[00:00:02] Speaker A: Choice and Control is a podcast celebrating meaningful inclusion of people with disability in our communities, brought to you by carers Queensland, your NDIs local area coordination partner in the community.
Each episode provides a conversation space for people with disability, their families and carers to share their stories with you. We also hear from members of the wider community, local businesses and community leaders who share information, ideas and possibilities to give you more opportunity and more choice and control in your life.
Men's Health Week serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of prioritising men's physical and mental health. After witnessing the tragic events of the dream world accident in 20 1654, year old Michael Clancy from the Gold coast found support and companionship from an unlikely friend, a parrot. Since discovering the therapeutic benefits of owning a bird, Michael has built the not for profit group parrots for purpose and has paired over 1000 parrots with their new human companions.
In this episode, we explore the intriguing world of parrots and their positive impact on well being. From companionship and stress relief to promoting physical activity and providing emotional support.
Hear how these intelligent birds offer a range of benefits that can contribute to a healthier and happier life. We join Michael as he takes us back to the start of his journey in 2016, when he experienced the tragic events at Dreamworld and a note to listeners. The following conversation contains references to death and post traumatic stress disorder.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, Tracy, it's a very simple thing for me to go to the start because it was a life changing experience for me.
At the dream world incident, when the four people lost their lives on the Thunder River Rapids ride, I was the duty manager on the day and I'm not going to go into any kind of detail, but just suffice to say, what I saw that day, no one else would want to see what I saw. And the images haunted me. And the aftermath of that pretty much set on significant chronic PTSD, depression and chronic anxiety as well. So for months afterwards, I copped abuse and verbal and physical violence toward me for being a murderer, so to speak.
I had death threats, my family was threatened. People don't see that side of the incident, so it was kind of like a battering ram. And I'd never ever experienced anything like that before. And it changed my whole life. My whole perspective on living, breathing, existing took the most tremendous hit and I had to reevaluate everything to a point where jo public to me was putrid and I had no time for humans.
After what was what I received as a manager and escalated complaints, etcetera, I lost all faith in humankind to be honest. And I would go to bed at night, in the morning, I'd wake up and I would regret waking up. And I went to a really dark spot. Now, that inspired me. Believe it or not, I tried different therapies and it didn't work for me.
One day, on a whim, I said to my wife, you know, I'm gonna buy a bird. Maybe, you know, something to look after while you're at work and the kids are at school. So it gets me out of bed, so to speak. Now, I bought a bird called Archie and he's an eclectus parrot.
He's so freaky looking and abnormal and he's like a doctor seuss character that I thought, mate, you just fit what I need. And I brought Archie, and if I didn't get up to him in the morning when he was screeching and carrying on, the neighbors from across the road would walk across, knock on the door and say, turn your bird down. So he all of a sudden gave me a purpose and a reason and to get up. And so I thought after a while, six to seven months, I started to go out with Archie. You know, take him on my shoulder to Bunnings, or I started to integrate back into society a little bit. And I thought, what a tremendous therapy he's been for me. Why not share this around? So I said to my wife, I'm going to breed a couple of birds and to condense it all down, you know, 1000 birds later. We've got our own premises now in Ashmore where we. We call it the nest. And we do workshops and therapy sessions, we do group workshops, we do functions and we have. It's like a drop in centre for people to arrive with their carer support workers or just by themselves and interact with birds, have a coffee, talk to people.
We've created a very safe, non labeling, welcoming environment for people.
And thankfully, you know, three years on now, from that thought of giving one bird away to what we do now, plus visiting respite centers and palliative care.
So we do palliative care, we do a number of other things, visit hospitals, schools and try and educate on the stigmas attached to mental health. That probably has been the hardest thing for me is the admitting. I had an issue because in 48 years, I'd never, ever, ever experienced or sunk to where I was literally on the floor after that event.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: It sounds terribly traumatic.
You said on your website you're a mentor and motivational speaker and you have an unwavering commitment to the community and you're working to dismantle the stigmas surrounding mental health. What are some of those stigmas that you're working to break down?
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so important that you ask that. And that's something I'm very, very passionate about.
I still daily come across people that, especially men, I suppose it seems harder for us, and that's a really old school thing to say. I get that. And I would extend that out by saying predominantly, simply from what I see and the data we collect and the people we help, it's the older, the 30, 35, 40 year olds that are more vulnerable in all people, but especially the men, the younger guys coming through seem to have a more accepting, new agey type view of it, which I think is testament to the. To the education they receive at school and things like that in the community and in the social medias regarding mental health. But for people like myself and people of my vintage, we weren't brought up with that. And, you know, even my late father, God rest his soul, is a beautiful man. But I know to the day he died, he didn't understand what I was going through.
He was a very staunch, concreter laborer, and pretty much, you know, chin up, get on with it, motor through, you know, and that's what you do. And, you know, that might work for some. It didn't work for me, and I don't think it's a positive attitude to have. So what I do is I'm trying to say to people, you know, everything in life is a moment in time. And if this moment in time or the moment just passed, don't worry about the one coming up. It's one we're in now. And the one that was just come out of that, whether it be six months, twelve months, or ten years, that moment in time, we just have to work on that. And if that means putting your hand up and saying, you know what, I'm going to be transparent here, and I'm going to tell you I'm suffering.
You know, I'm doing this, doing that. But to be brave enough, it comes down to courage and respect for yourself, which is not a very easy thing for most people to really value themselves and to say, I'm worth more than this. And that's what I say to people when I do public speaking and motivational talks and schools, etcetera.
I don't make notes, I don't take a prepared speech.
Absolutely genuine and authentic from the heart that I say to people, you matter, everybody matters. And if we don't, if we don't embrace that and value where we fit into the world. We're going to struggle. And as soon as we can admit and say, hey, you know, I'm a great person, but I'm struggling with this and I really am not comfortable. I need to pull my hand up, my hand out and say, please, can someone help? It is amazing how many beautiful people there are out in this world that would go out of their way to assist. And media generally. Look, I know I'm generalising here, and forgive me for that. However, the news and the media generally portray the stabbings, the beatings, this, the that. Not very often do you tune into the news or to media and see, wow, look what that person did, you know?
But let me tell you, they're out there. That as true as I sit here today, we have so many golden, I call them golden people out there, and I've seen them. I've met only a minute percentage of what's out there, but you know what? They shine out. And ever since, I've lost that pride, if you like, and that stubbornness and embraced the guilt I felt for that day at Dreamworld and said, you know, I can heal in most things, but to the day I die, I will feel guilty for letting those four people into the park and laughing with them at the gates and telling them they'll have a fantastic day and then seeing them in pieces afterwards.
That is a guilt I will carry. But you know what? In sharing it and talking to people, it doesn't go, but it makes it a lot easier. It's just sharing the load and just knowing, like, even talking with you today, Tracy, it.
It just feels better knowing that if. If one person's listening to this, you know, I'm not out to conquer the world or change the world, you know, but if we can just worry about our local communities, our own backyards, and service the people that are around us and support the people around us, it ripples out. It has a bigger effect. You know, we're not changing the world. We're just changing one person's world at a time, and not to the extent of healing or making everything better. It's just making them a little bit happier. You know, one person at a time or one bird at a time. It's just the one percenters I'm a firm believer eventually add up, and that's what I try to do.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: For men's health in particular, Michael, loneliness and isolation is a problem. How are you and your birds helping to reach those men, especially struggling with isolation?
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah, we get that a lot.
And sadly, it is more prone to men at the moment because without being sexist, and I don't want this to sound at all biased to one sex or the other, but I believe men will sit at home happily by themselves a lot faster than some ladies who can reach out to a sisterhood or an embracing community. And I don't believe for an instant, without being controversial, that mentality, the level of men's assistance is up there with the ladies. I'm not saying it's wrong or right, I just don't believe it's there. And so what we try to do is we try to create two things. And the first is, of course, giving them a companion and giving them that friend, if you like, that has a very close proximity on their shoulder, that can talk to them, can make them get up and start their day with a purpose. You know, if a guy's in bed and he knows his birds screeching out in the lounge room, you know what, you'd have to have a really good, you'd either have to be deaf or really tolerant to not have to get up and attend to that bird. So it gives them a purpose to get up and care for another living entity.
And also, what we also do is we invite them and we set up a 24/7 support for them via the bird. So, you know, if, if Joe Smith comes in and grabs a bird, and I apologize if there's a Joe Smith out there, because it's just the name I grabbed. If Joe Smith comes in and we, we find that an alexandrian parrot is good for him, we'll set him up with everything he needs. We'll set him up with a bird, we'll educate him and we give him a starter pack and a card, a business card that says, you know what, Joe? If anything happens, please text this number or give us a call, send us an email at our first available, we will reply to you and our service agreement, service level target is to reply within 4 hours and we'll get back to you. So what it does is it creates a connection for Joe that he's got the bird at home, but he also knows he's not alone with that bird, because parrots for purpose are there to support him and the bird. So if he's having a tough day, often they will phone up, people will phone up just for chat and say, you know, I just wanted to let you know how, you know, feathers is going and he's doing really well, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
That's fantastic for us. And that's. Look, we never, we never get upset about a call or an email or a communication because we embrace it. We. We want to close that circle a little bit and create a community. And it doesn't matter if the person's in Tasmania and we send the bird down there or around Australia, we freight them everywhere, we will still speak to them on the phone and that brings it very tight and close together. So we're also targeting at the moment, rural and regional areas to get out there and to educate people on pet therapy and companion parrots. And then we're setting up where they can actually dial in to the screen and like the Brady bunch screen, if you like, and the whole family's up on the board, on the tv and we can talk to them and we can have a sharing session once a week on a Thursday afternoon and talk about the birds, any issues, any problems.
And again, it's just creating that belonging. We just want people to not just come in and pick up a bird, but to know they can do that, that's fine, but also if they need to or want to, we are there as a community to support them. And with over a thousand now, or just on a thousand, if you saw Tracy, the emails and the communications we receive, I'm 100% confident, convinced, and I'm happy to show anybody it works. It really works, especially with a lot of returned soldiers.
We've got feedback and anecdotal data that suggests when soldiers go into a post traumatic stress trance, if you like, when they're living alone after service and they can go into a trans and relive the atrocities that they've seen, that the amount of feedback we get, that the bird suddenly on their shoulder will screech or bite their ear and snap them out of it. You know, I think it's more because a bird is bored, but they swear that the bird knows, you know, so little things like that that people don't think of and people don't see. It's a real, it's a real run on effect. And on a Saturday morning where we call the nest, again, our premises, we may get up to 50 people just come in. And a lot of those are single blokes that come in. Some have a bird, some don't. I think more than anything, they just want to come in, interact, have a chat, have a coffee, you know, look at the birds, interact with the birds, and then they go home. Some stay ten minutes, some stay 2 hours. And again, there's no measurement and there's no judgment when they come in there. There's no label. So in. You know, I really believe what we're doing is making a difference. And I won't say it's a higher percentage for men, but I will say it's. It's probably working for men more so than the women at the moment.
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[00:19:52] Speaker A: There are many types of support and assistance animals, such as dogs. Yet you've chosen birds, specifically parrots. Why parrots?
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I get asked that a lot and it's such a valid, valid question. Look, don't get me wrong, I've got a dog and I love her. She's a beautiful dog. I've always had dogs. I'm not so much a cat person, but I have in my history had a few cats as well.
But I've never had any dog or cat that can sit in my, on my shoulder and talk to me while I'm walking around or out in the yard or things like that.
The second thing is a lot of, and I straight up, I didn't want to have to clean up after another animal, to be honest. So I thought a bird's pretty easy. And I was right.
It's very easy to maintain a bird compared to a dog or a cat. If somebody's suffering a bad day, they're not obliged to go outside and take the dog for a run or for his business or whatever.
If they're suffering a bad day, they can simply make sure the windows open for fresh air, the birds in a sunny position and everybody's happy.
The poops are a lot smaller, easier to clean up, they don't smell. And beside all that, they've just got such amazing personalities and the feedback. I'd say one of the main threads of feedback for us is that people are amazed and never knew that birds have individual personalities, just like a dog or a cat. They're not generic, they're not dumb, they're super smart. And a lot of them have the brain equivalent of a three to four year old toddler. So you're kind of dealing with a bit of a challenge, too. They keep you on your toes, they never give you a dull minute, they're entertaining. And at the end of the day, when everything's said and done and you're sitting down and just, you know, that half hour before bed, whatever, and they come across, you know, they'll just sleep on your shoulder or sleep on your chest and it's just until you experience it. I think it is a difficult explain, but once people get birds, they turn into these crazy bird people and they just love them.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: Well, actually, speaking of that, Michael, you say you're helping one person and one bird at a time. How do you match a person to a bird?
[00:22:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's not so easy. And it's something I've perfected or not perfected, but I've got better at over the years, over the last three or four years, in that there's a lot of things come into play and foremost is the person's living arrangements. So if they're sharing a house or living in a duplex or a unit or a flat, of course we need to get a quieter bird that's not going to be so vocal. If they're a more senior person, we're not going to give them an eclectus that's going to live for 45 years or an Amazon for 60 years, that we may target more of the twelve year to twelve to 25 year lifespan parrots to those kind of people.
And there's a lot comes into play and we encourage people where we can.
The higher percentage, like, I think it's 87%, actually come into our place first. And we're lucky that we're a little bit. Well, we're a lot different to a pet shop. And people come in and what we do, they sit down and so many people come in and say, I want to get a cockatiel or a cogna or have you got an Amazon? Have you got a Quaker parrot? We say, yeah, absolutely, come in, have it. Let's check it out. And we've got on our data that only six, six out of ten leave with the bird they thought they would get.
Because we sit them at the table, a big table at the nest, and we let, like, five or six birds out and all different species, and it's the bird that connects with them and the bird they connect with so we watch them, we give them time. We leave them alone. They get to experience a bird, put it on their shoulder, have a chat to it, whatever.
And then we get into the nitty gritties of the living arrangements and make sure it's a suitable age bird, suitable for where they live. And we need to know also, a lot of people, especially in respite centers and things like that, just want a visual. They just want to watch the bird. So for those kind of birds, we do a whole package. We do the cage to see the perches, and we set it all up in a really big cage, but we give them a bird that, that loves to be in the cage, not one that's free flighted. So there's that factor as well. And then there's other animals in the house, if they've got a dog and a cat or, you know, kids or. No kids or as partner. No partner. So some birds, Tracy, bond with one person, and that's like an indian ring neck, will bond with one person. And so for a single soldier or a single person, they're perfect.
Absolutely gold. But you don't want to put them into a family environment because they'll bond with one person, probably bite the other, 4321, whatever. So there's so much comes into play, and for the first 50 or 100 birds, I it was touch and go, like, there were a few returns, few swappings, um, of birds. But then in, you know, as, as we progress, we took really good data and statistics and things like that. So we're confident now.
We've got a 98% confidence level that we match the right bird every time to the right person.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Michael, you said there about the birds helping returned soldiers. What about men and boys with disability? How is parrots for purpose helping those people?
[00:26:13] Speaker B: Yeah, for, for physical disability?
That's a really exciting thing for me because we're branching out and we have been for the last 18 months and working with people in the physical disability sectors, and we're talking of a whole range of physical disability, from amputation, amputees to paraplegics and, and so on and so on, stroke victims, rehabilitation, etcetera. So we have been working very closely with these organizations and with physical and brain injury. So what we do is we go and visit these premises and do talks and do walkthroughs and do workshops with the guys. And I'm very proud, and I truly am proud of this because we've adjusted what we do from when I first started. First start was make someone's world a little bit happier one bird at a time. And that still is strong and our whole method, but it was making people's future very happy, you know, and we've had a whole mind shift because I've said to my crew of amazing volunteers, we have like 30 amazing volunteers and I've said to them, you know, we're going to start to look at different things now. So instead of long term, let's just look at short term, medium term with physical disabilities and let's just see what we can do in that. If somebody's not capable and a lot of people, you know, they put their hand up and say, you know, I'd love one, but I just can't commit to it. I just, you know, bad days, whatever.
Why not just go out to them once a week, once a fortnight and, and go into a center and just, just have the birds, you know, just hand them around? And at the start people were saying, you know, yeah, this is good, I just want to see him once a fortnight, once a week, whatever. I can tell you now, we are homing so many parrots successfully to people living with physical disability because it's inspiring them and motivating people to care for something, you know, and we're in a beautiful position that we get some rescue birds. I rescue birds as well, parrots, and some of them seriously are missing a leg and some of them have physical disabilities and you know what? Them along. And I say, you know, you're not the only one. You know, as bad as it is, other living creatures suffer disability as well. And, you know, look, look at them get on and you should see their faces when they, when they see it and resonate with these, these birds, they just lift and you can almost see the color change in them. You know, it just goes to a real softer color and they start to get the smile happening and the teary eye and, and so now we've tried successfully to design packages where the cage is the right height for people to access. The door is not cumbersome to open. The birds that are specifically trained for people with physical disability to adjust to the way people stand, the way people sit, etcetera, is different. So they, they adjust to that as well. Um, and those in particular, we do once, once a week, once a fortnight visits to just, just not check, but we touch base with the recipient and just say, hey, can we call and have a coffee and just check on the birds? You know, we just want to see how you're going with it and touch wood. We haven't had one returned yet, so I'm pretty happy.
The.
Whether or not it's relevant, I don't know. But the most exciting thing at the moment, and this is also affects a lot of men, is dementia. And we've recently been accredited by Dementia Australia to go on their website and have them on our website as dementia friendly. And that just goes. The reason I mention this is goes in my mental shift, if you like, of real time happiness as well as long term happiness. So for dementia clients, we're creating momentary happiness for whatever retention they have. But when they go into care. We've already had some anecdotal evidence come back from the wife of a participant who received the parrot office two years ago, is now in full time care, but she swears when she takes that parrot into him, he remembers or touches something in his psyche that makes him a lot happier than when she got there. So, you know, we're trying to diversify a lot, but at the end of the day, you know, we just. We just want to help people as much as we can. And we're a nonprofit, you know, we're registered charity, but it doesn't matter what we are or who we are. It's just that basic principle, again, Tracy, of, you know, focus on what you can do and just let it happen.
So, yeah, we just love it.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Are you often surprised by the ability of birds to change someone's life?
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Almost daily, and mine included.
Unfortunately, if you do, I just should pre apologize. If you hear any birds in the background, it's only because they'll be starting to wake up now from their naps or whatever, start to screech. So excuse that if it happens, but look beside Archie, my first bird, now, I have 97 birds, and I've got macaws and black cockatoos, and I've got to tell you, you know, I am daily, even when I walk into the nest and I look at my humble little Quaker parrot, sonny, and he'll do something crazy, you know, he'll just do a somersault over the perch, or at the most amazing moments of my life, when I just don't know that I need something to lift me up or to spark me up, one of those birds will do something. And if they could make a noise or they could fly and land on my shoulder or they bite my ear, or they'll do crazy things or come out with a word for the first time, and when.
When it happens to me, I become complacent, I suppose. But then when I see people come in and we do workshops for a lot of children on the spectrum. And when I see the first week they come in, they come in for a four week course, if you like, workshop course.
The first week they come in, some of these children won't make eye contact. They won't, you know, you're not allowed to stand within a meter of them. And there's all these issues which we embrace and we respect.
We run through the first session and when we bring the birds out on the first session, they do artwork for an hour and then bird therapy for the next hour and interact with the birds by week four. And this is as true as soon as I'm talking to you, and I've got so many people who can verify this, they will run from the minibus up to our premises, just go straight up to the cage and grab their favorite bird and they will talk to the cows, come home and just seeing the transition, over four two hour sessions, workshops to see, especially these teenage children just come out of their shell and have another living creature. And they're never, ever, ever the same as the first day they got there in the last session. And the schools and the colleges have now booked us out for this year and next year because the parents and the teachers have given such positive feedback on the difference the bird makes. And I'm not surprised by it because I've experienced it and I've seen so many people experience it. We get a lot of widowers come in who are just lost to do anything and it seems to fit there as well.
And we just get a lot of sad stories, you know, a lot of guys especially, you know, they come in from some very checkered histories and a lot of it is inherent from parents or a past that maybe they want to forget. We're not judgmental.
We won't judge anybody or stop anybody. We will support anybody and everybody as long as they're respectful to us. And we take people at face value and from today forward, not necessarily on their past or what's happened, so we embrace the future with them. And again, it's just moments in time. So we try and address this moment and move forward to the next one.
[00:35:46] Speaker D: Disaster doesn't discriminate in an emergency. Our community and first responders need to be ready to help keep everyone safe. Keras Queensland is working with local agencies and emergency services to ensure people with disability are considered and included. Everyone has a role to play at times of disaster by people with disability, creating their own person centred emergency preparedness, or PSAP plan and share their plan with their support network. They can feel more confident to keep safe during emergencies. Find out more, get in touch. Look for events and opportunities coming up near you. Visit our website, carersqld.com dot au or call our enquiries line on 1309 9636.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: Michael, just finally today it's clear that you have a very strong entrepreneurial spirit and are often thinking of ways you can grow your project even further. What are your plans for the future?
[00:36:41] Speaker B: Yeah, look, we've already been exploring. Look, make no mistake, this is broad spread mental, physical disability and all the things that go with it is Australia wide, you know, make no mistake, we all know that and I want to get out and affect as many people as we can. So over the last six to twelve months I've been working on opening up in Newcastle, Goola in Adelaide, we're already in Ballina as well and I'm looking at opening in Tasmania.
That's something that will be amazing for people because if they come in here to our centre on the Gold coast and enjoy that, it will be replicated to the brick in other location so they can feel equally as comfortable. If they travel or have a need to travel and go into the local parrots for purpose, they'll get that belonging and that comfort again. The other thing is, like I said earlier, the big thing for me at the moment is I'm seeing horrific statistics come out from rural Australia on, you know, suicide on mental and physical disabilities in remote and rural Australia. So I'm working alongside another agency, another charity, where we're actually going to go out and service these areas for six weeks at a time and have, if you like, I don't know what they call it, a pop up. Like there's pop up shops or whatever will be a pop up physiology and mental health provider out there and I'm going to do the first one and we will deck people without a parrot with everything that goes with it, but we'll also provide the support for that six weeks and go to the government afterwards and say, hey look, you know, we had 50 people come in at comet do and they really benefit from us. Now you guys have got to support that and you've got to send someone around to these areas like NDIs, we have to get them on board and say hey, there's a need out here for someone to come out and help these people and service these people and do the paperwork, etcetera. So we will do it and this is all on our costs. Like this is a nonprofit charity again, we'll be seeking donations etcetera. But we're already way along the line on this, and it is going to happen, mark my words. And the first one will be in Belliner. And we want to make a difference there and say to people, you know, wherever you are, you're not alone. You know, link up. And again, we will do these weekly catch ups via the Internet, via the television, as well as email, as well as phone. All the communication modem mediums we have at the moment, we'll utilize. Because I can't tell you how passionate I am about two things, and one is a horrific statistic. And I've never been to war, okay? I don't have a relation who's a soldier, but I see these horrific statistics of suicide in soldiers that have returned and in country areas. And you know what? That, to me, is unacceptable. And that's something I can not fix. But I can help make someone's world a little bit happier with a bird. And if that contributes to a better life for them, so be it. And as long as I can walk, breathe and talk, that's what I'll be doing. So that's another venture for us as well.
So it just. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger, better and better and better. More expensive, of course. However, you know what? At the end of the day, it's all about just making those people happier in our own backyard, in our own community. And our backyard, unfortunately, or fortunately, is a big place because it's Australia and we've started on the Gold coast. We built our community here. And now, I believe we established that probably two years ago, very strong. So then it was time to go broader, and then now we've gone down to Belena, down to Newcastle, and we'll go broader again. So we're working. We're just extending our community out to encompass more of Australia.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Michael, running parrots for purpose must be quite an expensive process. How do you go about funding your project?
[00:41:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it really does add up. Tracey and I fund it all myself, and our volunteers assist by doing fundraising where they can, at bunnings or raffles or things like that. We rely very heavily on people's generosity and donations at the moment. We're like everybody, we're doing it pretty tough. And hell or high water, this will survive. If I have to sell my left kidney, I'll keep it going. But it's very tough at the moment because I've just about exhausted all funds. So the short answer is, it is expensive to run and we rely very heavily on fundraising and donations.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: If people want to donate. Michael, how do they go about that?
[00:41:59] Speaker B: There's a couple of ways they can do it. They can go onto our website and there's a donate now button under www.parrotsforpurpose.com. or they can just simply contact us
[email protected]. that's our email. And we also have our social medias on Facebook, parrots for purpose, both in Instagram and Facebook. And people could contact us there and send us a message and we can help them out and point them in the right direction. But I know there's some golden people out there because we wouldn't be operating without them.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Michael, have you received any community grants or government grants to help you?
[00:42:42] Speaker B: No, none at all. Sadly, we haven't received anything. We've applied for quite a few and I suppose because it's a new therapy, a new thing we're pioneering and exploring, they don't see a thousand maybe as beneficial, but we'll keep fighting the good fight and applying for them and one day we might crack it for a grant or something like that. But sadly, again, the answer is no.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Michael, thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:43:07] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you very much for having me, Tracy. I just want to conclude by saying I'm very grateful for the opportunity you give me today to do this, but I just want to mention two things I haven't mentioned in the interview. And one is, you know, carers Australia Queensland. If when I first started doing this, I was a wreck, I was an absolute emotional wreck and I walked into a Carers Australia Queensland office and within 15 minutes, you know, I stopped sweating and shaking and everything. And the assistance I've received since then and the support has been absolutely amazing. And make no mistake, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing without the support of carers Queensland and NDIs and the amazing people involved. More than anything else, a huge thank you to everyone who listens. And I just hope more than anything else, if one part of today just makes a little difference in your world, it's an hour well spent.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: And that was Michael Clancy, founder of Parrots for Purpose, based on the goal Gold coast. And if you'd like to contact Michael and the Nest, follow the links in the episode transcript.
Thanks for joining us at Choice and Control, a Carers Queensland podcast. If you've enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review and share it with your community. For more information about the National Disability Insurance Scheme or Carers Queensland, contact us online
[email protected] au or call us on 1300 triple 9636 or head to facebook and look for carers, Queensland, NDIs.
