Curtin Interprofessional Practice Clinic

Curtin IPP Clinic                                                                                 
The Curtin interprofessional practice clinic at Challis Community Primary School is run by students from Curtin University who are studying Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology and Social Work.

Curtin IPP Clinic   
                                                                                           
                           
The Curtin interprofessional practice clinic at Challis Community Primary School is run by students from Curtin University who are studying Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology and Social Work.  The students work collaboratively in an interprofessional team to provide client centred services to children from infancy to year six. The services offered includes individual sessions, group sessions, involving assessment and intervention both in-class and in the clinic, social skills training and working collaboratively both with teachers, teacher aides and families.

Individual Therapies:

What does each discipline do?

OccupationalTherapy

Occupational Therapists (OT) working in a school setting are concerned about the tasks that impact on the child’s ability to concentrate in class, write, cut, their social skills and their ability to cope and to enjoy their time at school. The OT students and clients do exciting activities like making letters out of playdough, threading beads onto pipe cleaners and picking up dried pasta with tongs. While it looks like fun and games, it’s really learning in disguise!

Speech Pathology                                                                                                            
Speech Pathologists (SP) work with children in the classrooms and elsewhere in school enabling them to: Understand and use words that are useful to them.
Strengthen muscles for eating and swallowing. We do this with lots of fun activities e.g. by blowing bubble, playing with horns

Say all the sounds in words

Using communication boards and pictures to help children communicate better

Building vocabulary – learning new words and their meanings

Learning to rhyme

Learning to speak in clear sentences

Enabling children who stutter (repeat sounds, words, or phrases)

Physiotherapy 

Our physiotherapy students will assess students to establish individual goals and implement programs within individual and group settings. We aim to maximise each student’s gross motor function and promote their general health.
Physical programs at Challis Primary School include a wide range of activities including:

• Mobility: Walking, running, jumping, climbing
• Group circuit training: Strengthening exercises, balance exercises, agility exercises. (E.g. Strive classroom grasshoppers, Grasshoppers programs)                                                                                                                                                                                               

We encourage and provide opportunities for our students to use their gross motor skills across each day and throughout the week in functional situations. Our physiotherapy students have the expertise to  prescribe specialised exercises for students to support families to enable their children to reach their goals.

Social Work 

The social work profession works towards the promotion of social change, problem solving in relationships issues and the wellbeing of all. Social workers are involved with individuals, groups, families and communities, aiming to support and develop skills and abilities in many aspects. A school social worker’s role is to facilitate students’ ability to be engaged in their education. Our aim is to promote the total development of a child with relation to the principles of human rights and social justice.

GirlsAcademy: 

Girls Academy is an established group designed to encourage and support young girls who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders. The program focuses on reducing barriers that negatively impact on their education, health, wellbeing, employment and life expectancy. Our social work role in participating with this group is to facilitate sessions with an aim to increase the knowledge and skills in order to achieve the main objectives of Girls Academy.

Morning Tea For The World 

Morning Tea for the World is a program established for parents of different cultural backgrounds. The target audience of this group are parents who speak English as a second language. The purpose of this program is for parents to create social connections with people who share their cultural heritage and to learn from others from different cultural traditions. This involves sharing experiences while doing fun activities. Morning Tea for the World is facilitated by a social work student along with the Challis Family Support Worker every Friday at 9-11 am.

Starting Solids Workshops

During term 1, Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology students worked together to run two workshops on introducing solids to babies. The workshop gave mothers some information on the signs to look for that their babies might be ready to start eating. They and the mothers focused on providing their babies with a healthy eating routine including good seating solutions to enable their babies to eat well. Finally, everyone learned that babies get messy learning to eat and it involves lots of practice with different types of foods, but most of all starting solids can be fun.

 

If you would like to know more contact Julie Tan Inter-Professional coordinator Mobile: 0435109691