Independent Ageing: The Essential Role of Allied Health Workers.
Transition care arrangements for older Australians from hospital to home is a challenge right across the country and it is certainly an important issue here on the North Coast. The transition environment is complex with Commonwealth, State and NGO service entities involved, a mixture of health care and aged care services required, and the need for effective access to private health providers, including allied health professionals. To add to this complexity, the current service mix in transition care is poorly integrated with little overall capacity for effective coordination. Our speakers will cover some of these issues, discuss the need for and current access to allied health services in transition care, and consider some directions or solutions for elderly residents here on the North Coast. They will argue that difficulties encountered in transition care are reflective of concerns about access to allied health in the broader primary health care setting and the need for improved capacity of the health system to optimise functional living capacity for older people in their own homes and also in RACFs.
Speaker Profiles:
About Susan Nancarrow:
Adjunct Professor Susan Nancarrow is a much-travelled academic and health researcher living on the North Coast with her young family. She trained as a podiatrist, but has now been researching across disciplines for over 15 years at local, national and international levels. She is a director on the North Coast LHD Board, a recent director with the NCAHA, and formerly Deputy Vice Chancellor and Professor of Health Sciences & Director of Research in the School of Health and Human Sciences at Southern Cross University.
Susan has a particular interest in health workforce research and reform, service delivery and organisation. Her research is underpinned by the principles of capacity building and user-focused engagement to ensure that the findings are relevant and meaningful to the end users and contribute to organisational capacity and skill development. Her vision is for the provision of the best quality, and best access to allied health services for any people in Australia.
“I strive to prepare the workforce to be resilient and future proofed and that systems are aligned so that they work efficiently to provide the best services possible.”
About Craig Gilmore:
Craig is a physiotherapist and director of his own multi-disciplinary health business, Cirrus Health, on the North Coast. He has worked in rural towns in sole positions and on work sites as the only allied health professional. On any given day his caseload could include paediatrics, spinal cord injuries, work place health and safety and elderly care. He has also worked in major cities, across Australia and overseas, where clinical assistance for practitioners was readily available. He well understands the asymmetry in access to services and support for clinicians that exists between metro and rural/regional areas and the need for advocacy to address inequities.
Given his extensive experience as an employer in rural Australia, Craig is keenly aware of the difficulties in recruiting and retaining allied health staff, as well as the benefits to those staff of addressing health needs across whole communities rather than just the narrow band they would be exposed to working in urban practice. He is also passionate about the need for better integration of health care in his community.
“Health care should be truly interdisciplinary. As Allied Health Professionals we should work alongside our colleagues, learn from them and teach them. Allied health care shouldn’t be an “add-on” to medical care but integral to the whole system.”
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This is an ONLINE event and the Zoom link will be sent to you upon registration.
NCAHA Monthly Hub – Tue 29 June 6.00pm – 7.00pm
