About Us
Positive Practices are a Darwin based company who employ practitioners who specialise in the delivery of Behaviour Support and Specialist Support Services to NDIS Participants.
Company owners, Alana and Amber are both Northern Territory locals who have over 20 years combined experience providing services to those living with a disability who have complex and challenging needs.
Click below to read more about the team, our vision, mission and values.
Meet Our Team
Alana Michell
Director
Alana is a Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) and has studied across areas of psychology, behaviour analysis and disability studies. Alana has worked in the Northern Territory disability sector for the past 9 years in roles providing clinical services related to positive behaviour support, behavioural consultation, forensic services, and management of specialist residential disability services.
Alana has extensive clinical experience in behavioural assessment, development of behaviour support plans and associated documentation, and implementation of behaviour support programs. Alana enjoys working closely with participants, guardians, support workers and providers to ensure that clients have improved quality of life outcomes.
Alana has received supervision in organisational behaviour management and has an interest in the way that design of systems and appropriate service delivery can impact on people’s quality of life. Alana is responsible for strategic operations of Positive Practices, and provides client service delivery, training, and supervision to clinicians.
Amber Flynn
Director
Amber is a dedicated professional who holds a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (OT) and post-graduate study in Applied Behaviour Analysis. Amber has over 15 years of clinical and managerial experience across the disability sector in the Northern Territory. Amber’s expertise lies in managing teams and providing support to individuals living with a disability who exhibit behaviours of concern or who have complex needs.
Amber is experienced in performing functional behaviour assessments, criminogenic assessments, risk assessments and disability needs assessments. She is skilled in utilising occupational therapy tools to develop clinical formulations as well as treatment and behaviour support plans tailored to individuals with complex and challenging needs. Amber has a strong interest in the development of PBS for those living with a psychosocial disability.
As a driving force behind service delivery and operational compliance at Positive Practices, Amber ensures that our commitment to excellence is upheld. Amber is committed to developing a service that delivers exceptional clinical services and fosters a supportive environment for all.
Rayna Pusparajan
Administration Officer
Bio coming soon.
Ria Ford
Behaviour Support Clinician
Ria is social worker who specialises in disability, complex behaviour and forensics. Ria graduated from a Bachelor of Social Work from RMIT Melbourne with honours in 2008. She has worked in the disability sector for the past 14 years. Ria has been in the Northern Territory since 2011 and has worked for both NGOs and government. She worked for the Northern Territory Government from 2013 – 2021. In this time, she had varied roles including disability coordination, case management, policy officer, and as a behaviour support practitioner with the Forensic Disability Unit.
Ria joined Positive Practices in 2021 as a behaviour support practitioner.
Ria has knowledge and experience in the areas of disability related policy development, complex behaviour management restrictive practices, incident management, forensic and general risk assessment, and supporting complex transitions. She has a passion for using positive behaviour support as a way to improve people’s quality of life and to bring joy into the everyday.
Ria works with participants across the Top End of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Jane Wairimu
Behaviour Support Clinician
Jane is a social worker with a Master of Social Work degree, which she gained at Deakin University in Melbourne. She also holds a Diploma in Children’s Services from Dovaston Training and Assessment Centre in Darwin. Additionally, Jane holds an overseas teaching degree from Kenya, where she worked as a high school teacher prior to relocating to Australia.
Jane has over 9 years of experience working with children and adults with disabilities and trauma experiences in Australia. She has held a frontline management position in this space previously, and currently, she is working as a therapeutic specialist and behaviour support practitioner.
She has a particular interest in trauma-informed practice. She desires to come alongside others to assist them in healing from trauma. She is also passionate about training others in evidence-informed practices. She has been certified by Connell University in the United States of America to train Children And Residential Experiences (CARE) and Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI).
Audrey Chandiwira
Behaviour Support Clinician
Audrey is a social worker, originally from Zimbabwe. She obtained a Bachelor of Social Work from Charles Darwin University in 2022. Before this, she obtained a Diploma in Community Services from BCA National College in 2018.
Audrey has a strong passion for partnering with people using a strength-based approach to achieve their goals, thereby improving their quality of life. She has a particular interest in mental health, specifically early intervention, and psychosocial mental health recovery.
Audrey has rock-solid experience working with vulnerable people from all backgrounds and differing life circumstances. She has worked as a Disability Support Worker for more than 4 years, where she was providing person-centred support to people living with disabilities. She also worked as an acute mental health PCA at Royal Darwin Hospital providing one-on-one support.
In her spare time, Audrey likes to plait hair, read novels, walk on the beach, socialise with friends and family, and adventure travelling.
Sabrina Hosen
Behaviour Support Clinician
Sabrina has been living in the wonderful Northern Territory (NT) for nearly 10 years, a place she calls home and finds similar to her hometown in Bangladesh. Sabrina has obtained a Bachelor of Psychological Science from Charles Darwin University in 2021 with an outstanding academic achievement along with winning a prestigious scholarship from NT Government. This scholarship allowed Sabrina to engage in work arrangements with the NT government throughout her study. Sabrina also holds a Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care. She possesses many years of experience working with children.
Prior to being a clinician, she worked in child protection, where she conducted investigation and assessment, and provided support to the children and their families to provide stability, safety, and better environments to uphold the wellbeing of community. Her interest includes being up to date with scientific research in different areas including mental health, and different theories of behavioural science and types of interventions.
Sabrina enjoys reading books, laughing out loudly, travelling, watching Netflix or Stan, and spending time with and cooking Bangladeshi foods for her family and friends.
Bobby Olanipekun
Behaviour Support Clinician
Bobby is a highly experienced healthcare professional, originally from Nigeria, with over 15 years of experience in the field. He holds a Bachelor of Science honours degree in healthcare (forensic mental health nursing) pathways from a prestigious university in the United Kingdom and has worked as a forensic mental health and community mental health worker. Bobby also worked for an NGO in Nigeria in the humanitarian sector before relocating to Australia.
Bobby’s passion for helping people has led him to the disability space, where he has held positions as a senior disability support officer, a mental health youth worker, a New South Wales child protection helpline practitioner, and currently, as a therapeutic specialist and behaviour support practitioner. Bobby obtained his Master of Social Work from the University of Charles Darwin and is a strong advocate for the voice of people with no voice. He has participated in the working group Life Without Barriers as the NT director for a project involving young people in the decision-making process about what matters to them the most. Bobby’s area of interest is trauma-informed behaviour support, and he is committed to improving people’s quality of life.
In his spare time, Bobby enjoys watching sports, going for walks, following world politics, and socialising with friends while cooking up a storm.
Interested in joining our team?
Our Mission
Our Vision
Our Values
Creating safe environments
Respectful of people and culture
Implementing sustainable practices
Improving quality of life
Producing outcomes
Our Commitment to
Participants
- Treat Participants courteously, fairly and without discrimination.
- Treat all people with respect, listen to their stories.
- Inform Participants of their rights.
- Take all opportunities to consult with Participants and people that are important throughout the therapeutic process.
- Protect participant information.
- Create opportunities for personalised delivery of information including ‘easy to read’ resources.
- Take all opportunities to encourage Participants to connect with their communities.
- Ensure Participants can provide feedback and make complaints in a way that is tailored to their communication and linguistic needs.
- Respect and encourage opportunities for cultural connection and respect individual views, opinions, personal circumstances, and cultural diversity.
- Ensure Staff have the appropriate skills and competencies to meet Participant needs.
- Provide positive behaviour support services that meet, or exceed, relevant standards such as the NDIS Practices standards, quality indicators, NDIS rules and their Charter or Rights.
Rights and
Responsibilities
- Exercise informed choice and control.
- Access supports that promote, uphold and respect their legal and human rights.
- Have freedom of expression, self-determination and decision making.
- Access supports that respect culture, diversity, values and beliefs.
- Access services that promote and respect a person’s right to privacy and dignity.
- Be supported to make informed choices to maximise independence.
- Receive support free from violence, neglect, abuse, exploitation and discrimination.
- Receive high quality disability supports that values participant feedback and is overseen by strong operational management that cares.
- Access services which are governed by, and safeguarded by staff who value quality risk management.
- Receive services from staff who value positive behaviour supports and person-centred practices.
- Sharing of information is limited and respected. Receive services from staff that highly vetted, trained and who value evidence based positive practices.
Confidentiality and Privacy
Positive Practices employees gather a wide variety of information relating to the behaviour support and personal information of Participants and possibly their families. Only information necessary for the Positive Practices to provide good quality service is collected. All personal information is only used for the purposes for which it was collected except where legal exemptions apply.
All information collected by the Positive Practices team is done in a lawful and fair manner and with informed consent by the person or their legal guardian. The information and relevant stakeholders are informed of who is collecting the information, how it is stored and what is will be used for.
We are committed to respecting the privacy of Participants, families and carers.
Consent
You have the right to say what happens to your information. You can decide not to share information or restrict the access someone has to your information. At times, by limiting access to information may impact on Positive Practices’ ability to provide a Participants with the best support.
You can change or cancel your consent at any time by contacting Positive Practices.
Complaints and feedback
Positive Practices values feedback in any form. Whilst we aim to provide high quality support to everyone we work with, there are always opportunities for improvement. You can contact Positive Practices at admin@positivepractices.com.au and or request a complaints form.
Alternatively, you can submit a feedback form here, and have the option to do so anonymously.
If you don’t wish to raise your complaint with us directly, you are encouraged to contact the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Commission directly on 1800 035 544.