BUSHkids

The Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme—known as 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 80 years. BUSHkids specialises in providing free preventative and early intervention allied healthcare—both directly and in collaboration with government and other non-government organisations—for children and families who through availability or affordability are unable to access services locally. BUSHkids specifically targets children who are at risk of poor health, educational and social outcomes to help them reach their full potential in life. Our free therapy services can help children improve their speech, behaviour, resilience, their capability to complete daily activities, and their ability to interact with their family and other children at home, kindy, school and at play. BUSHkids adopts a holistic—whole—approach to supporting children, which includes providing support to the child’s family and the community they live in. Individual therapy is complemented by a range of free developmental and educational programs that promote overall family wellbeing and strengthen community capacity, including positive parenting, early educator, school readiness, literacy and language development programs. Services are currently provided through five major regional service centres―in Bundaberg, Dalby, Emerald, Mount Isa, and Warwick―each staffed by a multidisciplinary team comprising Speech and Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Psychologists and Family Health Support Workers. In addition, BUSHkids supports rural communities from its four smaller satellite centres―in Inglewood, Stanthorpe, Agnes Water/Miriam Vale and Kingaroy―staffed by Early Intervention Facilitators supported by resources from the nearest service centre and the organisation’s head office team in Toowong.