Waiting……

Honestly! You would think that we had just invented some weird request just to stump them – the way that our internet service provider is behaving!!! We have asked them – very politely – to help us move our website from one place to another – but no – it appears that we have a hundred hoops to jump through first!

In the meantime, we have been getting along with life – the weather is beautiful in North Queensland and all our activities are in full swing. The Intake and Assessent Team has settled into their new roles and Susan is back from maternity leave, so our CSO’s are back to full numbers. Big Thanks to Rebecca for filling in for Susan.

I am knee deep in paperwork -working on the annual budget, service delivery budget and reviewing the Governance, Policies and Procedures – what fun!

Just a quick heads upto Parents, families and/or individuals of our service:

You will get calls over the next month from your Team Leaders who are helping me to formulate the service delivery budget for the next financial year. They will need to ask you about your family needs and any out of the ordinary things that you can forsee – or circumstances where you might need additional service delivery. We collect that information, which is all confidential, and work out ways that we might be able to help you.

Hopefully, I will be able to announce the relaunch of our website in the next week – but don’t hold your breath!! You will eventually be able to find us on www.bflexi.com

Exciting ‘stuff’ is happening…

Hi All
I have spent the best part of a year working on what this site was going to feel like, what kind of information we wanted to put up and how we could get lots of helpful links happening.

On Australia Day 2011, I took a deep breath – and pushed the button allowing the site to go live! Then I sat back and and held my breath!

Over the past 8 or so weeks, we have had 1000 visitors, several hundred from our Facebook account and our Twitter site.

I have developed lots of ideas for the website, and the time has come to give my baby to someone who actually knows how to create magic online: his name is Bill Journee. Bill is going to tweak and add and create new ‘stuff,’ and in a couple of weeks you will notice the changes.

In the meantime, continue to send in your ideas, look through and enjoy what we have developed.

And remember to enjoy your world.

Brenda-Anne

Getting ready for the next 10 to 15 years

This is the second report on our recent Organisational Planning Day. It is the most exciting experience to be in a room full of people who are looking forward with hope and enthusiasm!

We framed the discussions around: What does Flexi need to prepare now, in order to be prepared to meet the next 10 to 15 years. There was heaps of discussion and I have grouped it into the main themes but it is in no particular order.

Whole of Organisation: What we need to be focussed on:
Advocacy for people with disabilities
Promote public awareness and effective networking with other organisations
Continue the plans for The Village – this is what families want into the future as well as:
Working towards alternate accommodation options.

We need to continue support to people with Mental Health issues through:
Continue to promote the service to the community
Support staff to improve their Mental Health education
Develop respite accommodation opportunities

Parents and Carers of our Service Users would like us to facilitate better information on:
Legal requirements – health directives, financial planning, Role of the Adult Guardian
Legal documentation – who makes decisions, Wills, plans for future needs
Legal representatives to go to for advice
Get information about support groups

We need to be proactive in our ISP’s and ensure we have conversations with parents about:
Increased support to families and service users during times of crisis
Increased opportunities for community activities
Emergency plans and information sharing

We need to better address the needs of post school adults.
Transitions: greater life skills, living independently, career planning, challenging skills to develop further,
Ensure skills aren’t lost, further schooling opportunities, opportunities to build self esteem and confidence,
Maintaining relationships, supporting day planning and social interactions and an independent social life
Real work opportunities for service users – with “real” career or activity progression planning

Our service users are aging. We need to:
Ensure cross-skilling in Aged Care training
Facilitate research into the needs of people with disabilities who are ageing.

Parents of children with disabilities look tous for support in:
Early intervention with a focus on prevention (with greater support at period of diagnosis ie childhood)
Greater community education around disabilities

What we don’t think we can achieve or change right now BUT we will continue to Lobby for it!
Increased Transport availability for community access
more medical facilities in the Burdekin
Suitable accommodation for independent living
Council to ensure shops develop suitable access allowing accessibility for wheelchairs.

So there you have it. Lots of hard work went into this and we will be guided by these goals over the next year and then we will check our progress in a years time!

Dreaming and Scheming into the Future!

We had a great day on Wednesday at our organisational Planning Day! With almost equal numbers of parents, service users, Board and staff we spent the day looking at what we can achieve in this next year.

I am going to include some of the stuff we came up with here – so you can see how we went about the process and what came from the brainstorming…

Firstly, the President Ian Shepherdson gave an overview of how the Board operates – their structure and their meetings. Board members also attend our Centre Team Meetings so they can see the kinds of planning detail and problem solving that we all get up to. Ian also explained to everyone present how individual Board members do audits across the organisation, and how they audit and check on my performance. I think everyone thought that bit was interesting!!

Then I took everyone through the performance indicators that had been developed last year – and reported across the pieces of work that are now Finished!

Development of a model of service based on Strengths Based Theory – Flexi Model of Service – which will be posted as soon as we have sign off from parents and service users.

Focus on Friendships – across the organisation we are looking at ways we can support, keep up and create social networks across this community and the whole of the world. We have some great ideas how to do that too – so watch this space!

Accommodation Options – We now have two fully supported (24/7) houses and have commenced the last arrangements for The Village. This is not the end of our work. There are many folk who might choose other housing options in the community and we need to plan to help in that transition period – even if that is of several years duration.

Developing the Team included the appointment of our Team Leaders – Have a look at the tabs on this site for what they do -Young Adults, Children’s Team and Mental Health Team.

Permanent Staff – We have had two calls for people who are interested in working full-time (35hr a week) and we have since appointed all those who met the criteria: Maturity in the role, experience, ability to quickly form positive supportive relationships, clear understanding of boundaries, skills and most importantly, a passion and a pride in the profession of being a Disability Specialist.

The whole team underwent a TON of training last year. From broad training on the huge field of disability, clinical presentations, person centered planning, family focussed support, general support, Boundary Training and communication skills.

THEN we started planning the real work for this year – the fun stuff:

LOOKING INWARDS

Creating smooth linkages between Intake and Assessment, ISP’s development (Individual Service Plans), Activity Planning, LF (Lifestyle Facilitator) involvement, quality audits and then reviews. Promoting buddy shifts for additional support/training and rotating LF’s more often,

Focus on Support to Families: Information on funding, training, and turning 18 information, more weekend activities/respite, legal, financial, Public Trust, Centrelink and Adult Guardian information for parents and service users.

Develop a Transitions Program – specifically for last years of school and entering the workforce and living independently. Program to operate during the week funded through a mixture of block funding and service user charges. Mix of volunteer activities, work experience, employment, social activities, lifestyle skilling in a meaningful environment with age appropriate links across the community. Interestingly, we had already started the VERY early planning around a Transitions Program – which will get a snappier name!!

Emphasis on skills maintenance and skills development across all activities.

Healthy Living Program across all program areas – a mix of diet, healthy exercise, sports and games activities, cooking skills. Flexi has already drastically reduced the level of activities around food (morning teas, lunch at Maccas, cooking cakes etc)

Everyone wanted to know about The Village! We continue to get HEAPS of support for it – an exciting update from the Board will be available soon.

LOOKING OUTWARDS
Lots of great ideas:

Transitions Program – this was repeated from the Looking Inwards session! Interesting huh?

Sports and sporting activities - this has commenced as a regional approach with a partnership between Flexi, Lifeline NQ and Community Inclusion. We are also involved in some local fun at the soon to be completed PCYC (Police and Citizen’s Youth Club) and See below.

Networking across other agencies and communities eg Accessing Townsville, Bowen, Charters Towers and Ingham (communities in common) activities and occasions, as well as to run courses on self development, self esteem, s*xual health and relationships.

Creative pursuits, art and craft and cooking classes

More weekend activities across the region: Supporting Friendships, travel and social networking, makeup, discos and karaoke nights!!

Flexi Holidays including cultural opportunities, concerts and sports in other cities, weekend camping and short trips away.

WHEW!!

What an intense start!! My job is now to work out what we can do now – what we need to plan for – and what money I need to find!

Part two: The next 10-15 year plan….
To be out online next week…. this one is REALLY exciting!

Research Opportunities – looking at the world differently!

Hi All -
I just got back from Sydney where I met up with Dr Ed Green the Dean of the Australian College of Applied Psychology and a number of his colleagues. The purpose of my visit was to explore the possibilities of creating new professional development opportunities for the Flexi Team as well as for Psychology professionals and educators.

Part of the challenge of working with people with disabilities and mental health issues, is that it is easy to think we are doing OK. If we don’t ask – and include everyone when we ask – how do we know what we are doing works?

The issues we face as a service provider are many; and it is easy to get into poor habits. So we want to understand how what we do impacts on everyone – right from the first moment that a person phones us to ask about services.

We need to review best ways we can make a new person welcome; how we answer the telephone; what we need to think about when we meet people for the first time? What can we do to help people make informed decisions? All this before we have delivered a single minute of service.

On the other side, we often say that no-one in the wider world understands how rural communities work; how different it is working in a community where there is no public transport and getting to a specialist involves a huge amount of planning and over 200 klms of driving. I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to spread our influence and show people how resourceful and creative we are. Who knows, maybe they can show us a trick or two!

So, I thought it would be useful for us to find an organisation who shares our focus on delivering the best, and investigate ways to swap skills through inviting students and educators to visit us and contribute to our continuing pursuit of excellence.

What a great mob ACAP are! We had a good discussions about what we were looking for, what they might be interested in and how we could make it all happen.

We have agreed that the next steps is that the various schools including those of Research and Counselling will discuss with their colleagues and ensure the information I took down to the educators and the students is distributed to people who might be interested. I am really interested in offering research opportunities – please take a look at the Research Opportunities on this website – and one way to achieve this, is by bringing people in – getting them interested in us – and then having the discussions.

Flexi will be able to ensure that students who are placed with us understand our expectations of the process and we will make sure that their placement is as interesting, challenging and as enjoyable as possible. Then we will work out the important things like, picking folk up at the airport and finding them a bed.

I think that this is the best of both worlds!

Enjoy Yours
Brenda-Anne

February Newsletter Published!

Hi All -
We have just finished the checking of our Newsletter February 11.

Lots of information inside!
We have coverage of the Cyclone, information on training, picture of our newest Flexi Fan, as well as the most recent Flexi Holidays highlights.

Look forward to hearing from you too!

Recovering after Yasi…

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Well, we are all back into the swing of things!

The computer program that we lost won’t be back until later this week, but Rebecca’s beautifully designed Temporary Roster sheets are coping really well with the information we need to actually get services out there. Thanks to all the team – and to all the parents and service users who have all pitched in to help.

We have sustained a little more damage than we first thought, so we are gathering that information before getting the Insurance people in. Nothing serious though!

We have had to postpone the Organisation Planning Day from this Wednesday to March 2nd as a number of people were unable to make it due to Cyclone Yasi clean-ups or just struggling to manage the backlog of work! We will get in touch with you all and let you know the changes of date for everyone.

The Junior Group Training will go ahead as planned this Friday.

The really BIG NEWS is that I have JUST finished the Flexi Newsletter – it is printing now! So watch out in your letterbox or on your emails! I will also work out how to put it up on this website.

Be well in your world
Brenda-Anne

Target in Queen St, AYR

Woolworths in AYR

Surf at Alva Beach!!

Woolworths Car Park

Starting over: Back from Cyclone Yasi

We have cleared the debris and checked out the world after the cyclone went passed and we are mightily relieved.

Our Flexi Houses have come through with fine – and all our people have fared really well. We even have power on! The rest of the Burdekin is not so lucky, though. We Have had a shadesail tear at the Hangout, but the Administration Centre seems to be unscathed.

A huge blow to us has been the loss of our primary data server, TRACCS, upon which we have all our rosters. All the service user data is safe – but a fan went out in the TRACCS server and I had to bring it back to town to have our WONDERFUL IT technician Peter Stevens, check it out. That is how I know it was a fan! Anyway, Peter is going to replace the fan and do an auto restore and we expect to have it back mid next week. Yay!

We have a really busy week ahead of us. I am heading down to Sarina to do some promo for The Village, then the organisational planning day and finally our Children with Disabilities full day training is on. (We have moved the Young Adults Training to early March) Please check early next week for updated in our training schedule.

Cyclone Yasi

I am hoping to be able to load up some photos from our wonderful Cyclone Photographers! So come in next week guys – and bring your best!

Be happy in your world
Brenda-Anne

Cat 5 Cyclones, People with Disabiities and Social Networking!

Gosh – We are windblown, dishevelled and very tired – but we are here!

Most of yesterday was spent waiting – and from about 9pm – waiting for it to STOP! The wind was horrendous and the sound was worse.
I spoke to the folk in our various Houses and checked on how the they were faring – all good. I guess part of that was the huge amount of organising and preparing we did over the period of the previous 10 days!

For me the absolute WORST was from about 10pm to about 8am this morning. At 3am – I was certain that the next gust was going to take my roof off. THe walls were vibrating and the glass windows and doors were bowing with the external pressure. It actually felt just like the house was breathing – suuuckkk in, breeaath out.

At 3am I opened up the internet and to see where the Cyclone Yasi was – and the darn thing didn’t seem to have moved from where it was at midnight! Arrgghh! Anyway – I continued to Tweet what I was hearing and seeing – which was comforting!

I phone Flexi 1 this morning to see how they were – woke poor Sally up!! GREAT to see them well. We have some damage at the Hangout – but our refugees they tell me they are all good! I am not game to call anyone else incase – like me – they got no sleep!

I must have a shower and get some sleep!

Hope you are safe in your world!
Brenda-Anne

Cyclone Yasi bearing down on us.

Cyclone Yasi is now Category 5 and is heading slowly towards us and taking a track more southerly with big storm surges, really dangerous winds and heaps of rain.

It is the winds that are likely to do the damage – so please keep your radios on be aware of what you need to do. We are being told to expect electricity cuts – which could be cut for several days, and it is for this reason, I made the decision to pay everyone in advance. That money has just been transferred into your account.

You will find cyclone information on the Burdekin Shire Council website – links are in this page.

Please be safe. I have three families who have been evacuated due to arrive on my doorstop shortly PLUS three dogs! We have done all our preparation and now we just sit and watch the wind build up. I will put any further information on Facebook – and I am also on Twitter! I think this makes Flexi the first Disability agency to manage a disaster with the assistance of Social Networking sites. How neat is that!

God be with you all.
Brenda-Anne