• Posi­tion Title: Child and Fam­i­ly Health Co-ordinator
• Loca­tion: Mixed (Tjun­tjun­t­jara and Work-from-home)
• Depart­ment: Spinifex Health Service
• Reports to: Health Ser­vice Manager
• Posi­tion Term: Min­i­mum of 1 year
• Posi­tion require­ments 0.6 FTE includ­ing work­ing remote and from home option 

INNO­V­A­TIVE STRUC­TURE AND DELIV­ERY MODE

• We are offer­ing an inno­v­a­tive posi­tion struc­ture offer­ing a job-shar­ing posi­tion that will con­cen­trate on the child and fam­i­ly health needs of the com­mu­ni­ty, util­is­ing the spe­cialised skills of the can­di­date, but acknowl­edg­ing the wider needs of the com­mu­ni­ty. Thus we will need some­one com­fort­able with work­ing as a remote area nurse in its broad­er con­text when nec­es­sary, as well as with­in the child health specialty.
• In addi­tion, it is pro­posed that this posi­tion include paid time away from the com­mu­ni­ty to research, to engage with oth­er spe­cialised ser­vices in the region. Work­ing from home is also an option.
• 0.6 FTE
  • 2 weeks onsite 
  • 1 week off site (WFH)
  • 3 weeks off with 
  • 1 day / week remote
  • sup­port WFH

LOCA­TION & BACKGROUND

The Peo­ple – Spinifex People

• For more than 600 gen­er­a­tions and over 20,000 years the Great Vic­to­ria Desert, strad­dling the WA/SA bor­der, has been occu­pied by South­ern Pit­jan­t­jat­jara peo­ple, known con­tem­porar­i­ly as the Spinifex Peo­ple. Knowl­edge of coun­try and cul­ture is alive and well among Spinifex Peo­ple and has sup­port­ed a con­nec­tion to coun­try that remained large­ly unbro­ken through the con­tact era of the 1950s to 1970s – bar­ring a 25-year absence (or so it was thought) result­ing from the Mar­alin­ga Atom­ic Tests of the 1950s that caused a move­ment and relo­ca­tion of peo­ple to mis­sions in WA and SA – to this day. Even dur­ing that 25-year peri­od, a Spinifex fam­i­ly remained on Coun­try liv­ing a nomadic, tra­di­tion­al exis­tence until they were met by Elders mov­ing back to Spinifex Coun­try in 1986. This fam­i­ly of 7 tru­ly are the last of the nomads. Now based in the remote com­mu­ni­ty of Tjun­tjun­t­jara, the Spinifex Peo­ple main­tain incred­i­bly strong con­nec­tions to coun­try and cul­ture. Spinifex Coun­try has always had Spinifex Peo­ple and it always will.

The com­mu­ni­ty - Tjuntjuntjara

• Tjun­tjun­t­jara is a small, very remote (MMM7) Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ty locat­ed on the Spinifex Lands in the West­ern Desert region of West­ern Aus­tralia, its remote­ness is one of its strengths. The com­mu­ni­ty has a con­stant pop­u­la­tion of around 200 peo­ple. The com­mu­ni­ty is ser­viced by dirt and 4wd dri­ve tracks to Kal­go­or­lie (at the south west), Ceduna (at the north east) and the Anne Bead­ell high­way to the north. There are twice week­ly light air­craft flights into the com­mu­ni­ty oper­at­ed by Char­tAir, but only one return­ing to Kal­go­or­lie, the oth­er goes on to Alice Springs, via War­bur­ton. Com­mu­ni­ty infra­struc­ture includes the Spinifex Health Ser­vice Clin­ic, an Aged Care ser­vice that works with­in the com­mu­ni­ty, a Women’s and Fam­i­ly cen­tre, an art cen­tre, a small store, oper­at­ed by Out­back Stores, a Com­mu­ni­ty Resource Cen­tre, the Paupiyala Tjarut­ja Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion offices, a work­shop, a Ranger sta­tion and a remote com­mu­ni­ty school. Liquor restric­tions apply in the com­mu­ni­ty. com­mu­ni­ty with a strong cul­tur­al base and good devel­op­ment prospects. 

The Organ­i­sa­tion – Spinifex Health Service

• Paupiyala Tjarut­ja Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion (PTAC) is the com­mu­ni­ty-con­trolled organ­i­sa­tion respon­si­ble for the day-to-day oper­a­tion of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices in Tjun­tjun­t­jara. The health ser­vice is a busi­ness unit of PTAC and trades as Spinifex Health Ser­vice (SHS).
• SHS is an Abo­rig­i­nal Con­trolled Com­mu­ni­ty Health Organ­i­sa­tion gov­erned by the PTAC Board. Spinifex Health Ser­vice is respon­si­ble for the deliv­ery of com­pre­hen­sive pri­ma­ry health care ser­vices, and aged care and dis­abil­i­ty ser­vices in the com­mu­ni­ty. SHS is cur­rent­ly under-tak­ing a process of organ­i­sa­tion­al review and renew­al fol­low­ing the chal­lenges and changes expe­ri­enced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PRI­MA­RY PUR­POSE OF THE ROLE

• The SHS Child and Fam­i­ly Health Co-ordi­na­tor (CFHC) will work with­in a strate­gic plan approved by the PTAC Board, with del­e­gat­ed author­i­ty to car­ry out the work of the SHS under the direc­tion of the Health Ser­vice Man­ag­er and Med­ical Direc­tor in order to ensure the pro­vi­sion of com­pre­hen­sive child and fam­i­ly health ser­vices in the com­mu­ni­ty, pro­mot­ing a whole-of-com­mu­ni­ty approach to the pro­vi­sion of child and fam­i­ly health and support. 
• Due to the small size of the com­mu­ni­ty the Child and Fam­i­ly Health Co-ordi­na­tor (CFHC) has pro­gram man­age­ment, team lead­er­ship and clin­i­cal care deliv­ery respon­si­bil­i­ties. The CFHC is respon­si­ble for ensur­ing that child and fam­i­ly health ser­vices are pro­vid­ed in the com­mu­ni­ty in line with rel­e­vant fund­ing agree­ments. This includes pro­vid­ing direc­tion and lead­er­ship to Remote Area Nurs­es, AHP/AHW’s, vis­it­ing Mid­wives, Com­mu­ni­ty Sup­port Work­ers and the PTAC Women’s Cen­tre Co-ordi­na­tor whose roles all incor­po­rate ele­ments of care and sup­port rel­e­vant to chil­dren and fam­i­lies. The role also sup­ports vis­it­ing allied health and med­ical spe­cial­ists through liai­son and the co-ordi­na­tion of care for chil­dren and fam­i­lies with com­plex care needs.
• Using strengths-based, cul­tur­al­ly safe and trau­ma informed approach­es to the pro­vi­sion of care, the CFHC is respon­si­ble for ensur­ing all chil­dren have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to receive Uni­ver­sal Child Health sched­ule health and devel­op­ment checks and Extend­ed Child Health Sched­ule checks, accord­ing to WA guide­lines. In addi­tion, through care co-ordi­na­tion and the pro­vi­sion of clin­i­cal lead­er­ship the CFHC will ensure that preg­nant and post-natal women and their fam­i­lies receive rec­om­mend­ed ante­na­tal and post­na­tal care, that chil­dren with com­plex health needs receive care and fol­low-up appro­pri­ate to their need.
• The CFHC will work direct­ly with the SHS Man­ag­er and Med­ical Direc­tor to ensure all fund­ing report­ing oblig­a­tions are met and high qual­i­ty mater­nal and child health data is avail­able for report­ing, ser­vice plan­ning and fund­ing appli­ca­tion processes. 

For fur­ther details, please con­tact Chris Wil­son, man­ag­er
e: manager@​spinifexhealth.​org.​au
m: 0466 832 185
w: www​.spinifex​health​.org​.au

POSI­TION ACCOUNTABILITIES

Key Respon­si­bil­i­ties

Cultur­al Safety 
Engage with peo­ple as indi­vid­u­als in a cul­tur­al­ly safe and respect­ful way, fos­ter­ing open and hon­est pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships and both-ways approach­es to learn­ing.

• pro­vide care that is holis­tic, free of bias and racism, chal­lenges belief based upon assump­tion and is cul­tur­al­ly safe and respect­ful for Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peoples,
• advo­cate for and act to facil­i­tate equi­table access to qual­i­ty and cul­tur­al­ly safe health ser­vices for Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ples, and
• recog­nise the impor­tance of fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty, part­ner­ship and col­lab­o­ra­tion in the health­care deci­sion-mak­ing of Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peoples.
• Devel­op a crit­i­cal and reflec­tive con­scious­ness of your own social loca­tion and pow­er and how this may impact pro­fes­sion­al relationships.
• Clin­i­cal Care
• Deliv­er best prac­tice child and fam­i­ly health ser­vices and par­ent­ing sup­port and edu­ca­tion and pro­vide remote sup­port and co-ordi­na­tion of child and fam­i­ly health care.
• Pro­mote the deliv­ery of com­pre­hen­sive pri­ma­ry health care and the involve­ment of Abo­rig­i­nal Health Work­ers and Practitioners. 
• Ini­ti­ates, pro­vides and co-ordi­nates clin­i­cal care to ensure all chil­dren aged 0 – 18 receive Uni­ver­sal Sched­ule, Enhanced Child Health Sched­ule and School Health care as per WA guidelines.
• Ini­ti­ates, pro­vides and co-ordi­nates the pro­vi­sion of breast­feed­ing sup­port and nutri­tion edu­ca­tion for par­ents and car­ers of babies and young children.
• Ini­ti­ates, pro­vides and co-ordi­nates WA Chil­dren in Care Checks as required by WA Coun­try Health Ser­vice and the Depart­ment of Child and Fam­i­ly Support.
• Co-ordi­nates and assists in the pro­vi­sion of ante­na­tal and post-natal care- (includ­ing through remote access) 
• Co-ordi­nate and work with Remote Area Nurs­es to ensure all chil­dren have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to receive vac­ci­na­tions accord­ing to the WA Immu­ni­sa­tion Schedule.
• Pro­vide indi­vid­ual care co-ordi­na­tion, case man­age­ment and sup­port for chil­dren with iden­ti­fied health needs (includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to; anaemia, rheumat­ic heart dis­ease, chron­ic lung con­di­tions, ear dis­ease, devel­op­men­tal delay, growth chal­lenges and recur­rent skin sores) to ensure time­ly pro­vi­sion of clin­i­cal care, action­ing of recalls and co-ordi­na­tion of referrals. 
• Refers indi­vid­ual chil­dren and fam­i­lies to oth­er health pro­fes­sion­als when required.
• Serves as the clients advo­cate and pro­tects the rights of individuals.
• Works col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with SHS Man­age­ment, the Med­ical Direc­tor, SHS and PTAC staff (espe­cial­ly the Wom­ens Cen­tre), Tjun­tjun­t­jara School and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to advo­cate, devel­op, imple­ment and eval­u­ate a con­ti­nu­ity of care, whole of com­mu­ni­ty approach to child and fam­i­ly health care and sup­port in Tjuntjuntjara.
• Ensure con­fi­den­tial­i­ty is main­tained in accor­dance with the Pri­va­cy Act 1998.
• Active­ly encour­age and pro­mote con­tin­u­ous qual­i­ty improvement.

Pro­gram Delivery

• Utilise the SHS Clin­i­cal Infor­ma­tion Sys­tem (Com­mu­ni­care) for the record­ing of all client health infor­ma­tion, includ­ing recalls, refer­rals and communication.
• Reg­u­lar­ly review ser­vice deliv­ery data to ensure com­pli­ance with pro­gram key per­for­mance indicators.
• Assist the SHS Man­ag­er with the col­lec­tion and analy­sis of pro­gram relat­ed per­for­mance, out­puts and out­comes for the pur­pos­es of pro­gram mon­i­tor­ing, report­ing and evaluation.
• Assist PTAC and SHS Man­age­ment and clin­i­cal teams in the plan­ning and deliv­ery of spe­cial pro­grams on the Spinifex Lands (i.e. Women’s health camps, on-coun­try par­ent­ing sup­port pro­grams, health pro­mo­tion activ­i­ties etc).
  
• Par­tic­i­pate in staff team meetings.
• Par­tic­i­pate in the pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment reviews of oth­er staff as appropriate

Edu­ca­tion

• Enhances the knowl­edge and skills of remote area prac­ti­tion­ers in child and fam­i­ly health through the pro­vi­sion of in-ser­vice edu­ca­tion, clin­i­cal assis­tance, super­vi­sion, guid­ance and up-skilling.
• Pro­vides high qual­i­ty, evi­dence-based par­ent­ing sup­port and health edu­ca­tion ses­sions to indi­vid­u­als and groups.
• Work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with SHS staff to source and/​or devel­op appro­pri­ate, cul­tur­al­ly safe and inno­v­a­tive resources to improve mater­nal, child and fam­i­ly health literacy

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion

• Com­mu­ni­cates effec­tive­ly and cour­te­ous­ly with all inter­nal and exter­nal stakeholders.
• Work effec­tive­ly with clients and oth­er com­mu­ni­ty members.
• Com­mu­ni­cates appro­pri­ate infor­ma­tion to the SHS man­age­ment regard­ing clin­i­cal and organ­i­sa­tion­al issues.
• Is inno­v­a­tive and pro-active with prob­lem solv­ing and encour­ages col­leagues to do the same.
• Devel­ops and main­tains links with oth­er agen­cies con­tribut­ing to improved ser­vice deliv­ery and out­comes in remote mater­ni­ty and child health services. 
• Where pos­si­ble, attend (in per­son or via tele­con­fer­enc­ing) and pro­vide spe­cial­ist input to inter­nal and exter­nal stake­hold­er meet­ings rel­e­vant to child and fam­i­ly health care and support.

Pro­fes­sion­al Development

• On-going com­mit­ment to pro­fes­sion­al development.
• Atten­dance at train­ing ses­sions offered by the SHS.
• Ini­ti­ates own per­for­mance appraisal set­ting objec­tives in liai­son with the SHS Man­ag­er and Med­ical Director
• Achieves annu­al manda­to­ry com­pe­ten­cies and CPD require­ments and assumes respon­si­bil­i­ty for record maintenance. 
• Assists the SHS Man­ag­er and Clin­i­cal Gov­er­nance Com­mit­tee in the devel­op­ment, review and imple­men­ta­tion of rel­e­vant SHS poli­cies and procedures. 

Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and health

• Pro­motes a safe work­ing envi­ron­ment in accor­dance with leg­isla­tive requirements. 
• Adheres to Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health guide­lines and ensures col­leagues do the same
• Recog­nis­es haz­ards in the work­ing envi­ron­ment and takes appro­pri­ate action.
• Reports all inci­dents as per organ­i­sa­tion­al inci­dent report­ing pro­ce­dures and com­pletes all documentation

Oth­er Duties

• Under­take the duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties of the role in the con­text of cul­tur­al awareness.
• Under­take pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment and train­ing as required. Rep­re­sent SHS in all mat­ters in a pro­fes­sion­al, eth­i­cal and client focused manner. 
• Per­form oth­er duties rel­e­vant to the posi­tion as direct­ed by the SHS Gen­er­al Man­ag­er or Med­ical Director

STAN­DARD REQUIREMENTS

Con­fi­den­tial­i­ty

• Takes all respon­si­ble pre­cau­tions to main­tain the pri­va­cy and non-dis­clo­sure of any con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion includ­ing clients, oth­er staff mem­bers, or any per­son or health ser­vice infor­ma­tion oth­er than those approved by SHS or issues per­tain­ing to child pro­tec­tion issues.

Qual­i­ty

• To par­tic­i­pate and con­tribute to Qual­i­ty Improve­ment activ­i­ties and cus­tomer focussed service.

Safe Prac­tice

• To adhere to require­ments of the Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Leg­is­la­tion and Infec­tion Con­trol Guidelines.

Per­son­al Effectiveness

• To attend train­ing ses­sions when offered by SHS. Recog­nise the neces­si­ty to con­tin­u­al­ly devel­op skills and acquired addi­tion­al knowl­edge appro­pri­ate to the posi­tion. Be punc­tu­al and work the des­ig­nat­ed hours. Dress appro­pri­ate­ly to the expec­ta­tions of the spe­cif­ic work area and OH&S requirements.

SELEC­TION CRITERIA

Essen­tial

• Cur­rent AHPRA reg­is­tra­tion and annu­al prac­tic­ing cer­tifi­cate as a Reg­is­tered Nurse.
• Com­ple­tion of a post-grad­u­ate cer­tifi­cate in Child and Fam­i­ly Health (or similar).
• Com­ple­tion of WA approved Immu­ni­sa­tion provider train­ing (SA Health Under­stand­ing Vac­cines and the Nation­al Immu­ni­sa­tion Pro­gram) with­in pre­vi­ous 2 years.
• Com­ple­tion of the Nation­al COVID-19 Vac­ci­na­tion train­ing pro­gram or will­ing­ness to com­plete with­in three months of commencement.
• At least two years’ expe­ri­ence in the pro­vi­sion of child and fam­i­ly health services.
• Cur­rent ​“Work­ing With Chil­dren” Check and Nation­al Police Clear­ance (not more than 2 years old).
• Cur­rent man­u­al dri­vers licence.
• Cur­rent Basic Life Sup­port cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or will­ing­ness to obtain.
• Recent and proven expe­ri­ence, abil­i­ty and flex­i­bil­i­ty in work­ing in remote Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties or sim­i­lar cross-cul­tur­al settings.
• Demon­strat­ed expe­ri­ence in the pro­vi­sion of edu­ca­tion and train­ing and the abil­i­ty to trans­fer knowl­edge and skills to col­leagues in the mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary health team, health care con­sumers and com­mu­ni­ty members.
• Proven abil­i­ty to be self-direct­ed and self-moti­vat­ed as well as work­ing effec­tive­ly as a mem­ber of mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary team with both health pro­fes­sion­als and non-health professionals.
• High lev­el of inter­per­son­al, writ­ten and oral com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills.
• Demon­strat­ed under­stand­ing of pri­ma­ry health care, pub­lic health and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment principles.
• Abil­i­ty to trav­el to remote loca­tions on the Spinifex Lands by 4WD when required.
• Knowl­edge and com­mit­ment to evi­dence-based prac­tice and qual­i­ty improvement.
• Demon­strat­ed com­mit­ment to pro­fes­sion­al self-care.
• Abil­i­ty to work out­side nor­mal work­ing hours when required.
• Com­put­er and elec­tron­ic health infor­ma­tion sys­tem literacy.

High­ly Desirable

• Will­ing­ness to pro­vide clin­i­cal back-up to Remote Area Nurs­es in emer­gency sit­u­a­tions (no on-call).
• Pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence in pro­gram man­age­ment and/​or health team leadership.
• Some lan­guage skills in Pit­jan­t­jat­jara or will­ing­ness to learn the language.
• Pri­or expe­ri­ence using devel­op­men­tal assess­ment tools val­i­dat­ed for use in cul­tur­al­ly diverse pop­u­la­tion groups, specif­i­cal­ly remote First Nations people.
• Past par­tic­i­pa­tion or expe­ri­ence in health ser­vice accred­i­ta­tion processes.

For fur­ther details, please con­tact Chris Wil­son, man­ag­er
e: manager@​spinifexhealth.​org.​au
m: 0466 832 185
w: www​.spinifex​health​.org​.au