About the Founder - El

Welcome to Able to Wellbeing, where compassionate care meets extensive healthcare expertise and lived experience. This page is all about me and who I am. I know that when I am needing support or services, that I like to know more about someone on a personal level and find a connection and that is what this 'about me' is about!

My journey to establishing Able To Wellbeing began due to both personal and work related reasons. On a personal level, I suffered an unexpected relationship loss which prompted me to re-evaluate my priorities. On a business level, I had a strong desire to establish myself as a provider who truly values delivering high-quality, compassionate and flexible care to our clients. Furthermore, my own personal experiences with family members receiving care encouraged me to establish Able To Wellbeing with the aim of not becoming a provider focussed 'silently' on budgets. Having worked for large and corporate providers, I realised the focus was on key performance incdicators and large profits rather than my passion of truly valuing and promoting services which are compassionate, understanding, transparent and flexible to our clients and their needs. Fueled by the experience of my loss as well as my desire to deliver care, I established Able To Wellbeing with a heartfelt commitment to making a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of others, and in using my lived experiences. 

Having gone through these personal and business experiences forced me to grow in ways I never thought possible, and I spent lots of time assessing every aspect of myself and life in order to learn, improve and be better. Through this, I realised I needed to use not only my professional experience, but my lived experience to help others and to go back to what I always enjoyed doing when I first embarked on my relationship, making positive changes in the lives of others and communities.

With a wealth of experience in healthcare, both clinically and non-clinically, and in senior leadership, I bring a unique blend of skills and insights to every aspect of our services. Having navigated various roles within the healthcare space, I understand the intricacies of providing exceptional care that goes beyond the clinical realm. It is this understanding and comprehensive perspective that forms the foundation of Able To Wellbeing's approach to healthcare. Please see the page 'About the Company' and our vision and values for more information on Able To Wellbeing.

In terms of my qualifications, I hold:

• Bachelor of Nursing (with Distinction)
• Master of Ergonomics
• Bachelor of Business (major Human Resource Management) - recipient of Dean's List Award
• Undergraduate Certificate in Mental Health
• Diploma of Occupational Health and Safety
• Justice of the Peace

I am also undertaking further studies in counselling and dementia care.

I hold memberships with:

• Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association
• Professional Membership - Continence Foundation of Australia
• Golden Key International Honour Society
• Student membership - Australian Counselling Association
• Palliative Care Nurses Australia
• Associate Member - European Association for Palliative Care
• LGBTIQ+ Health Australia
• Refugee Council of Australia

My journey in the health system began in 2008, working in the hospital and corporate systems in ergonomics. My specialty field was patient handling and manual handling. My role included working with patients and staff on safe handling practices, conducting audits and risk assessments, developing and delivering training programs, conducting investigations and completing gap analysis. It was fulfilling working with patients and staff to get the best outcomes for all in terms of a patient's mobility needs, falls prevention and maintaining skin integrity including pressure injury prevention. Interestingly, I completed my thesis for my Masters in Ergonomics in the floor sanding industry looking at risks such as noise exposure, vibration, dust inhalation and manual handling which was a bit left field of health but a wonderful experience which broadened my mindset and experience.

Remaining in the government, I then moved into the role of Chronic Disease Strategy Coordinator, working in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities implementing quality improvements and providing brief intervention and health promotion activities. This was specifically in the areas of child and maternal health, preventative health and chronic disease. Due to the Campbell Newman government cutbacks on primary health care, my role was made redundant, and I moved into a position managing a contracts and procurement unit. I performed roles including developing and managing large value and high-risk healthcare contracts, developing tender documents and conducting stakeholder engagement to ensure high quality care was delivered to members of remote communities.

I took these skills and moved into a not-for-profit organisation conducting commissioning and community engagement for a large government funded agency. My areas of expertise were primary healthcare and after-hours care. My role was broad and involved community consultation, identifying gaps in healthcare service delivery and developing models of care. I reviewed requests for grant funding and undertook co-design with grant applicants to address gaps in healthcare service delivery. Under this funding I helped to establish the first private-public fully bulk billed clinic for the community which had extended hours, as well as to fund medical student development, implementation of allied health and specialist services and funding for a nurse-practitioner model of care.

My last role prior to founding Able To Wellbeing was working for another large not-for-profit in community health and in-home aged care nursing, leading clinical and non-clinical staff between Atherton and Rockhampton. Our team did some amazing work to navigate the various changes coming through from the government such as the Serious Incident Response Scheme and changes to funding arrangements. We also had the added difficulty of COVID-19 and the various challenges this posed for our workforce and clients. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my role, I found working in a large corporate company was not where I wanted to be as I valued nursing care that was not driven by key performance indicators, budgets and making large profits. This job also did not give me, the same fulfilment as my past roles in terms of the positive impacts I could make for people. I was craving to make changes for people and communities, without the constraints of a large corporate company. This is part of how I came to start Able To Wellbeing.

Able To Wellbeing is a small owner-operated business, where we are flexible and compassionate in our approach to your care and needs.

On a more personal level, I am a single mum with a beautiful nine (9) year old daughter. I also have two (2) wonderful nieces who I am close with. My cultural background is Italian, and we are a close family. I enjoy exploring waterfalls and water holes, camping, fishing, water sports and a restaurant or cafe with a view! I also enjoy soccer and am on the committee. Socially, I play hockey as well. I like to watch sports too, the NRL and AFL mostly. As much as I enjoy being out and about, I also value just 'chilling' and in that time I like to read, watch documentaries and movies, and sit on my hill and watch the sun go down and admire the colour of the sky and the clouds with a beverage in hand and some music! If you ask me which NRL team I go for, I'm 100% a Broncos supporter and no, I don't' go for Cowboys as I was following Broncos before the Cowboys came about :-)  But, Cowboys are my second team :-) And of course, it is QLD I follow in the origin! In AFL I follow Richmond for sentimental purposes - it was the team my dad first watched live when he was younger, and it was also the team I first watched live!  

Therefore, my relationship loss as well as a re-evaluation of my work experience has driven me to establish Able To Wellbeing, where I can leverage my passion, drive, and commitment to health, wellbeing, safety and high-quality clinical care. I am driven to ensuring my clients receive services which are compassionate, thoughtful, understanding and personalised to their needs. I would love to get to know you more, so if you have a need for care or consultancy, I am happy to do a meet and greet. Have a wonderful day!

Thanks

El