"From the Marathon Health Newsletter":
A program that Marathon Health speech pathologists and occupational therapists delivered at Bourke last year has highlighted how effective a conversational-style approach can be in drawing out the barriers that are facing children and young people at school and in their everyday lives.
We were engaged by Birrang Enterprise Development Company to deliver speech pathology and occupational therapy supports for families affected by domestic violence.
The program was led by Julie Cullenward - an experienced occupational therapist, who is our Practice Lead – Disability and Workforce Development, together with Lisa Hall – Senior Speech Pathologist.
Working in partnership with the Birrang staff, they developed an outreach model focused on helping people participate in their community and perform everyday tasks that are important to them – from getting dressed, to reading the whiteboard, telling news at school, or using utensils to eat their meals.
They were keen to focus on developing realistic and achievable, person-centred goals by working with the children and their families – while also valuing the skills and knowledge of the Birrang staff, who are the experts in their community and the people who support the children and their families to achieve their goals - long after our staff return home.
A team of four clinicians traveled to Bourke to support more than 50 children and young people.
Lisa said the key to the success of the program was valuing the therapeutic use of self.
“What was really important was that we allowed the children and their families to tell their own story,” she said.
“This meant we could hear directly from the children what they liked doing and what they wanted to do and quickly recognise the challenges they were facing.
“Each session started with a strength-based conversation - inviting the child to talk about the things they liked doing best and what they would like to do if they could.”
This helped them identify the goals they wanted to achieve.
In one example, the team quickly realised that a young girl who loved to read wasn’t simply being disruptive in class – she had poor eyesight and needed to copy her friend’s work, so they recommended an eye test.
Other strategies included breathing exercises to help a child deal with anger outbursts, and working with the family to set up a space at home where they could go when they felt anxious or overwhelmed and strategies to support children to communicate with others.
Pictured: The Marathon Health team with Birrang staff - (from left) Ella, Maree, Lisa, Zerelda and Hannah