Primary Health: How does paediatric allied health fit in?

Change management is about people first and foremost. There is nothing else to talk about – it starts and finishes with people¹

In 2001 and 2002 CUCRH’s former Lecturer in Allied Health, Joan Loud worked with rural primary care providers describe their transition to a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to child development.  The result is a manual titled: Primary Health: How does paediatric allied health fit in?  We encourage its wide use by rural allied health professionals and students.

Here is what the principal author, Helen Carter an Acting Manager of Community Health in the Greater Southern Health Region of Western Australia has to say about the manual and the process it describes:

The transition of the Speech Pathology, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy services in the Albany area into an integrated multidisciplinary Child Development Team was a process focussed on the people of the team and the community.  We asked the question “how do we provide services ensuring the best possible use is made of the resources available to provide services which were accessible and reached those in most need”.

Providing services aligned with primary health principles was both our responsibility to the community and an organisational imperative as a result of the development of the Lower Great Southern Primary Health Service in 1997.

Therapists committed time to develop a multidisciplinary program based structure as a way to ensure that resources were maximised and services coordinated.

The manual describes this journey of transition. This was our journey and it is certainly acknowledged that “one size doesn’t fit all”. It is also acknowledged that within this change process we have not been immune to the many external and internal influences that can prolong the time and hamper the momentum for change.

One thing is for certain, this team now functions in a highly coordinated way with planning and decision making occurring first in multidisciplinary teams. As a result, new multidisciplinary programs have been developed and implemented, a more coordinated approach to client management has been implemented, team priorities are clear, both clinical client based services and population based programs are provided and clients of the services have provided positive feedback regarding the coordinated care approach.

Our intent in providing this work to other health services is to share our experiences in the belief that “together we achieve more” and in the hope that at least some of this is useful in your endeavours to develop quality services for your communities.

¹Onsman,H. (2003). The Uncertain Art of Management. Mc Graw Hill. Sydney.

Download the manual

Primary Care.pdf