BUSHkids currently provides a range of free services for children and their families through our regional Service Centres―in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Gladstone, Gympie, Hervey Bay, Maroochydore, Mount Isa, Rockhampton and Warwick―each staffed by a multidisciplinary teams.
We also support rural communities from our four satellite sites―in Agnes Water, Inglewood, Kingaroy and Stanthorpe―staffed by Child and Family Facilitators.
In addition BUSHkids is the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Partner in the Community for the delivery of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Early Childhood Approach (ECA) services for children from birth to the age of 6, in the Bundaberg, Gladstone, Fraser Coast, Sunshine Coast, Rockhampton and Central Queensland regions.
For information on BUSHkids Services and our Locations Directory click: BUSHkids Services & Locations Directory
All BUSHkids services are provided free of charge.
Children’s Allied Health Services
Our allied health teams help children from birth to the age of 13 who are at risk of poor health, educational and social outcomes, achieve their full potential.
Based in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Mount Isa and Warwick, our teams comprise of Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists, Family Health Support Workers and Social Workers, with Psychologist services via telepractice.
Our teams support children and families in providing expert advice and education for families, with individual and group programs for children, to assist with fine and gross motor difficulties, emotional regulation and sensory processing, communication difficulties, behavioural problems and anxiety. They also provide support to the local community and outreach to the surrounding area.
BUNDABERG 07 4111 1655 bundaberg@bushkids.org.au
DALBY 07 4662 2729 dalby@bushkids.org.au
EMERALD 07 4982 0905 emerald@bushkids.org.au
MOUNT ISA 07 4743 2575 mtisa@bushkids.org.au
WARWICK 07 4667 1200 warwick@bushkids.org.au
Children and Parenting Support Services
Our children and parenting support services specifically provide support to help the development of young children from birth to the age of 13 and their families, with a key focus on getting children ready for school..
Our Child and Family Facilitators work closely with your family, and provide support, parenting education and information to help your child’s development. They can call in the services of BUSHkids’ allied health therapists when needed and can support linkage to other agencies, or even specialist support, to help you and your family reach your goals.
Children and Parenting Support Services are provided through our four smaller satellite sites―in Inglewood, Agnes Water (Miriam Vale), Kingaroy (Nanango) and Stanthorpe, with support from our service Centres.
AGNES WATER 0427 848 239 agneswater@bushkids.org.au
INGLEWOOD 0474 920 708 inglewood@bushkids.org.au
KINGAROY 0428 202 609 kingaroy@bushkids.org.au
STANTHORPE 0428 504 392 stanthorpe@bushkids.org.au
Early Start Teams
BUSHkids provides Early Childhood Approach (ECA) services to help children from birth to the age of 6 with a disability or developmental delay access the supports and services they need to achieve better long-term outcomes.
Developmental delay is when a child is slower to develop physical, emotional, social or communication skills than other children of that age.
The ECA program is fully funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)—the federal agency responsible for delivering the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)—so like all BUSHkids services it’s free of charge. BUSHkids will work with you and your child to improve their development and help them reach their full potential. Where more intensive early intervention supports are required, the BUSHkids team will help you develop an NDIS Plan to access the funding your child needs on a more long-term basis. BUSHkids currently provides ECA services in Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Emerald, Sunshine Coast (Maroochydore, Gympie) Fraser Coast (Maryborough, South and North Burnett, Kingaroy, Cherbourg) and Gladstone with outreach to Biloela.
BUNDABERG 07 4111 1655 bundabergecei@bushkids.org.au
CALOUNDRA 07 5208 9074 caloundraecei@bushkids.org.au
EMERALD 07 4982 0905 emeraldecei@bushkids.org.au
GLADSTONE 07 4904 5335 gladstoneecei@bushkids.org.au
GYMPIE 07 5209 6020 gympieecei@bushkids.org.au
HERVEY BAY 07 4183 8920 herveybayecei@bushkids.org.au
KINGAROY 07 4183 8424 kingaroyecei@bushkids.org.au
MAROOCHYDORE 07 5406 0708 maroochydoreecei@bushkids.org.au
ROCKHAMPTON 07 4994 2120 rockhamptonecei@bushkids.org.au
eKindy
Working in conjunction with a regional school and the Brisbane School of Distance Education, eKindy provides kids who are unable to attend kindy regularly — either due to distance or because they are not well enough to travel — with a comprehensive ‘at home’ kindergarten program in the year before they enter Prep.
This provides invaluable kindy experiences which maximise their learning as they play, create, imagine and discover, preparing them to enter school. Children taking part in eKindy receive 15 hours of kindergarten for 40 weeks of the year during term time, equivalent to a centre-based kindergarten program.
• AMBROSE • ANAKIE • BELL • BLOOMSBURY • BOROREN • BROOWEENA • BYMOUNT EAST • COMET • CONDAMINE • FORREST BEACH • GOOVIGEN • KENILWORTH • KEPPEL SANDS • LEYBURN • MT GARNET • PRAIRIE • PROSTON • SEAFORTH • YARWUN • YELARBON •
teleBUSHkids – telepractice
Telepractice is the use of telecommunications technology to enhance healthcare, public health and health education delivery and support and can include videoconferencing, sending health information to a clinician for assessment, clinicians monitoring clients at home, or using mobile phones and tablets for healthcare.
As an organisation that primarily supports rural and remote communities, for BUSHkids telepractice presents opportunities to provide our services, particularly allied health services, in areas where therapists aren’t available.
Learning and Development
BUSHkids’ learning and development team works to build your capacity as parents and that of early educators in your community, so they can better support your children’s development.
It does this by providing a range of education and training programs such as the 1-2-3 Magic® Parenting Program, Triple P, the Read and Grow (emergent literacy program) and BUSHkids developed A Steady Start to School program.
BUSHkids provides these programs free of charge in your community and works with early educators and kindergartens to train and mentor their staff in how the programs can best be used to help your child’s development.
In addition, our learning and development team work alongside educators and universities to develop new child and parenting learning programs.
Please note, at any given time there may be position vacancies at any one of our regional Centres. Please contact your nearest Centre to discuss available services.