On the 18th and 19th of February, ten Cootharinga North Queensland employees had the privilege of attending the Disability Support Workers Conference held in Brisbane. This conference had incredible guest speakers such as Jeffrey Chan, a senior practitioner in Behaviour Management, Debbie Burmester, a speech pathologist who gave an insightful talk on meal time management and Paul Calcott, the National Operations Manager from First People’s Disability Network Australia. We also met 2 of our AFA partner’s CEOs Rhys Kennedy of CPL and Joanne Jessop of Multicap. We were all inspired, educated and motivated by these speakers and left with an abundance of knowledge and a reignited passion for our work.

The topics covered during our conference ranged from different communication devices, positive behaviour management and viewing disability from a cultural perspective. As well as this we also talked about how to achieve the best outcome for our customers by aiming higher to achieve their goals and support them in the best way we possibly can. All of this was interesting, engaging and extremely valuable to our work. 

Having the opportunity to come together with like-minded support workers to an event like this is such a valuable experience. It is education that we will carry with us for our careers and use in our ever day lives. It is skills that we can take back to our services to assist or customers and other staff and provide care in a more innovative and creative way to achieve the best out comes. It is a chance to reflect on the work we do every day and realise how important it is to the customers and families. 

We are truely privileged to have had the opportunity and thank Cootharinga for providing this to us as well as CPL and Multicap for putting on such an incredible event. We have loved having the chance to meet each other, share our stories and reflect on our work which we are all so grateful for. 

Sarah Tarttelin and Marjan Loncar - Cootharinga North Queensland Support Workers

Staff Statements 

'For me, the conference was an eye opener, it was inspirational and it will now motivate me to be a better professional direct support worker and ‘Champion.’ A special thanks to Jeffery Chan for speaking about giving quality care for our clients.' Jamie Tamatea

'Great conference with lots of information given from very knowledgeable guest speakers and presenters. Well worth attending.' Donna Lyne

'Great speakers who were interesting and thought provoking.' Judith Young