News from Victoria: Â
It is with sadness that I must start this post with the news that Leigh Garwood, former General Manager of Seeing Eye Dogs/Orientation & Mobility Services at Vision Australia, passed away yesterday from cancer. Leigh was at the helm of Seeing Eye Dogs when that agency merged with Vision Australia, and I worked closely with him on the development of Vision Australia’s Graduate Certificate/Graduate Diploma of O&M courses. The O&M/dog guide community pass on our deepest condolences to Leigh’s family and colleagues.
News from South Australia:
In more sad news, Â Mark Battista, a long-serving member of the O&M community has announced his retirement. Many of us have known Mark for a long time, and I would personally like to thank him on behalf of OMAA members for his outstanding contribution to the O&M profession and to OMAA.
Thanks for Sandy Holmes for this update:
Fourteen Orientation and Mobility and Guide Dog Mobility staff from the Royal Society for the Blind (RSB), Guide Dogs SA.NT and the Department of Education met at the offices of Guide Dogs SA.NT on 8th December, for the last meeting of the year.
A summary of the minutes of the OMAA AGM were presented highlighting:
·     OMAA Quality & Certification Standards Report
·     The 16th International Mobility Conference Scholarships
·     The 2017 OMAA Conference
Sandy Holmes (RSB) urged, in particular, new instructors embarking on this career to become members of the OMAA as they are the future of the profession and in a position to contribute to solutions for many of the challenges that the profession will encounter.
Daisy Holt (RSB) shared information regarding a ‘Buddy Dog Program’, a pilot program that is a partnership between the RSB and the Department of Education in which RSB Guide Dogs are used to promote improved body image, pace, gait and confidence.
Mark Battista, SA School for Vision Impaired OM Instructor advised that he will be retiring from the profession effective 16 December and he was presented with a small gift as a token of thanks for many years of service to the blind and vision impaired community and as a widely acknowledged leader in the field with many achievements. Mark is currently the OMAA Council Representative in South Australia and the Immediate Past President of the Association. Mr ‘Twister’ as he is affectionately known by many leaves large and infinitely professional shoes to fill in South Australia.
Finally, some better news from Western Australia/Tasmania:
In mid-2016, VisAbility (WA) and Guide Dogs Tasmania announced a new partnership and agreed to merge the two organisations (more details: https://www.visability.com.au/
Soon after the merger between the WA and Tasmanian organisations, management were keen to get the ball rolling in terms of sharing knowledge, processes and practices, as well as upskilling staff in all areas of client service delivery. One of those areas was ROAM, which stands for Remote Orientation & Mobility. This service looks at providing O&M services remotely via video conferencing technology. It has been used over the past 18 months throughout WA to extend the reach of the O&M services from Perth to regional areas such as Geraldton, Albany and Esperance.
In October, Amy Barrett-Lennard made the journey from Perth to Hobart to provide training in video conferencing techniques to the therapy staff in Tasmania, and to discuss how these techniques could be applied and adapted within their current therapy practices. The Tassie staff (listed below) had the opportunity to trial all the equipment and techniques in mock video conferencing O&M sessions conducted around the streets of Hobart. This was followed by discussions around how VisAbility Tasmania could take these techniques, and adapt/modify them for applications relevant to their work and their client group.
It’s exciting times for all involved, and the two offices look forward to further collaborations.
Eion Jennings (O&M/OT), Sean Cromwell (O&M), Amy Barrett-Lennard (O&M/OT), Kim Ryan
(GDMI), and Maree Ingram (O&M).
Thanks Amy Barrett-Lennard for the post.