BUSHkids is a not-for-profit organisation which has been supporting the health and wellbeing of children and families in Queensland’s regional, rural and remote communities for over 85 years.
BUSHkids provides free preventative and early intervention allied healthcare (both directly and in collaboration with government and other non-government organisations) to children and families who are unable to access services locally due to the unavailability or the affordability of those services.
We specifically aim to help disadvantaged children who are at risk of poor health, educational or social outcomes, reach their full potential.
BUSHkids currently provides a range of free allied health services for children and their families through our regional service Centres―in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Mount Isa, and Warwick―each staffed by a multidisciplinary team comprising Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Psychologists and Family Health Support Workers.
We also support rural communities from our four smaller satellite sites―in Inglewood, Stanthorpe, Agnes Water/Miriam Vale and Kingaroy―staffed by Early Intervention Facilitators who can call on resources from the nearest service Centre or the BUSHkids Clinical Leadership Team in Toowong.
BUSHkids is also the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Partner in the Community for the delivery of NDIS Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) Services for Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Central Queensland areas servicing Emerald and Gladstone; with the Fraser Coast servicing Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Kingaroy and Cherbourg and the Sunshine Coast servicing Maroochydore and Gympie areas.
Dedicated NDIS ECEI service Centres have now been established in Bundaberg, Emerald, Gladstone, Gympie, Kingaroy, Maryborough, Maroochydore and Rockhampton. ECEI services are also provided to Cherbourg from our Maroochydore service Centre and we are delivering outreach services to the Biloela region from our Gladstone service Centre.
BUSHkids is pleased to be working in partnership to assist with the provision of eKindy in rural and remote Queensland. Since 2016 BUSHkids has worked in the eKindy space with rural schools beginning at the Proston State School and in 2017 began working in partnership with Gumlu State School, Bell State School, Karara State School and Yelarbon State School.
From 2018 we have partnered with Department of Education & Training (DET), Brisbane School of Distance Education (BSDE), Early Childhood Education and Care (South West, Central and North Queensland) to add many new eKindy PODs. This project has the goal of ensuring all children in eKindy Pods in small schools receive good quality early years opportunities prior to entering formal education. It is an opportunity to promote the importance of early years learning opportunities for all children especially those living in rural and remote setting. A kindy experience does not exist without parents and we look forward to working with parents as their child’s first teacher
For further details on our services in your area and how we can help you, click here.
For locations of our services in your area, click here.
