Noah’s Ark
James has been working at Noah’s Ark for over 4 years and has progressed to team leader of the Pakenham and Wonthaggi teams.
James manages a variety of specialists within his team who see over 80 children per month across the Cardinia, Casey, Baw Baw, Bass Coast and South Gippsland shires.
James decided to become an occupational therapist and specialises in working with children.
James found working with children with additional needs very rewarding and decided to pursue a career that would allow him to assist all children and their families to have meaningful participation in their communities.
At Noah’s Ark they believe in the key worker model of service. Unlike the traditional approach of 1:1 therapy provided in a clinical setting, one staff member becomes a family’s key worker.
The key workers are specialists in either speech pathology, occupational therapy, education, physiotherapy, psychology or social work.
They promote Everyday Learning and Therapy™ in the child’s natural environment and within their daily activities by identifying the family’s needs, priorities and goals. They implement strategies built around your child’s daily routines and coach and support parents and educators through this. They write goals in what is called a family service and support plan, which is a document written by the key worker and the family.
They use the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure to measure the success of the programs which means that the goals are ranked by level of importance and rated based on how well the child or family is going with a particular goal, and how happy the family are with how it is going. They then review the plan every 6 months to see whether there are any changes to any of the scores.
The Pakenham team works with families across the Cardinia, Casey and Baw Baw shires. They usually visit families in their homes, but also visit children at their child care centres, kindergartens, schools and other areas in the community.
For more information contact Noah’s Ark on 1800 819 140 or www.noahsarkinc.org.au