What is a support network?
A support network includes the family, extended relatives, friends, community groups and carers of people living with disability. Support networks are crucial in the ongoing care and development of individuals receiving specialist therapy supports.
Why are support networks important?
Supports networks provide the essential daily care and sustenance enabling people with disabilities to thrive between their scheduled therapy sessions.
At LiveBig, we understand the importance of support networks, and work to support them in every way we can. This involves working with the individual but also their family and other carers to establish a holistic approach to health and wellbeing that will give the best quality of life.
Involving the entire family or support network in care
Using a combination of assessment, education and targeted activities, a LiveBig allied health therapist is able to guide the person with disability, their parents, carers or even an entire classroom, through structured sessions aimed at building everyone’s capacity.
LiveBig involve entire families or others in the support network to increase quality health outcomes. Participants in a therapy session are able to watch, learn, play and get feedback to support ongoing practice and repetition of specific skills.
What does this look like?
This might look like playing a game that practices physical co-ordination, creating a safe space for expression or even shifting perspectives and thinking differently about challenging situations.
The role of the therapist is ultimately to empower a participant and their network to build skills that lead to sustainable outcomes and eventually make their services redundant.
Making learning fun
A speech therapist, for example, can introduce a role play to a classroom that practices use of visual clues in communication. While targeting a participant who needs to increase their use of eye contact and gesture, the therapist is able to build the capacity and skills of everyone in the classroom and support effective and meaningful exchanges of information between the participant, their peers and teachers using a system based on universal teaching and learning.
An occupational therapist working to build a participant’s bilateral co-ordination might introduce a throwing and catching game with a sibling or parent that feels more like fun than a gross motor exercise.
Families and caregivers share success
By maintaining the focus of an activity at the group level, rather than the target participant, learning and effort is shared and supported. Families and care givers become an integral part of the process of teaching and learning, as well as sharing the success as goals are achieved.
Celebrating the small wins
Positive reinforcement is possibly the most critical part of the therapy journey. Celebrating the small wins is particularly important in creating momentum towards the achievement of a specific therapy goal. Therapy sessions are often great opportunities for recognising and celebrating a person’s progress.
LiveBig therapists can provide insights and suggestions on how to do this based on a tailored reward program designed around individual goals and interests. They can provide support networks with a range of positive feedback strategies including praise, immediate reward and non-immediate reward.
Marcella Romero
Marcella Romero
Driven by the desire to help vulnerable people, Marcella Romero studied occupational therapy & completed a Postgraduate (Occ Rehab) and a Masters in Health Sciences before founding her first company, Rehab Management in 1998.
Marcella expanded her business from a one-woman home office to a successful group employing over 600 people nationally across 150 offices.
Today, Arriba Group comprises three successful enterprises — Rehab Management, AimBig Employment and LiveBig. For over 26 years, Arriba Group has positively impacted the lives of more than 750,000 Australians following injury, disability, or ill health.
Marcella is a strategic, dynamic leader and entrepreneur who puts her business success down to passion, and working harder, longer, and smarter. She is known for challenging the status quo, her collaborative attitude, her willingness to take advantage of opportunities and her ability to take risks to make informed strategic decisions.
Marcella’s family is her touchstone, crediting her husband Craig and their three children for keeping her continually focused on doing her best.
Marcella’s entrepreneurial achievements have been recognised by multiple industry awards, including EY Entrepreneur of The Year™ National Finalists (2023) and CEO & Entrepreneur of the Year from the CEO Magazine Global (2021).
Craig Hartman
Craig Hartman
Craig is a seasoned business leader, director and group advisory board member. With over 18 years’ experience in workplace rehabilitation, disability, employment services and work health, safety & wellbeing. Craig has extensive knowledge across strategic business growth, risk management, talent management and innovation. With a key role in diligence practices and strategic advice for planning, finance, growth and innovation, Craig focuses on helping people to live their best lives. He collaborates with senior leaders to foster an organisation with a social, diverse and community-driven approach.
Glenn Meekin
Glenn Meekin
A CFO of the year Finalist with over 20 years’ industry experience, Glenn oversees Rehab Management’s financial services team, ensuring a streamlined approach to financial and corporate affairs for internal and external clients. Glenn’s highly focused, energetic style is characterised by in-depth allied and corporate health knowledge and strong leadership skills to inspire his team and continually drive the business’ financial success.
Julie Stuart
Julie Stuart
Julie is a purpose and values driven people executive with over 20 years of HR experience in complex local and international business environments across Healthcare, Technology, Media, Professional Services, Financial Services and Higher Education sectors. Julie started her career in Talent Acquisition before moving into HR Leadership roles in both Australia and London . Julie has held senior people roles at Rapid Response Revival, UOW Global Enterprises, Mercer, Salmat and Avanade. She is avid technology enabler, with a passion for growth environments to support the development of employees and leaders.
James Foot
James Foot
James is an experienced information technology professional with over 20 years’ experience, over ten of these in senior leadership roles. He has worked in the government, corporate and not-for-profit sectors and in a wide range of industries including communications, broadcast, aged care, disability, community services and healthcare. During his career, James has led significant business transformation projects, managing the integration of all aspects of information technology for major mergers and acquisitions. When developing and implementing IT strategies, James ensures that they are in alignment with the overall strategy and goals of the business. He is a great believer in enhancing customer satisfaction through customer-centric design.
Louise Genge
Louise Genge
Louise is an experienced marketer with a deep customer-centric approach, with over 20 years’ experience in services marketing. She started her life in advertising working across blue-chip clients. Moving client-side, she has held senior marketing roles at BPAY, BT Financial Group, Austrade and the Benevolent Society. She is a passionate believer in the power of brand to shape the destiny of companies.
Renee Thornton
Renee Thornton
Renee joined Rehab Management as an experienced Occupational Therapist with a background in People & Customer management. Renee has over 11 years experience in Occupational Rehabilitation including workplace rehabilitation consulting, working with employers to mitigate injury-related risks, national account and operational management. In her role as Chief Executive Officer, Renee is responsible for service delivery, innovation, customer and operational management across Rehab Management
Greg Luck
Greg Luck
Greg has an impressive track record as a chief executive with over 25 years of experience in business leadership across Australia, the Asia Pacific, North and South America and EMEA. He has successfully overseen operations and projects in over 24 countries across a wide range of industries including human services, workforce development, automotive, insurance and professional services. Greg is an enthusiastic, inclusive, and forward-thinking leader.
Juliet Middleton
Juliet Middleton
Juliet has extensive experience in the health and disability sector leading high-performance teams, collaborating with Boards and senior management to inspire quality, implement innovative services and demonstrate the highest levels of integrity. She will be leading the LiveBig team in their next chapter of growth and will be driving them to achieve great success over the coming months.
