New tool helping Victorians with disability find allied health support

Funded as part of the $26m ‘NDIS Keeping our sector strong: Victoria’s workforce plan for the NDIS’, the My Allied Health Space website will assist implementation of the newAllied health capability framework: disability and complex support needs announced late last year.

This free website is set up to provide information, tools and training resources to ensure that people with significant disabilities can confidently choose the allied health services needed to improve their skills and independence over time. It also offers a range of resources for allied health professionals working in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). 

A project led by Monash University Associate Professor Libby Callaway, the site provides guidance for people with disability and complex support needs, friends, family or carers on how to choose allied health professionals that meet their individual needs, questions to ask and things to think about when they start working with an allied health professional. 

Checklists are also provided for planning and assessing the quality of different types of allied health support as needs change over time.

There are around 4.3 million Australians who have a disability. It’s expected that within the next five years the NDIS will provide an estimated 500,000 Australians who have significant and permanent disability with funding for support and services. For many people, it will be the first time they receive the disability support they need.

NDIS participant Chris LeCerf is part of the team working on the project. Mr LeCerf was living as a younger person in a nursing home prior to securing a smart-technology enabled unit located on the border of the Monash University Peninsula Campus. 

Through the NDIS, he now has greater access to funding for allied health support linked to his goals for community living. This has required him to think about the type of allied health services he needs, and assess the quality of these supports over time. 

“The resources on My Allied Health Space have a focus on putting people and their families at the centre of decision making,” he says.

It places them as experts, working alongside professionals to give them more control over their life and the services they receive. Using the tools available on My Allied Health Space, people can truly take part in decision making and form partnerships with their service providers.”

Associate Professor Callaway says achieving best outcomes, choice and control for people with disability was the overarching goal of the project. 

“The tools and training resources provided on the My Allied Health Space website are aimed at assisting both those people using allied health services, and the allied health professionals who provide them.”

Allied health professionals will be able to access a range of online implementation tools and training resources, such as a self-assessment tool with links to resources and professional development guidelines. 

The site also features an organisational checklist for service managers and allied health educators with links to resources and e-learning packages, and reference documents that outline behaviours for each capability in the new Allied Health Capability Framework. 

Victoria’s Chief Allied Health Officer, Donna Markham, notes: “Through the guidance offered by the Allied health capability framework, allied health professionals will be able to better provide high-quality, person-centred support that promotes choice and control for people with disability.” 

Visit the My Allied Health Space here.