Regional Services
ParaQuad has regional offices in Northern NSW and the Northern Territory providing a range of clinical and personal care services to people with spinal cord injury. Limited clinical services can also be accessed via BrightSky Australia’s office in Brisbane.
Northern NSW
Our Northern Region office in Cardiff offers the following services;
Our Northern Region office coordinates personal care services for people with physical disability, who require in-home support with their personal care, light domestic tasks and community participation needs.
Our Service Supervisors will liaise with you and tailor services specifically to your requirements.
ParaQuad Personal Care Assistants are educated, trained and supported to provide tailored care for specific individual needs.
Our occupational therapists can assist you to maximise your independence and safety in everyday life by assisting with:
- wheelchairs, seating and pressure care equipment (eg mattresses, commode seats) – review and adjust existing setup, and if necessary, arrange trials and recommend new equipment setup
- transfers (eg bed, wheelchair, showering, car) – review current transfer techniques and make recommendations to maximise independence, safety and long-term function
- maximise function – suggest new ways of doing things and provide equipment / assistive devices to help manage everyday activities more easily and safely
- provide education and advice – including upper limb over-use syndrome and ageing with a disability
- home environment – assess, make recommendations and assist with home modifications and assistive technology
- community reintegration – assist with accessing the community and returning to leisure and productive roles
- advocate and support people with a disability
Our highly skilled and experienced Clinical Nurse Consultants have strong backgrounds in spinal cord injury, other physical disability, rehabilitation and continence management, for both adults and paediatrics.
They offer a unique level of knowledge and expertise for managing neurogenic continence (bladder and bowel) issues, skin care and pressure injury management, and other associated health care planning by providing:
- comprehensive & holistic assessments
- recommendations and implementation of management plans
- education and training
- evidence based advice on equipment selection
- assistance with appropriate referrals
- clinical support
For more information about our personal care, occupational therapy or clinical nurse consultant services:
Northern Territory
ParaQuad NT is a division of ParaQuad NSW and we provide peer support, social work, clinical nurse services and educational scholarships to people who have spinal cord injury.
As we continue to expand, our services will be developed and tailored to meet the needs of Northern Territorians. More details on our current services are below:
We can help you with the NDIS. Our tools such as the Pre Planning Guide and Being Continence Ready Factsheet can be a great help. These tools are available on request.
Having paraplegia and quadriplegia affects many aspects of a person’s life, including the management of bowel functions. Part of the benefits of becoming a ParaQuad member allows you to access a special program under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for bowel care medicines (enemas and aperients).
This program permits members to access certain enemas and aperients (to a maximum monthly allocation), and the costs of these products are covered by the Australian Government. Additional products may also need to be purchased, and can be done so outside of this program.
For over 30 years, we have provided specialised training on how to provide personal care to people with spinal cord injury or similar health care needs inclusive of bowel care. All training is in line with current best practice and will be provided by senior clinicians with extensive experience in community based spinal cord injury management.
ParaQuad and BrightSky are committed to best practice and as such offer clinical education to healthcare professionals. The BeBright Study series was established in 2010 to provide up-to-date education for nurses. Please contact us for information about our next BeBright series.
Our Scholarship Program supports people with spinal cord injury and similar neurological disabilities to pursue educational and career training. Each year we award a number of scholarships of up to $5000 each to assist funding items such as tuition fees, textbooks, computer equipment and other supports to ease the financial burden of obtaining the education and skill required for future employment.
For more information on any of our services:
BrightSky Australia Specialised Healthcare Products
BrightSky Australia is a one-stop-shop that provides national door-to-door delivery of specialist healthcare products in wound, continence and other specialist healthcare products which can help you maintain your health and independence including:
- continence products – disposable pads, pants and all-in-ones, catheters, drainage bags and accessories
- bowel management products
- wound care dressings and skin care products
- nutritional supplements, vitamins and enteral feeds
- respiratory
Products can be ordered in small and bulk quantities and discreet packaging is available on request.
Limited clinical services can also be accessed via BrightSky Australia’s office in Brisbane.