International Allied Health Professionals Day was recognised in the ACT on Monday (14 October), with the community given the chance to show their appreciation to all the allied health professionals in the ACT.
The city’s Chief Allied Health Officer, Helen Matthews said that allied health staff played a key role in the health and wellbeing of all Canberrans in a range of different health professions.
“The Allied Health workforce is incredibly diverse, representing more than 35 different professions that provide a range of diagnostic, technical and therapeutic services,” Ms Matthews said.
“We have over 1,400 allied health staff working across the public health system in the ACT, alongside nurses and doctors to provide a holistic approach to health care,” she said.
“They work right across the health sector, in our hospitals, out in the community as well as in research, education and public health.”
Ms Matthews said allied health professionals played a key role in helping people to recover from illness or injury and also helped in preventing health conditions from worsening.
She said the University of Canberra Hospital (UCH), Canberra’s first purpose-built rehabilitation hospital, celebrated its first year of operations earlier this year.
Director of Allied Health at UCH, Todd Kaye said the multi-disciplinary Allied Health teams providing both inpatient and outpatient services were integral to the success of the rehabilitation services provided at the hospital.
