Disability

Professional Development Courses - Working With People With a Disability

Family Planning Queensland (FPQ) is promoting the following professional development course for all service providers who work with people with a disability. 

Communicating about sexuality with people with a disability will be held on the 6th March (Crestmead), 13th March (Wellington Point), 24th April (Fortitude Valley).

Sexual health checks and adults with intellectual disability will be held on the 21st March (Brisbane West), 12th April (Fortitude Valley), 4th May (Caboolture). These are full day workshops (9am-3pm) with strategies to assist service providers to learn more about communicating and teaching about sexuality, with ideas to use in their workplace.

Please see the attached flyers for all details, including registration information. Full venue details provided in a confirmation letter after registration. If you have been to a course before and thought it beneficial, could you please forward this email to your colleagues and networks.

Please contact FPQ if you do not want to receive further emails.

For other courses for professionals and parents/carers, please check out FPQ's events calendar at http://www.fpq.com.au/event_cal.php.

Growing Stronger

Today is a significant milestone for Disability and Community Care Services and marks a further step towards greater choice and control for Queenslanders with a disability, their families and carers. With the statewide rollout of the Growing Stronger reforms we now have improved processes, tools and platform to make the disability service system stronger, fairer and simpler.

To further assist service providers in the transition to the new disability service system a go-live launch pack is now available. The pack includes the following resources:

  • Frequently asked questions for service providers (updated with a focus on intake, assessment and funding)
  • Case management – role summary
  • Service Access Team (SAT) – role summary
  • Service provider – glossary of key terms
  • Presentation given at May 2011 service provider forums.

These resources can be downloaded from the Department of Communities website.

Brain Hero

Following a two-year collaboration with the Interactive Media Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California to develop and test new ways of communicating the science of early childhood development, the Center on the Developing Child has released the collaboration's first product, "Brain Hero".

The three-minute video depicts how actions by a range of people in the family and community can affect a child's development. Based loosely on such games as "Guitar Hero", "SimCity", and "The Game of Life", the video adapts the visual sensibility of interactive game models to a video format and portrays how actions taken by parents, teachers, policymakers, and others can influence life outcomes for both the child and the surrounding community.

For more information on Brain Hero visit the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child website.

Emergency Management Queensland

Emergency Management Queensland has joined with Australian Red Cross and Deaf Services Queensland to interpret the Auslan (Australian Sign Language) version of the booklet Emergency REDiPlan to provide better information on disaster preparedness. The Auslan version of Emergency REDiPlan is now available online at the Department of Community Safety website.

Deaf Services Queensland work closely with the Department of Community Safety to ensure accessibility to disaster information for members of the deaf community, people from non-English speaking backgrounds and people with learning difficulties.

Survey Around Working with Parents with an Intellectual Disability

A survey is currently being compiled by the Community Living Association to gauge current needs around working with parents with an Intellectual Disability.

Please find a 10 question survey around your experiences as a practitioner and service providing services to parents with an intellectual disability and their families.

Take the Survey today.

Please contact Sabrina Stokes on 07 3266 5199 for any enquiries.

Crossing Divides

Crossing Divides is a Gold Coast-based not-for-profit organisation that provides creative programs for school leavers with disabilities and young people who are experiencing disadvantage or are disengaged.

Crossing Divides endeavours to use the arts as a means to identify strengths and create pathways for its participants, as well as to provide them with a platform to engage with each other and the wider community.

For more information on programs offered by Crossing Divides, how to become involved as an arts worker or about how to support this valuable community-driven organisation through a donation, please contact Project Coordinator Tal Fitzpatrick on 0410 606 864 or email them on crossingdivides@gmail.com.

Network Me Program

The Network Me program offers young people aged 16-25 years who have a disability, mild intellectual impairment or learning delay the opportunity to meet other people, while gaining access out within their community.

The activities are at a low cost or are free.

For more information please contact Nicole Jackson on 0428 751 833 or email nicole.jackson@pcyc.org.au.