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

Cyclone Yasi – Service Plans

At a recent QPS presentation, we were informed that, Cyclone Yasi on the current forecast, will cause the Burdekin to experience conditions similar to a Cyclone Category 2. Please take note of this and adjust your personal planning accordingly.

At the meeting of the Centre Team and Team Leaders just concluded, the following plans have been put in place.
* Service Users. All service users and or their families have been contacted and have their own plans in place.
* Staff. We have some staff who are self evacuating, and we are assisting some of those with accommodation.
* As of end of the Junior Friendship programs today the organisation will be closed until a re-assessment on Sunday evening.
* Providing it is safe to do so, we expect to recommence service delivery on Monday morning. CHECK with on-call FIRST!
* All vehicles will be re-located to safe premises this afternoon.

NEXT ROSTERS and PAYS
Because of the likelihood of disruptions to power and services we will be processing pays early.
* Please bring your time sheet into the office immediately.
* It is our intention to pay everybody, in advance, within the next 24 hours.
PLEASE NOTE:
* You may be over paid – you may be underpaid.
* YOU ACCEPT THAT IN EITHER CASE, FLEXI WILL ADJUST YOUR PAYS in the next pay period.
* We will discuss any adjustments with you BEFORE they happen.

WHILE WE ARE SHUT FOR BUSINESS
All Permanent Staff, who are not working because the agency had closed temporarily, will be paid as usual.
Casual Staff are not paid for lost shifts – sorry!

WHEN WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Any Permanent Staff who, because of flooding or weather conditions, cannot get into carry out their normal duties, will be asked if they want to use their holiday or personal leave which has accrued – or if they want leave without pay.

WEEK COMMENCING 7th FEBRUARY
I will contact members of the Centre Team and Team Leaders on Sunday afternoon, and we will make the decision about service delivery for Monday 7th February. If we do reopen on Monday, then I expect that the Organisational Planning Day will go ahead. All plans are: weather, roads and rain permitting!

Be safe in your world.
Brenda-Anne

Steady as she goes – watching Cyclone Yasi

Good morning
Heavy grey clouds are building up now and the breeze is picking up. The water table and all the creeks and marshlands are already saturated so it is no wonder that the Burdekin Council has issued information asking residents to be aware of the potential for flooding and provided storm surge information for Ayr and Brandon .

The Burdekin Council has also issued an Public Notice as well as some information on-line. Please also note the link to the Burdekin Shire Council on the right hand side of this page.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL DIRECT SERVICE DELIVERY is CANCELLED from tomorrow (Wednesday) for the rest of the week.

We have been running normal services to-day and a meeting at noon will tie up any last-minute arrangements. We have a number of staff who are self evacuating, however all the arrangements for our service users have been made. All the work that can be done around our properties has been done, we have safe places for all our cars, we have food and water.
Now all we can do is – with the rest of Queensland – wait to see what YASI is going to do.

Because the forecasts are suggesting that as much as 1m of rain could be expected – we need to wait until the weekend to see what has eventuated. As soon as it is safe to return to normal services – we will do so.

Decisions regarding recommencement and communication of these decisions will be made by phone, SMS, on our Facebook site as well as this website.

The Board of Flexi sends its thanks to all the Team who have performed so admirably under difficult circumstances. Two cyclones to deal with in one week is an enormous challenge for anyone – and you have all just mucked in and got things done! we are really proud of you all.

Be safe in your world!
Brenda-Anne