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| Prue Watson |
This is part one of an article about working with clients at a distance, by RDI consultant and Australian Training Center Directer, Prue Watson.
I want to share with you how the 'Tyranny of Distance" has become both the catalyst and the motivator to allow me to establish long distance relationships that have not just connected me, but allowed me to develop and grow.
I first encountered RDI was in 2005, and as I listened to Dr Gutstein talk about how parents were able to influence their child's potential, I must admit...I was interested! So, when Dr Sheely explained that we could go to Houston to learn about how to do this, had to find a way get there! I quickly signed up and worked on how I was going to manage traveling across the world, though I had never traveled out of Australia before.
My client base is all over the map!
I am an RDI Certified Consultant and Occupational Therapist currently living in Rockhampton in Queensland, a North Eastern State of Australia. Though I am located on the Tropic of Capricorn in the Central Queensland region, my client families are from all over:
- 30% are local or up to 1-2 driving hours away. These families usually come in for face to face sessions or I am also able to visit them and do necessary liaison work as required.
- 20% are 4-6 driving hours from me. Because air travel is too costly or not available, we use the Internet to do sessions with a face-to-face session usually occurring every second or third session. I try to do a face-to-face visit to the family two or three times a year.
- 50% are 8+ driving hours away from me. Here I use Internet to do regular sessions and the family may be able to travel to my area for a two-day stay, where we do assessment, immersion and hands on work together. Alternatively I may travel to their area to do the hands on face-to-face work with them. Usually I fly!
How did this happen and why do I see so many distance families?
I have always worked in regional areas and have done a lot of work with families in regional country communities. In Queensland, services are very limited to country regions with most health and support services located in the central Brisbane or major regional hubs along the east coast. So I was familiar with the service model of taking services 'out west' from a regional hub out into the Queensland 'bush'. My current OT client base already had 50% of clients coming from rural areas to see me.
When I did the RDI Consultant Training in 2005 there was only one RDI consultant in Sydney Australia, and many families accessing US - based consultants via a long distance relationship! Now that was a model I could identify with!
I was taken with how RDI was promoted as being accessible and how it was evolving so that it could be accessed and delivered via technology and the Internet across the world!
In 2006 as I was completing my training [my supervision family lived 3 hours away and would travel in for sessions with me!], I was able to attend a 4-day Parent Training in Sydney where four families who were working with me also attended. I remember one parent [from the capital city] commenting to Suzy, [who lived 6 hours from me], "how come you in the country can 'get' a consultant and those in the capital city couldn't?" This was unheard of - having a service in country Queensland available before the city! At that time I was the only RDI consultant trainee in Queensland!
I can remember Suzy being very pleased with this!
These parents lived in a rural area that was remote, but had managed to be supported by a Commonwealth funding programme that supported educational and health needs of rural and remote and isolated families. So they had travelled to Sydney [23 hrs driving / 4 hrs flying from Barcaldine] to learn about the RDI approach and had also committed themselves to travel to see me - a 6-hour road trip to Rockhampton, for their RDI Consult sessions.
I could see how RDI had been a pivotal influential factor for this family, in that they had achieved all the elements - access, availability, investment and commitment; they were able to 'deliver the service' to their child themselves and with the guidance of the RDI way of thinking and use of technology, we established a productive and prosperous long distance relationship.
This is reflective of the motivation that families have to seek out and invest in support for their child, and while this is a feature of most families who engage in the RDI process, I see this very much in isolated and rural families with whom I have worked. They will do the long hours road travel to come in for their RDI session with the same commitment that they may use to travel to other health or educational services or for leisure or recreation.
Distance was not an obstacle!
What I realized was the potential that RDI offered to families was not based on the availability or accessibility but on continuity and investment!
Next week, Part 2: The Pros and Cons of Distance Consulting
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