Annual Report 2012 - Lifeline Darling Downs

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Lifeline Darling Downs & South West Queensland Ltd 2012 Annual Report
Manager Professional Development Report
by Trish Feehely, Manager Professional Development
Establishing the Professional Development Team has been one of the key achievements out
of the organizational restructure in 2011/12. The challenge has been to facilitate learning
and development across the divisions, with the emphasis on professional practice in the
Human Services Division.
The Team
The team comprises of five Senior Practitioners, each providing leadership in their
Cluster around effective, ethical and innovative professional practice. Jeanie, Lesley,
Gayle, Shelley, Kath and Anne have contributed so much this year to continuous
learning and improvement in service delivery and to the development of a culture of
good teamwork, strong coaching and mentoring, building and sharing the exceptional
skills base we have in the Agency.
Achievements
Intern Program a partnership with SQIT which has placed 6 Community Services
students across our programs, including 3 Indigenous students.
Tertiary Student placements partnerships with USQ and with JCU have benefitted
students in Psychology and Social Work programs, with placements in PHaMS.
Whole of Agency training Senior Practitioners have delivered training in the following
essential areas:
Child Safety
Family and Domestic Violence
Cultural Awareness
Mental Health and Suicide Awareness
Addictions
Respect and Diversity
Workshops in our core practice approaches have been held throughout the year,
all of the services we deliver. Subsequently we delivered workshops in supervision
practice, and the use of counselling tools and resources in a strengths based way.
Our partnership with Lighthouse Resources continues, with 3 exciting workshops being
the
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cost of delivery to our own staff, and provide a wonderful opportunity for local
professional networking.
There has been a deliberate shift from external to internal professional support,
supervision and training in the restructure, signaled by the creation of the new
positions (Manager of Professional Development and Senior Practitioners). The loss
of access to external supervision was a significant change; however there has been
consistently positive feedback for all of the professional development activities and
regular supervision offered in-house. We can continue to improve the level of
satisfaction of practitioners in the range and depth of professional development
provided.
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