BUSHkids currently provides a range of free services for children and their families through our regional Service Centres―in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Gladstone, 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 Early Intervention 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 Early Intervention (ECEI) services for 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
Children’s Allied Health Services
Our allied health teams help children from birth to the age of 13 (variable) who are at risk of poor health, educational and social outcomes, achieve their full potential.
They provide expert advice and education for families, and individual and group therapy for children to overcome issues such as communication difficulties, behavioural problems and anxiety. All BUSHkids services are provided free of charge.
We currently have allied health teams in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Mount Isa and Warwick, comprising of Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists and Family Health Support Workers, with Psychologist services via teleHealth. Our teams provide support to the local community and outreach to the surrounding area.
Children and Parenting Support Services
Our children and parenting support services specifically provide support to families to help the development of young children from birth to the age of 5 and prepare them for starting school.
Our Early Intervention 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’ specialist therapists when needed and will link you with other parenting and children’s services which can provide help in other ways.
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.
Early Start Team
BUSHkids provides Early Childhood Early Intervention service (ECEI) 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 ECEI 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 ECEI services in Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Emerald, Sunshine Coast (Maroochydore, Gympie) Fraser Coast (Maryborough, Kingaroy, Cherbourg) and Gladstone with outreach to Biloela.
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.