Dr Sue Read has been with Stream Services since the beginning. Part scientist, part dietician, service-quality superstar, Sue wears many hats!
A trained dietician and microbiologist working in gut health, Dr Sue started out as our dietician, and continues to offer that service to our participants.
Sue has a passion for helping people with their health and wellbeing through food, and assists with special diets for those with swallowing difficulties, reflux, food allergies/ intolerances, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disorders, obesity, and other chronic diseases.
Recently, she has also taken on the role of Quality Manager for Stream Services — which basically means that she does all the ‘boring but important’ individualised paper work like quality checks and risk assessments. Because this part of her role is in the background, Sue finds that participants often don’t understand what it is she does, so we asked her to explain it.
“At its heart, my job as Quality Manager is to ensure that participants are getting what they and the NDIS are wanting. I make sure that Stream Services are delivering quality services, that the participants are safe, and that the services we offer are helping them meet their stated NDIS goals.”
“We need to prove this stuff. The NDIS audits these requirements very seriously, and it’s my job to make sure we meet them. It might sound dull, but it is so important —and to be honest, I love doing it. If we didn’t dot the i’s and cross the t’s, the NDIS would simply not let Stream Services deliver the needed services and support to our community.”
Dr Sue’s experience in risk assessments comes from a broad background in academic, business and government, so she is the perfect person to meet the stringencies of the NDIS system so the rest of the Stream Services team can get on with their core work helping the participants.
“The thing I most want to do is make positive change for people, and that’s what I’ve always done with the dietetics. And when I realised I could do the same thing through my background in planning and auditing, I realised that this was another way I could use my skills to help.”
The way I see working in the NDIS sector is that I can’t change your world, but I can make your life a little bit better. And if I do what I can to help, that’s what matters to me.”
Born and raised in regional Queensland and spending most of her life in Queensland, she is now living a dual life between Queensland and Tasmania, with one week of every four being in Central Queensland to see participants and workers face-to-face.
That’s quite the commute, but while Stream Services does a lot in the telehealth space, we also know it’s really important to get practitioners here in person — and the NDIS supports that. Which is why we’ve secured really advantageous travel rates for Sue to come up to Clermont for her in-person consults. (In fact, the price is so low that it costs less under the NDIS pricing for Sue to fly up from Tasmania than it does for a Lifestyle Support Worker to travel from Emerald to Clermont!)
We are extremely privileged to have someone as accomplished and versatile as Dr Sue Read on the Stream Services team. And we hope she’ll continue that crazy Tasmania-to-Clermont commute long into the future.