NCAHA Member Events

• Want to hear about some innovative Allied Health research on the North Coast?
• Thinking about a research project yourself?
• Curious about some of the benefits and the pitfalls of undertaking research?

Come and join in the conversation with our panel of researchers. This presentation will focus on the research endeavors of 3 local allied health professionals, their research findings as well as the benefits they have attained from the process and the difficulties they encountered.

Researchers profiles:

About Helen McGregor:

Helen has been working as a Podiatrist in private and public practice for over 35 years in Australia and the UK. She is a full-time clinician and has written and delivered multi-disciplinary clinical skills training programs. Helen has been a past board member of her professional association, Services for Rural and Remote Allied Health and Wounds Australia.

Having been a health professional for so long Helen has attended hundreds of hours of CPD. Through her research she would like to know what motivates Allied Health Professionals to undertake CPD, and what influence the design and delivery of CPD has on the likelihood of translation into practice.

The working title of her PhD research is: Alignment of Educational Intent and Learner Experience in Post Qualification Allied Health Continuing Professional Development.

About Sarah Miles:

Sarah is an occupational therapist with over 15 years’ experience working across Australia and the United Kingdom. She has resided on the North Coast for the last 10 years where she has worked across both public, private and not-for-profit sector. Sarah has worked at the University Centre for Rural Health in Lismore for the last 4 years and is a Clinical Educator (Occupational Therapy) and the Team Leader – Clinical Education (Multidisciplinary Health). Sarah is also a Director on the North Coast Allied Health Association and has mentored and run early career allied health professionals’ groups in the local region for the last few years. Sarah is passionate about helping students and early career graduates’ transition to the workforce and developing supports and mechanisms to assist in navigating the transition.

Sarah has just transferred to a PhD and her topic is: To explore how work readiness is understood and designed for in final practice education placements within the occupational therapy profession.

About Shelley Barlow:

Shelley’s research journey started during her undergraduate course in the 1980’s. Shelley chose research as an elective in her final year of physiotherapy. In those days research was all quantitative, statistics and hypotheses. Shelley was then presented with the opportunity to apply for the Rural Research Capacity Building program in 2010-2021 and completed the course, at which time she did a qualitative study. Between the two opportunities Shelley worked as a clinician and completed a Graduate Diploma of Gestalt Therapy and Masters in 2015. The basis of Gestalt Therapy is the use of phenomenology.

Shelley’s PhD topic is “the lived experiences of physiotherapists in their clinical encounters with people with chronic pain: a Phenomenological inquiry”. She hopes to submit by June this year.

Her wish is that, for anyone embarking on research, they get the support they need to match their passion and perseverance.

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Join us on Tue 23 February as we kick off our program for 2021 with Dr Jennifer Hewitt presenting on The Voice of Allied Health.

This presentation will focus on the role of allied health in leading change. Dr Jennifer Hewitt will talk about the journey of her Sunbeam Trial – from a clinician identifying a need for change, to a researcher lobbying for health policy reform. The highs and lows, key messages and where to from here. The aim of the session is to promote thought and discussion about what we as Allied Health Professionals can do to advocate for the people we serve.

About Dr Jennifer Hewitt

Dr Jennifer Hewitt is a practicing physiotherapist, educator and academic researcher with a passion for delivering best practice clinically and leading research that informs health care policy. She was recently awarded the ACSA Australian National Lifetime Achievement Award for services to aged and community care, a National Commendation Award from the Aged Care Quality Agency, and the 2019 Morley Award for the paper most likely to influence policy and practice from the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. She was invited to give evidence as an expert witness for the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in July 2020 and her work has been used successfully to advocate for Australian Aged Care Funding Reform. 

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In 2020 the provision of equitable and accessible allied health professional services in rural and remote Australia remains problematic.

Hear first hand from our three speakers as they present some ideas on how the situation might be improved.

Together our  speakers represent a wealth of experience and insight into rural Australian healthcare, and particularly with regard to allied health services and interventions.  They will lead a panel discussion on issues and challenges for rural allied health workforce, with a particular focus on the context of the NSW North Coast.

Professor Susan Nancarrow is a podiatrist by profession, but she has also become a noted healthcare researcher and consultant with an interest in optimising service organisation and health workforce flexibility.  She has lived for many years on the North Coast NSW and she is a current and founding Director of our North Coast Allied Health Association.  She is current director of the North Coast Local Health District and, in her spare time, has recently authored a book ‘The Allied Health Professions: A Sociological Perspective’ to be published in March 2021.

Cath Maloney is a physiotherapist with over 25 years’ experience in healthcare in rural NSW, both in the public and private sectors, and also as a Director on the Murrumbidgee PHN Board.  Cath completed a Master of Science in Medicine (Pain Management), is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and the advanced leadership program with Women and Leadership Australia (2019).  She now lives in Canberra where she is the CEO for Services for Australian Rural & Remote Allied Health (SARRAH), working hard to promote the benefits of allied health services in rural Australia and striving to improve access to these services for rural and remote communities.  Cath will present an update on the development of the Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathways (AHRGP) Program.

Professor Ross Bailie is a medical practitioner and health researcher, currently residing on the North Coast NSW where he is Director of the University Centre for Rural Health (UCRH) at Lismore.  He has extensive background in rural and remote health care, including in Indigenous health, maternal and child health and public health, and has worked in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Today Ross is speaking about the concept of an Allied Health Service and Learning Consortia here on the North Coast, and will also discuss relevant recommendations for allied health from the recent review of the national Rural Health Multi-disciplinary Teams (RHMT) Program.

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Jo and Anna Moran run a private physiotherapy practice in Wodonga, Victoria. Eighteen months ago, they were working 50 hour weeks and barely making a living. They took a number of steps which have put them firmly in control of their business, increased patient numbers and profitability. They were also well positioned to survive the COVID lockdown. Jo will talk through the changes they made to their practice, with lessons for other regional private allied health practitioners.