I began my Key Worker journey about 18 months ago. I was looking for a job that would enable me to move back home to support my family, and at the same time I was looking for a change.

I have been working in the Early Childhood field for around 20 years. I had worked with many children with additional support needs and had even more conversations with parents about accessing some form of support or assessments for their child – some families were receptive; a lot were not.

One thing that prompted to me to look further into the Key Worker role was a conversation with a parent whose child had an ADHD diagnosis. I had been having conversations with this parent about the benefits of accessing occupational therapy and speech therapy and she looked utterly dejected as she said to me “I have put him on every waitlist, but I can’t get him in anywhere.” I realised that there was a gap in services and, that children were going unsupported because there simply was not enough support available to meet the needs of everyone. I saw the Key Worker role as an opportunity to make a difference and to fill the gap.

So, a little over 12 months ago, I transitioned into the role of a Key Worker. The role of a Key Worker was new to Hanrahan Health; however, Hanrahan Health could see the benefits of the role and I was blessed to have joined a team who were committed to joining the learning journey with me.

The role of the Key Worker is to support the family and build their capacity to support and advocate for their own child as well as providing therapy support in conjunction with a team of other therapist – with the Key Worker being the main therapist who works with the child in a naturalistic setting.

In theory, we knew what a Key Worker does, however it took us some time to work out what this looked like in practice. In the first few months, my role was heavily speech and clinic based. However, as our understanding and confidence in the role grew, I have moved to working with both the speech pathologists and occupational therapists at Hanrahan Health and many of my sessions are now conducted in the community, at children’s home’s or at their school or day care.

One of the speech therapists I spoke with not long after I joined Hanrahan Health said for the first 3 months of being a new speech therapist, she was exhausted and for me, it was probably the first 6 months being in the role as I learned how to transition from the classroom, to a clinical setting.

In the classroom, I could just go with the flow, following children’s interests and had complete flexibility about how my day would flow. In the clinic setting, I have 45-60 minutes with each child. In that time, I need to work towards the goals that the family has set as well as educating and encouraging the family. I have needed to learn about speech and occupational therapy terminology and how to meet specific speech goals that have been set in conjunction with the speech and occupational therapists. I have regular team meetings with families, schools and other therapists and I write reports that get submitted to the NDIS when the child’s NDIS plan is up for review. I have had to learn about managing my own schedule and finding clients (although we have an amazing admin team who support me in this) and I now travel a lot more each day then when I was in a classroom.

In the last year, I have learnt so much and have grown both as a professional and personally as well. I feel like time of growth and learning has been the result of so many challenges and positive experiences I have had this year. I belong to an encouraging, supportive, and uplifting team who love what they do. They willingly share their own knowledge and ask my opinion or advice as well. I have weekly supervision sessions with a senior therapist who helps me with ideas and advice about the children I work with and who will support my growth with radical candour and feedback. The culture of Hanrahan Health means that daily there is an “ask me anything” session where I can reach out to a speech pathologist or Occupational therapist to ask advice or seek feedback. There is no such thing as a silly question, all questions are answered, and you are encouraged to keep asking them. I have the option to attend monthly Key Worker meetings with other Key Workers from across the Ability Actions Australia network and I have access to weekly inhouse professional development where other professionals share information and training about area’s that interest them. In these inhouse PD’s I have been able to present about the Key Worker role to build up the understanding of the role within the company. I have been able to learn Key Word Sign through our professional development program and I am looking forward to attending the Tuning into Kids program in the next few months to further develop my skills in parent coaching. As a result of all this support, I am more confident in the role and interactions with child and their families.

I have received some lovely feedback from families. One mum this week commented, “she doesn’t like going to doctors or therapists, but she counts down the days until she can come and see you.” And another mum commented "Thank you so much for such an uplifting email on my little boy … everything you are doing is perfect for him. I am so excited to have you in our lives helping him I truly am.  …He is definitely improving but still a way to go. I appreciate your time and have a fabulous day!" Not all families provide verbal or written feedback; however, the children often do in their reactions to our sessions. This week an Autistic girl looked up, waved, and smiled when I entered her day care. Another little boy runs to grab his favourite toys with a smile as he lays on the floor ready to sing the song we sing every session. The reaction and response from the children are so encouraging – they value my role in their lives.

Every day looks different in this role. Yesterday I attended two home visits and two clinic sessions, today I will attend two school visits, I am going to a school with a family to enrol their child for kindergarten and I have a home visit, and tomorrow I will drive 30 minutes for a home visit, attend a school visit and then sessions in a park and another home visit. My days are always varied and provide the right mix of challenge and joy.

I am really enjoying my role, and I cannot wait to see what challenges and growth I get to see both in myself and in the children and families I work with in the next 12 months.

For more information on our services, please feel free to reach out to us on admin@hanrahanhealth.com.au or (02) 4853 6282.

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