. BUSHkids introduces graphic ‘badging’ to help people identify and distinguish between online COVID-19 News and COVID-19 Tips. BUSHkids launches its first TIPSheet (TS) to help parents through the pandemic: Supporting children’s understanding of COVID-19. CEO sends out a message to families, children and friends advising them of the changes to BUSHkids service delivery from 24 March. Service Centres close their doors to the public; until further notice all services will be delivered via teleHealth and telephone. BUSHkids releases first INFOSheet (IS) to help familiarise parents and carers with teleHealth services, setting out step-by-step guidance. Location-specific “BUSHkids is here for you” videos published to social media and website. TS 2 released to help parents/carers support children at home during the pandemic. The sheet includes links to resources for parents/carers as well as children. CEO emails all staff the “Working from Home ICT” guidelines to help support the transition as teams move home. CEO sends out to all staff “Delivering BUSHkids Services from Home” guidelines, developed to help deliver services remotely and maintain a high standard of service. As restrictions across the state escalate, all BUSHkids staff are relocated to work remotely from their homes. A s staff head home, Service Centres put up door signage advising visitors of a local contact number and email to ensure connectedness. Updated post reminding the public that BUSHkids continues to work from home, with contact information and the service locations of each BUSHkids Centre. CEO sends out to all staff “Working from Home Operational Processes” with guidelines to follow when working from home along with checklists to ensure no items have been overlooked. Post to advise the public of new TIPSheets being released the following week. Three new TS published to help families navigate their way through COVID-19. TS6 released - transitioning back to school in our new COVID-19 world - as parents/carers prepare to send their children in kindy, Prep and Year 1 back to school on Monday 11 May. I mportant government website links re-shared: Queensland Department of Education and NDIS dedicated COVID-19 pages. Families now invited to attend virtual playgroup and virtual storytime. Parents/carers are invited to reach out to their local Centre for details. T hree new Wellbeing (WB) TIPSheets released. G etting everyone back to school as children in Years 2 to 10 return on Monday 25 May. WB4 released - Anxiety in Children, practical tips, links, books, videos to help kids understand that anxiety is part of life. Quick-reference interactive guide to BUSHkids’ growing library of resources uploaded to website. Notice to advise the public BUSHkids is mapping out the return to face-to-face service provision. Hand sanitiser and BUSHkids traffic light stickers are sent out to all Centres. C EO emails all staff “BUSHkids Return to Service Centres - Our New Normal” updated Organisational Processes guidelines to return to work safely. Message posted on BUSHkids COVID page to let families know staff would be returning to Centres for prearranged face-to-face (F2F) sessions. A dministration, Office Support staff and Team Leaders began returning to Centres, preparing for ‘new normal’ at BUSHkids - putting up posters (handwashing, hand sanitising, social distancing and room capacity) as well as setting up sign-in and sanitiser stations in Centres. B USHkids Facebook video post announcing “The new normal for face-to-face support”

ANNUAL REPORT 2019–2020

16 March

19 March

Although technology was key to maintaining services during this unique period, not all solutions could be so delivered – creative ‘low-tech’ solutions were also used to maintain connections. With supplies low across Australia, additional document cameras were initially unable to be purchased. Information was rapidly shared by our clinicians about how to use LEGO ® and a mobile phone to fashion an alternative! One of the many, unanticipated but positive, consequences of a temporary wholescale move to teleHealth service was the increased competency and focus of our clinicians in delivering family-centred intervention – building the capacity of parents to support their own children’s development. The rapid upscaling of our teleHealth services has given us the opportunity to review our teleHealth framework, which arose from our multi-year research partnership with The University of Queensland’s Centre for Research Excellence in Telehealth (UQ CRE) which, as reported last year, moved from study to operational status. I am pleased to announce that, in October 2020, BUSHkids was granted approval by Brisbane City Council for our plans for a new, dedicated teleHealth centre at our Toowong precinct. Planning for this vision had begun in tandem with the positive results of the research period and BUSHkids has therefore found itself unexpectedly well-prepared for the appearance and impacts of COVID-19. A dedicated teleHealth centre will allow BUSHkids to recruit more staff, including experienced Allied Health professionals to support generalist practitioners based in rural, regional and remote Queensland. Using the teleHealth model will also build the capacity of the local workforce by providing the ability to link in and learn from specialist clinicians, both in Brisbane and across our growing statewide network.

BUSHkids Council has continually supported the organisation’s growth into teleHealth and, through Council members’ connections, we are linked with architects and builders to manage the construction of the teleHealth centre. We look forward to reporting on the building progress and the new centre’s future potential in next year’s report. On 13 July our team members enthusiastically returned to our Centres and started to re-introduce some face-to-face services. Once again, our teams, leaders and business support staff worked together to develop and implement resources, processes, and guidelines to execute a COVID-SAFE return to business. While many had enjoyed the flexibility of WFH, being able to reconnect with colleagues and children and families in person back in the Centres was overwhelmingly appreciated by our workforce. As we all adapted to the changes required to keep each other safe during the pandemic, our focus also turned to the social-emotional impact of COVID-19 for children, families and communities. Our Psychologists and Social Workers created resources to support families with the challenges of this time and we started to plan for the impact of an increased demand for our services. BUSHkids services during 2019-2020 included our Allied Health services (CAHS) in five locations, Children and Parenting Support Services (CPSS) across three sites, Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) services across four contract areas and 34 eKindy Pods. Throughout the past year, BUSHkids services have been delivered across all of our locations and all funded service streams. BUSHkids teams delivered 22,210 sessions for nearly 5,000 children across Queensland, from Mount Isa to Stanthorpe and many places in between. This was an increase in both the number of sessions provided and number of children supported compared to the previous year.

23 March

2 4 March

28 March

29 March

1 April

5 April

6 ApriL

7 April

SECTION TOPIC 8 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER CARLTON MEYN

22 April

24 April

1 May

6 May

8 May

15 May

2 2 May

3 June

22 June

1 July

8 July

10 July

13 July

21 J uly