Annual Report 2012 - Lifeline Darling Downs

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Flood Counselling
Lifeline Darling Downs & South West Queensland Ltd 2012 Annual Report
by Alan Dean, Manager Federal & Other Funding
Due to the Floods and other extreme events the Federal Government provided counseling
services to the people of the Stanthorpe, Warwick, Allora region and Toowoomba/Lockyer
regions to help work through the resultant and related issues
The Team
During the program we have had at any one time, two part-time Counsellors. Janine Hill
worked in the Warwick, Stanthorpe and Allora area for the full year. Initially Kathryn Watson
and then Jenny King worked the Toowoomba/Lockyer region. These ladies have a wealth of
professional training and practical experience and brought to this program incredible
wisdom, professionalism and compassion.
Achievements
The counselors were busy every day and the demand did not slacken right till the end.
Well over a 120 clients were seen, most for multiple sessions. The service was highly
valued within each community. A volunteer coordinator for the Grantham Community
Centre since the time of the flood commented that the employees of Lifeline were
Through counselling clients gained a better understanding of their problems, and learnt
skills such as mindfulness practices, relaxation exercises, communications skills and
anger management.
Challenges
There was a lot of frustration in these communities and some of the issues in the
Lockyer Valley were delays in insurance claims, substandard work by contractors,
excessive charges, costs of living, dealing with impersonal, large organizations.
It is difficult to engage in personal counseling when people have not been resettled into
The demand in the Stanthorpe/Warwick area for general counseling was greater than
the hours available.
Future directions
This program was funded from 1 June 2011 to 30 June 2012 and has thus been
completed. The issues which the counseling sought to address have not dissipated in
the twelve months and thus the need remains for on-going support in these areas which
have not traditionally received great recognition.
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