Carer Advisory Service
For information, referral, advocacy, problem solving, developing options, counselling appointments and workshops.
1800 242 636*
Commonwealth Respite & Carelink Centre
For information on community aged care and disability services in your area and all respite enquiries.
1800 052 222*
Carers ACT Northside (Main office)
2/80 Beaurepaire Crescent
HOLT ACT 2615
Ph: (02) 6296 9900
Fax: (02) 6296 9999
The Cottage
Dementia Respite - Low Care
117 Denison Street
Deakin ACT 2600
Ph: (02) 6285 2082
Fax: (02) 6282 5784
Fraser House
Disability Respite for Mature Carers
30a Kerrigan Street
Fraser ACT 2615
Ph: (02) 6259 9555
Fax: (02) 6259 9333
If you are interested in Membership please click here
*An Australian Government Initiative. Free local call. Mobile phones charged at mobile rates.
Meet our Staff and Board
Key Management contacts include:
| Dee McGrath | Chief Executive Officer | 02 6296 9901 |
|---|---|---|
| Sophyla Sun | Executive Director - Business Services | 02 6296 9937 |
| Felicity Cotterill | Executive Director - Carer Services | 02 6296 9960 |
| Helen Walker | Carer Support Manager | 02 6296 9912 |
All Carers are welcome to drop in to either of our offices to meet with our staff and chat about how we may be able to support you.
Our Board
President
Brett Walker
LLB, BA, LLM 1st Class Honours, FTIA, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW, the ACT and the High Court of Australia, is currently a Senior Legal Counsel with the CSIRO. Brett has had 20 years experience as a commercial lawyer in both private practice and in-house counsel roles across a wide ranging legal commercial and banking sector. Brett has a special interest in respite care and was appointed President of Carers ACT at the 2006 AGM and he has been on the Board for the past three years.
Vice President
Janet Moore
Played a key role as a founding member of Carers ACT in 1991 and has overseen the development and growth of the Association as well as gaining wider recognition for Carers by governments and community. Janet is a health professional specialising in gerontology with a background in nursing and community health. She is a past Carer of a relative with dementia for many years.
Treasurer
Robert (Bob) Cotton
B.Ec, MA, FCPA, GAICD, is currently employed as a consultant and Visiting Fellow at Crawford School ANU. Bob has had extensive public sector leadership and management and also diplomacy in his extensive career. Bob is the current Treasurer and has been on the Board for three years, having joined in 2004.
Secretary and Public Officer
Ian Trewhella
OAM, has been a quadriplegic since 1961 and is heavily and actively involved in disability issues over many years. He was a successful Paralympic athlete in 1980 and 1984 together with many other national and world disability sporting successes.
His extensive past membership of committees, advisory and management boards include the National Disability Advisory Council, Chair of the former ACT Disability Services Advisory Committee and the Deputy Chair of the ACT Paralympic Committee. Currently he is Vice President of People with Disabilities ACT and held positions on several ACT Government advisory groups.
He has also owned and operated a small business in the ACT called The Wheelchair Factory for over 18 years. He has also held many positions within the Federal public service in the areas of policy, IT and financial accounting. Among his many awards is an Order of Australia Medal which he received in 1992 for volunteer service to people with disabilities in the fields of sport, recreation and welfare.
Board Members
Richard Bialkowski
M.Bus, B.Bus, Grad Dip Applied Corporate Governance, FAICD, FCHSE, has extensive leadership, governance and executive level management experience in the community sector at ACT and national levels. He is a board member of a number of state and national level organisations, and has extensive experience in advocacy and stakeholder relations at both state and national levels with government and non-government agencies.
Conny Ehlers
Is mother and Carer to her son. She has held a number of senior positions in the Australian Public Service, has a financial management background with Westpac as a former consultant and has had many years experience working in the private sector at the management level. She has been President of a highly respected disability respite community organisation, FaBRIC (now Tandem), as well being involved in the community sector for some time. She has been actively involved in advocating for better outcomes for carers and people with disabilities.
Chris Huet
Served twenty years in the Air Force as a pilot and officer before starting his current career as a management consultant. He currently works in project management with SMS Management & Technology, consulting to government departments in Canberra. His particular skills are in leadership and communication. Having settled with his family in Canberra, Chris joined the board of Carers ACT to make a contribution back to the community.
Brian Joyce
(Past President) Brian has served on the board for a number of years. Brian is a Director of Joint Strategies, a Canberra based management consultancy whose clients include a number of key Australian Government agencies. As such he brings a wealth of high level management skills to the board and has provided invaluable advice to Carers ACT in a range of management and organisational issues during his term. Brian and his wife Lyn are Carers to their son.
Bridget Larsen
BA LLB LLM, is married with two sons and two stepdaughters. Her younger son was diagnosed with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, an incurable condition causing progressive muscle wastage in boys, in January 2008. Bridget now juggles being a family Carer with her role as an energy and utility lawyer at ActewAGL. Bridget has worked for not for profit member based organisations for most of her professional life, including as an IP lawyer with Copyright Agency Limited (writers and publishers) and Policy Manager with the Australian Information Industry Association (IT industry). These roles required extensive member consultation, knowledge of complex underlying legal and policy environments and an ability to strongly articulate the case for change at local and Federal bureaucratic and political levels. Bridget has also worked as a lawyer with IBM Global Services, the Attorney General’s Department and in private practice. She was educated and has lived in Canberra for most of her life, so offers a good knowledge of the local community, culture and services.
Bruce Mackay
Has worked in marketing and advertising for over thirty years. He commenced his career at Sydney advertising agency Hertz Walpole, before moving to Bayer Australia for a three year stint as Advertising Manager of their Animal Health Division. At the age of 26, he accepted the offer of starting an advertising agency in Canberra for a Melbourne based agency. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, that entity evolved into Grey Worldwide Canberra. After leading the agency for nearly 25 years, Bruce now runs a specialised marketing and advertising consultancy in Canberra called Cutthrough.
Tim Moore
BA, MChild&AdolWelfare, MYouthStudies, is currently working as a research fellow at the Institute of Child Protection Studies where he has continued his research with young carers, most recently those with a parent with an alcohol or other drug issue. He sits on a number of local and national boards, including Carers Australia.
Although he has had some caring experience of his own, Tim’s main involvement with the carers movement has related to his work with young carers and their families. Over the past ten years Tim has had the pleasure of meeting and working with young carers locally and nationally as a youth worker, researcher and advocate. He has helped establish a number of local young carer programs and in 2005 managed the national Supporting Young Carers program for Carers Australia. In his spare time he is completing a PhD looking at research with vulnerable children.
