BUSHkids Annual Report 2022-23

9

Annual Report 2022–23

WQPHN Winton Outback Festival

Three BUSHkids clinicians travelled to Winton to support Western Queensland Primary Health Network’s Health Hub at the Winton Outback Festival for an opportunity to learn about the needs of the remote community, and promote BUSHkids’ vision for all children to achieve their potential, targeting areas of need and ways to enhance our services for geographically isolated families.

“When I saw her, she was five months old and was showing gross motor delays despite being a neurologically typical child who only had musculoskeletal differences. Because she could not use her left hand, she was neglecting it and not using it at all to reach or bat at toys, because of this, she could not initiate a roll from tummy to back to her right and could not push up to her extended arms when on her tummy or roll from tummy to back, was not sitting unassisted and propping to her hands and had started to develop muscle tightness. “She was quite delayed with motor skills. She had bridging supports fortnightly for four months while we waited for her NDIS plan to be funded. Her mum was amazing and incorporated suggestions into day-to-day activities and supported her so well during that time that when she was transitioned from bridging to community supports, she was crawling, pulling to a stand, cruising, reaching for toys and grasping things with her left hand, feeding herself with both hands and using her left hand as a helper hand in play. She no longer had any muscle tightness and, once shown she could use her hand, she was actively stretching during everyday activities. She will still need ongoing therapy support from physio and OT due to her limb length difference and hand deformity but she’s now on track with gross motor skills for her age.”

“By providing bridging supports to kids we can make a huge difference in their skills in all areas. In the first year of life, kids learn so many new skills, and motor skills, the specific movements of the body’s muscles to perform certain tasks, are a foundation for learning. If you can move, you can explore and develop your cognitive skills. If you can move, you can reach and grab things and develop your eye hand co-ordination for feeding and self-care skills. If you can support your head and body, you can look at books and roll balls and play and start to develop your early communication skills by playing with a partner. If you can support your head and body, you can learn to balance and be able to dress yourself. It‘s such an important time and bridging supports provide families with so many ways to teach their littlies and strategies to build into everyday activities to promote overall growth and development. “I was working with a little girl born with symbrachydactyly. She was missing all the fingers on her left hand and had one bone in her left thumb and a shortened forearm. She came to BUSHkids at four months old as a referral by her mother. At birth, the family had been given a referral to a specialist Clinic in Brisbane but hadn’t received any therapy. The wait for the clinic was 400 days which meant she would have been almost 18 months old before she was seen.

“It shows how a little help early can make a huge difference to a kid’s development and that’s what’s so rewarding in my role with BUSHkids.”