A Modern Life in Rural Australia and What Therapeutic Education Actually Looks Like
Updated: Jul 28
Written by Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller
Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field.
Chantelle Ryan is a veteran ex-schoolteacher out in Dubbo, where early mornings offer her breathtaking views, tall trees bridge the dusty earth, and pink clouds colour the sky.
“Taking that first sip of tea and drinking in the quiet of the bush is something I wouldn’t trade for anything,” she says, “although it always amuses me to hear city folks notice the quiet. For us, it's noisy. We’re tuned to the birds and cicadas and the rustle of leaves in the wind, still a far cry from cars racing by and city noise.“
Life in regional Australia moves at a slower pace. Children walk to and from school, kicking up dust in the golden sunlight. As picturesque as it is, it also comes with its own difficulties. After a two-decade teaching career, Chantelle shifted her focus to Spear & Arrow Therapeutic to address the needs of children who are often misunderstood and mislabelled.
“I was a school teacher out here for two decades; I still live out here, but now I run Spear& Arrow Therapeutic. Not all the kids laugh and joke as they make their way from their homes into the classrooms. Not all of them face the day with the same mood; some of them have drooping shoulders, and there’s a lag in their step”, she says.
“Being neurodivergent means the day is difficult by default before it's even started. We all know this, but as a teacher, I saw this struggle, and it's so much more than ‘I’m misunderstood by my peers, and I take pills to help me concentrate.’ If the letters in a child’s textbook swim around before their eyes, or if their brain doesn’t hold onto information like everyone else’s, simple tasks feel impossible.”
Only 60–64% of residents in regional and remote areas complete Year 12, compared to 80% in metropolitan cities. Children in the bush are evaluated at lower rates and labelled as ‘difficult’ due to a lack of teacher training in recognising learning difficulties. Consequently, these students dread the classroom, leading to behavioural struggles that often become a self-feeding cycle.
Nationwide tracking shows that nearly 1 in 5 Australian kids (19%) face suspension or expulsion at least once before finishing school. 52% of these exclusions are officially recorded as aggressive behaviour, and 31% are dismissed as just being “naughty”. Without consistent therapeutic support to interpret why a kid is melting down, the default approach is to kick them out. 71% of exclusions happen in junior high, which is a challenging developmental phase for kids as they navigate becoming teenagers while often dealing with undiagnosed learning challenges.
Chantelle brings that story back to her hometown: “In the Dubbo region, $24.5 million in approved NDIS funding sits completely undelivered every six months because providers aren't there. For kids aged 9 to 14, 38% of their plans sit unused because they’re stuck on waitlists that range from 6 months to 2 full years for standard occupational therapy or speech pathology.”
“The average lifespan of a regional health worker is just 3 years, if you’re lucky enough to make it to the top of the waitlist and get a support worker. If you live more than 500km from a capital city, that worker is 2.5 times more likely to quit in their first 18 months, leaving kids to start over with a brand new face every year,” Chantelle says.
The kids that are lucky enough to get diagnosed, receive NDIS support, and get a support worker will still face more challenges, because an undiagnosed problem can be devastating, but so is a diagnosis, because care isn’t accessible.
Australian regional income inequality data shows that median gross household incomes outside capital cities are significantly lower (metropolitan incomes are up to 1.37 times higher than regional balances), yet regional families face 10% to 20% higher costs for basic necessities like fuel and groceries.
“For a working regional parent, accessing city-centric care means taking unpaid leave, driving hours down a highway, paying for accommodation, and balancing work obligations. When families are financially and emotionally stretched to the limit with no local care in reach, the entire family will feel that strain, which places a burden of guilt on the child,” Chantelle explains.
“I’ve been a witness to these kids. I’ve watched them slump down at their desk in the morning, sigh their way through tests and assignments, and I’d imagine there are tears behind the scenes, frustrated because they want to get it right. They want to understand the work. Spear & Arrow Therapeutic is my intervention. I want help and intervention to be what our community actually needs; call it a barefoot service in contrast to the city’s corporate approach, where we sit around the kitchen table with a cuppa and explain the paperwork to parents, take calls after hours, and work on a first-name basis rather than case numbers. By offering core services like behaviour support in the community, for the community, we’ve cut our wait lists down to 2-4 weeks; the industry standard is six months. In the six months these kids would’ve had to wait to have their first appointment, 88% of the kids we see show improved emotional regulation,” Chantelle says.
There’s hope that more teens will be able to face Monday mornings with this level of calm, and that work like Chantelle’s will be recognised for the generational impact it will have.
Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field. She has shared her insights into storytelling, media, and business across Australia, the UK, and the US, speaking for the Professional Speakers Association, Stevie Awards, Queensland Government, and many more. Three-time winner of the Grand Stevie Award for Women in Business, gold Stevie International Business Award, and a finalist in Australian Small Business Champion awards, Annette audaciously challenges anyone in small business to cast aside modesty, embrace their genius, and share their stories.
