I have been involved in healthβsports coaching, strength and conditioning, soft tissue therapyβfor half of my adult life. After ten years in soft tissue therapy private practice I wanted a work change to give me more time with my young family. I was made aware of allied health assistants AHAs as an expanding workforce, and completed my cert IV in I started working in residential aged care two days a week, specialising in physiotherapy, and loved the physical component of the work.
After around nine months I moved into public healthcare. I love this work and have remained part of the Canberra Health Services for eight years and counting, working across all of our subacute rehab services: aged care, brain injury, general rehab, slow stream and amputee management.
Second would be being nominated for an Allied Health Assistant of the Year award in , proving my work in my governance duties as Allied Health Assistant Profession Lead was being recognised and appreciated. I was a member of AHANA as a national network and was always hopeful there would an opportunity for AHAs to receive more recognition on a national level.
Since then I have enjoyed the challenge of taking my experience from a state level role to assist with implementation at a national level. I see such potential in the AHA workforce nationwide to be better utilised within all aspects of the health sector, especially aged care. There are current projects at state level trying to demonstrate the effectiveness of even just a single multidisciplinary AHA within an aged care facility, and how this can significantly improve functional outcomes within this demographic of the population.
We already have a significant number of AHA graduates annually, now we just need positions created in order to employ this workforce. Why Self-Regulate? Back to list. What would be a defining event or highlight of your career? I have three that come to mind. What were some of the biggest challenges and opportunities? The challenge of understanding national governance: Which organisations and government sectors should we be talking to?
