Annual Report 2014/15

What do our
members say?
The Kalparrin Annual Client Satisfaction Survey is
an important method for Kalparrin to identify our
members’ needs and review our service delivery.
As in previous years, the survey was distributed
by email to Kalparrin members for whom we
had an email address and 95 paper copies were
posted by mail. We had 131 responses of the
2,054 surveys distributed.
The majority of respondents were mothers (87%),
three quarters were aged 31 to 50 years, and the
majority (85%) lived in the Perth metropolitan
area. Most families had one child with special
needs (72%) and 28% had more than one child
with special needs.
How we connect
Kalparrin is grateful to the Department of Health
Children and Adolescent Health Services and
Princess Margaret Hospital, for allocating valuable
space and supporting the Kalparrin Centre. It is here
that our Family Support Officers are based and are
able to support families through visits to the lounge
as well as well as on the wards, by phone, email
and our website. The need for respite continues
to be in high demand with a growing request for
sibling therapeutic support. Kalparrin is investigating
opportunities for introducing a new, Strong Youth
through Strong Families, program in 2016 to meet
these needs.
25%
45%
Membership Type
30%
Kalparrin Members
Kalparrin Families
Parent Link
Communication Recipients
The majority of special needs children had
a neurological diagnosis (including autism)
followed by intellectual and physical disability.
Slightly more than a quarter of children had a
chromosome or genetic disorder (27.2%) and one
fifth (18.4%) had a mental health condition, a small
increase in comparison to our previous survey in
2013/14. The children with special needs ranged in
age from infancy to older than 30 years, although
nearly half where aged 6-12 years.
More than a third (37.9%) learnt about Kalparrin
through Princess Margaret Hospital, followed by
17.9% from the Kalparrin Families Facebook group
and a smaller proportion (8.5%) from Local Area
Coordinators. This suggests that we have a good
level of awareness in the hospital and our own
members but that we could improve our networks
in the school, health and child development service
settings.
The majority of respondents visited the Kalparrin
website (55%) or Kalparrin Families (57%)
and nearly half (41%) have been in contact via
telephone or email. A smaller proportion made
contact through the lounge (33%), not unexpected
as visits to the hospital are not a frequent
occurrence for many families. As per the previous
year, social media and on-line peer support is
a growing forum for families and our Kalparrin
Families page is a valuable resource with which
families can engage.
Nearly 90% of respondents found our staff to be
friendly and respectful and more than 90% read
the newsletter. Almost all felt that information
provided was useful and practical. Over 80% were
satisfied or very satisfied with Kalparrin services.
We are encouraged by the feedback but
the responses represent only 6.3% of those
approached to participate in the survey and
cannot represent the views of the whole Kalparrin
membership. We believe that it is important that
members have opportunity to give feedback on
our services and we thank those who have given us
these insights.
During the 2014/15 period there were approximately
2500 client interactions with our Family Support
Officers and we welcomed 494 new members,
bringing our total number of member families to
1694.
Our Kalparrin Friends Facebook group welcomed
676 new members during the period, taking total
membership to 2676. We also started a new
Kalparrin Families High Medical Needs group which
now boasts 50 members. Our open Kalparrin
Facebook has now more than 350 members and
shares Kalparrin and sector information to an open
audience.
We maintained our weekly E-news contact with 45
bulletins sent out reaching 520 more recipients than
the previous year. E-news is circulated to include our
professional members as well as family members
and includes Kalparrin news as well as current and
up to date sector information including events,
conferences, service updates and opportunities to
participate in sector research.
100.00%
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
0.6%
0.4%
15.2%
94.12%
91.73%
83.9%
88.79%
85.75%
53.15%
47.29%
INFORMATIVE USEFUL SUPPORTIVE
EMOTIONALLY
E-news
Kalparrin Cares
Website users
Facebook Likes
(new)
Do you find E-News and
Kalparrin Cares...
91.15%
86.36%
INCREASES
AWARENESS
12
13/14 14/15