Apunipima Celebrates the First Anniversary of its Wellbeing Centres in Cape York.
Last week marked the first anniversary of Apunipima’s Wellbeing Centres in Cape York.
It has been a year of milestones and learnings for the team that ‘hit the ground running’ 12 short months ago, at centres in Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge.
The Social Emotional Wellbeing services were set up in 2009 by the Royal Flying Doctor Service, in April 2017 Apunipima assumed responsibility and took over the management of these centres.
The role of the Apunipima Wellbeing Centres is to support the broad social and emotional wellbeing needs of each community. Each centre works to the Apunipima Model of Care, a community driven, community led model that focuses on all aspects of cultural, emotional, environmental and spiritual wellbeing.
Setting up a new service arm within any organisation can be a challenging time, Apunipima took these challenges in their stride, keeping community at the forefront of all changes.
“It was really important that the transfer to Apunipima management of the centres had no negative impact on clients using the services. I think we can be really proud of how that unfolded; it was a seamless transition.” Said Bernard David, who was the Regional Manager for Social Emotional Wellbeing at Apunipima.
Apunipima’s Social Emotional Wellbeing team spent a lot of time in each community, before, during and after the changeover, meeting with all of the stakeholders to ensure that community members were involved in how the program would be delivered into the future.“
Tanya Robinson, the Social Emotional Wellbeing Services Manager said it was important for the centres to have a strong local workforce. “We have been able to employ community members into all positions in the centres, which include Receptionists, SEWB workers and Team Leaders.”
“Our team leaders are also leaders in their community, which fits beautifully into the Apunipima Model of Care and is something that sets our service apart,” Tanya added.
Both Bernard and Tanya agree that the future is looking great for the Wellbeing Centres. “We are constantly looking at how we can better service our clients and that will be our focus in the coming months.” Said Tanya.
