Synopsis

A Stepped Care Approach to Developmental Care is a Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation funded project which aims to ensure that children referred with a developmental concern are seen by the right person in the right place at the right time.  To achieve this a new Allied Health centralised intake team apply a stepped approach that identifies the child’s needs and pathway.  In this Grand Rounds we will show how a focus on thorough clinical triage has already had an impact on the children and families that have been referred to RCH with a developmental concern and assisted RCH clinicians who provide care for those children.

Speakers

Bernadette O’Connor has been the Director Allied Health since 2011, prior to which she was head of Speech Pathology at RCH. Bernadette is the Project Lead for A Stepped Care Approach to Developmental.  Bernadette has worked for 39 years in public and private clinical speech pathology and leadership roles. She is passionate about promoting Allied Health services to enhance, improve and ensure safer and higher quality paediatric healthcare. She is also passionate about providing services to enhance the life prospects of children who experience disadvantage and developmental challenges.

Sue Greaves is the Manager of Occupational Therapy, and joined RCH as a clinician 22 years ago. Sue’s clinical passion has been for children with developmental concerns, and in particularly children with neurological problems.  Her PhD is on developing an upper limb assessment for young babies with unilateral cerebral palsy. As well as her management role, Sue undertakes research and provides clinical services for young children with neurological and developmental problems.

Adrienne Fosang is a senior physiotherapist with 30 years’ experience at RCH. She has worked as a clinician and team leader in the acute, community, rehabilitation and gait laboratory settings with a focus on children with neurodevelopmental disability.  She has a Masters in the use of Botulinum Toxin for children with cerebral palsy and is passionate about focusing interventions on goals that are meaningful for children and families. The Stepped Care project is a natural extension of this with its focus on matching family needs with service provision.

Cath Laird is a Project and Improvement Manager at RCH, and has managed change programs within the hospital over the last 3 years, including the project discussed today. Cath has completed a Masters of Applied Science at RMIT specialising in innovation and change management and over the last 10 years has worked in change and improvement roles in both the private and public sector.