By Sam Gourley - 21/03/2024
Well here we are again team, company Blog post time. I hope everyone is having an excellent week. Thanks for all your hard work, I know there are plenty of you going above and beyond for your clients so first up I want to acknowledge you guys and your excellent work. Thanks for all you are doing!
TASC Client Satisfaction Survey
First and foremost, how good were the results of the last TA survey! Guys you never cease to amaze me. For anyone who is just coming to the party on this, we are aiming for a quarterly satisfaction survey of the 170 (approx) TASC clients currently being seen as a way of gathering feedback that can help guide PD and program or policy shifts to increase the quality of our service to these children. Here are the key takeaway points:
88% of parents report that clients consistently look forward to the TA sessions,
80% are very satisfied with the TAs rapport with the child,
84% reported very good communication from the TA
90% reported very good professionalism from the TA
88% reported very good reliability of their TA
There was loads of amazing comments again, too many
to list but I believe that Zoe will have shared that feedback with you guys individually. Thanks again for making the TASC program a leader in the Therapy Assistance space in the Sunshine Coast region.
OT and TA Staff Changes
We are very excited to finally have welcomed Tahnee to our OT team last week and we are excited to have her join our clinical team as a therapist following her time as a Therapy Assistant. All that experience is going to good use! We also want to welcome Alisha and Toby who have joined the team in the last few weeks too! Both are teachers and we are so happy to have their expertise benefitting our clients. Welcome guys and we hope you enjoy your time with us.
Professional Development
Thanks to everyone who turned out for our Handwriting PD last week. It was great to spend some time with you TAs to go over handwriting intervention and the basics. I am uploading the trainings from last week and Karissa's movement based intervention PD (they are huge so its taking ages) Ill put the slides up tonight too. Check them out on the TASC Shared Drive>Professional Development Recordings. Side note: I realised I actually wore the same shirt at both PD presentations... I promise I do have others...
Communication Wins!
Guys you know my buzz-word for this year has been communication. I have mentioned in the last few company blogs about how we have been hoping to increase the communication between OT team and the TA team by making sure that whenever there is a commencement, transition or therapy plan change with TA services, that we facilitate a phone-call between the OT and the TA to discuss the client. I'm pleased to report that this seems to be working beautifully, with OTs feeling more confident in sharing their clinical reasoning and TAs feeling more connected to the therapy plan and direction. Let's make sure we keep this up!
So me...
Groups
We are currently offering more groups to the community than ever before! Its great to see so many kids participating in group therapy with us. We are stoked to see our TA facilitated groups (Minecraft Group), and OT facilitated group (Let's Play Sport) are underway and are going well. We have 4 other TA facilitated groups on the horizon for the April school holidays, including Lego groups, outdoor Nature groups, cooking groups and girls craft. We look forward to seeing how these go!
Kindred Kids Update
Erin, Nicole and I have been working overtime and we are pleased to have announced to the community that our Kindred Kids Early Intervention Bridging Program will launch from the end of March and we hope to start seeing kids in that program as soon as possible. It's looking like we might be able to start the program over the road, at the Grace Lutheran Church, which is just on Toral Drive, very closeby. We are pumped to see that program roll out so we will keep you in the loop. Very soon we will be recruiting an Early Childhood Teacher to become an ESDM practitioner over there, so if you guys have anyone in your networks who is an ECT and is great with kids that have special needs, pass on my details and tell them to get in touch!
TASC Birthday Celebration
Guys we have the 3rd anniversary of the TASC program coming up on the 30th July. The very first TA session that ever happened was Steph back in 2020, in the midst of covid, who saw a client at 9am on a Tuesday. It was the culmination of months of planning and preparation. Since that time, to date we have had around 7000 therapy sessions which accounts for about 21,000 worth of clinical hours. How amazing! I'd love to celebrate the TA program with you guys but I would love your suggestions of what we should do with everyone together to celebrate such a great achievement! Let me know your ideas on the facebook post where the link to this blog was shared!
Thanks again for all your great work!
- Sam