If you’re living with a disability, an injury, illness or some other ailment, you don’t have to go it alone. Australia has many allied health professionals that can offer you assistance and care so you can reach your personal and healthcare goals.
How can allied health professionals help you achieve your desired outcomes? Read on to learn more.
What is Allied Health All About?
There are some 200,000 or more allied health professionals currently active in Australia. In fact, they represent more than a third of the healthcare workers in the country and perform vital roles in conjunction with other healthcare professionals.
Allied health workers are not doctors, specialists or nurses but they do play a pivotal role in healthcare and the term ‘allied health’ actually encompasses a broad and wide variety of professions. These professionals work in conjunction with doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers to bring about the very best outcomes for their clients. It’s all about creating a team effort so an individual gains access to all the help and assistance they require for their personal situation.
Allied health professionals assist in the diagnosing and care of individuals, no matter what condition they are living with.
Who Typically Works In Allied Health?
Numerous professions come under the umbrella of allied health and there are too many to list here. However, here is just a small snapshot of some of the jobs allied health professionals perform:
- Social workers
- Physiotherapists
- Counsellors
- Psychologists
- Occupational therapists
- Dental hygienists and assistants
- Healthcare administrators
- Pharmacy technicians
- Community health workers
- Speech pathologists
- Dietitians and nutritionists
- Respiratory therapists
- MRI technologists
- Disability support workers
- Podiatrists
- Optometrists
- And many more…
How Can Allied Health Professionals Help Individuals Achieve Their Goals?
One of the key aspects and objectives of allied health is that of teamwork, hence the term ‘allied’. You, the client, don’t have to deal with everything alone and neither do allied healthcare workers. It’s a combined team effort where you receive all the personalised and individual care you require to either live a more comfortable and independent lifestyle, or to more rapidly recover from an injury or debilitating illness.
For example, seeing a doctor or a specialist might only be able to achieve one part of your overall objective. Let’s say you’re involved in an accident where you end up breaking a few bones. While your doctor will be able to attend to your injuries in the first instance, you may also need assistance and help with the recovery process. This could involve in-home care, visits to a physiotherapist and other professional services that will ultimately lead to a full recovery. This is a simple and general example of how the team effort in allied health comes together for the good of the client. Your doctor can only do so much and each individual allied health professional can only do so much. Many people require the assistance of a number of different professional services to reach the desired outcome or end goal. It requires a team effort.
This is just one example of how allied health professionals all work together to achieve the goals of one individual.
Allied Health Workers Help Patients, Carers and Families
Allied health doesn’t only pertain to an individual who is ill or has an injury. These professionals can also offer help and assistance to personal carers and families of the clients. For example, someone in the home might be living with a disability. A disability support worker and other allied health professionals can also offer professional and personal assistance to family members in the home or professional carers of the individual.
This is another prime example of the teamwork culture involved in allied health and how it benefits everyone.
Allied health professionals are highly-trained individuals who not only know their roles on a professional level, but are also very good at dealing with people and being empathetic to the circumstances.
The Wrap
The role of allied healthcare workers cannot be understated. Without the ongoing help and assistance that allied health provides, many individuals would be left to deal with their circumstances alone. Allied health brings professionals together to work as a team to produce the very best outcome for anyone who requires healthcare and assistance.
