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CENTRES
Bundaberg
Dalby
Emerald
THEYEAR
IN GENERAL
This year, we welcomed Elise and Amy,
completing our full team while farewelling
Tara and Georgie from the Bundy team.
We have continued our support this year to
our Outreach areas and families (Gin Gin,
Childers and Burnett Heads) which has
been very positive and appreciated.
A strong team offers a wide range of
services to the local community and
outreach towns that we visit. We were able
to offer many Prep readiness talks and
combined therapy programs that were
conducted for clients and families in their
homes and in kindergartens. The Triple P
programs were offered here at the Centre
and to the Indigenous community at
Goondir Medical Centre. Our relation-
ships with the schools has grown and saw
us offering many class group intervention
services. Read and Grow training was
provided by BUSHkids at the Dalby
Library for the community to attend.
Our FHSW has been able to offer many
group programs in the community around
social skills and resilience groups for
children, as well as parenting groups. This
successful year has now ended with staff
moving on to new careers and now a new
strong team is evolving.
Another busy year in Emerald: we have
continued outreach to The Gemfields
community and have taken a soft entry
approach to help community capacity-
building in the local area. Prioritisation
of referrals has been well received in the
community, as children have been able to
access the services they need in a more
timely fashion.
In September 2015, we welcomed our new
Provisional Psychologist, Myles, and in
February 2016 we farewelled Occupational
Therapist (OT) Sarah, and welcomed OT
Jess to the team.
AROUND
OURAREA
Again this year, Bundaberg and the
surrounding communities hosted a range
of community events. Some of the events
that the Bundy team contributed to
included: Under-8s days, Literacy days,
Rainbow day and Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Children’s day.
We have also completed a number of
community education sessions and
presentations for both parents/carers
and teachers. The presentations include
information for families/teachers on
BUSHkids services, who we are, available
groups and therapy, how to refer, red flags
and milestones and strategies to support
development.
The Dalby community and surrounds
is settling again after a downturn in the
mining industry, but this resilient
community continues to grow and
BUSHkids is a strong presence offering a
wide range of specialised services and early
intervention programs in the area.
Emerald continues to feel the effect of the
downturn in the mining communities.
Our waitlists continued to grow, and as a
result, the Emerald team was required to
set some parameters for outreach services.
This has resulted in some of our outreach
being put on hold with therapists providing
assessment and recommendations only to
some of our outreach towns.
Therapists continue to work closely with
Education Queensland, Community
Health, and private therapists to fill the gap
in the community and ensure there is no
duplication of services.
IN OUR
COMMUNITY
This year the team has attended a range
of forums, meetings and events within
our community to continue to build
partnerships and work collaboratively
with local organisations and key stake-
holders to enable us to work effectively
and address identified needs.
BUSHkids has a great profile in the town –
we are well recognised and find ourselves in
the local newspaper many times in relation
to the work we do. We are asked to talk
at many networking events and Mother’s
groups.
Friends of BUSHkids Dalby
is a
support to the work we do.
The Emerald team continues to develop
networks with local agencies, with several
members also attending discipline-specific
networking meetings with clinicians in the
local area.
Charlie Wilson (grandson of Sir Leslie)
has reestablished the
Friends of BUSHkids
Emerald
committee, and we look forward
to working together with them.
The Gemfields RSL continued to support
BUSHkids during the past year.
We also assisted with the Enwise-organised
fundraising Golf Day in November 2015: it
was a great turn-out from the community
with many people asking questions about
the BUSHkids service in a fun and relaxed
setting. This annual event repeated on 7
October 2016, where we intended to build
our support network and further engage
with the local community.
Centre reports