Advocacy and Policy
AHPA provides national policy and advocacy leadership to optimise the role of allied health professionals in the Australian healthcare system.
Digital health is an umbrella term referring to a range of technologies that can be used to enhance the efficiency of health care delivery and make medicine more personalised and precise.
It refers to health and wellbeing in a digital world. It is not separate but part of creating a connected health system and experience between health professionals to health consumers.
AHPA facilitates digital health work to:
support associations, organisations and practitioners to increase their digital connectivity, maturity and literacy
connect the health system by enabling safe, secure and timely sharing of information between health professionals, consumers and their support networks.
You can find here current and past AHPA work, including resources to support you to increase digital health knowledge, connection and practical use.
Allied health professionals play an important role and are integral in primary care settings.
In Australia, primary care initiatives typically focus on general practice and medical models. However, allied health professionals are an important part of the primary health care team and have essential roles in the prevention, early intervention and management of chronic disease.
AHPA strongly supports primary care reform and improved funding to better integrate allied health services in primary care settings and increase consumer access to best-practice care. AHPA currently holds positions on the Australian Government’s Primary Health Reform Steering Group and the Expert Steering Committee for Preventive Health Strategy.
Allied health professionals support older people to maintain and improve their health and independence.
Many elderly Australians, both in the community and in residential aged care, rely on allied health practitioners for specialised support for a range of physical and mental health conditions. Allied health services help support older people to maintain or improve their health and/or level of independence.
Lack of funded access to allied health services is a major factor in reducing health outcomes for older people and increasing overall costs to the health system.
AHPA has been active on several fronts on the issue of aged care funding reform, including making a number of submissions and presenting to the Royal Commission on Aged Care Quality and Safety in a bid to improve access to allied health aged care services.
Accessible and affordable allied health is an important source of support for many Australian’s with disability.
Allied health providers are an important source of support for many Australians with disability. However, many people still have difficulty accessing allied health disability services and significant work is needed to address workforce issues that impact access to service.
Secure the Future: 4 a Better NDIS Campaign
AHPA is joining peak bodies and organisations across Australia, including Disability Intermediaries and National Disability Services to call on the National Disability Insurance Agency and government to take urgent action to secure the future of services for people with disability and create a better NDIS.
Together, we’ve created the website 4abetterNDIS.com.au, where people concerned about the future of disability services can take action, have their say and send a letter to the federal government and their local MP asking for a commitment to addressing the current crisis in funding for disability services.
More information about the impact of this issue on allied health can be found here.
Accurate allied health workforce data is critical to good policy development and workforce planning.
The lack of allied health data in Australia is a significant concern. There is currently no consistent allied health data collection, severely limiting the effectiveness of workforce planning and investment by governments and other stakeholders to meet the service needs of Australians.
To start addressing this problem, AHPA has begun collecting workforce data from its members to build an understanding of the size and location of the allied health workforce. You can the results of our initial survey here.
AHPA strongly supports work to improve allied health data collection, including comprehensive workforce data, and data on usage and outcomes of services. A more complete picture of the allied health workforce and its contribution to care systems will help support policy development and planning.
Better data will help with the development of a national allied health workforce strategy with a coordinated, multi-sector approach. This should include the development of a career pipeline for allied health practitioners in rural and remote settings, where training health professionals locally is an important factor in keeping them there.
Meeting the needs of Australia’s growing population, particularly with increased care requirements for chronic and complex health conditions, will require significant recruitment and retention strategies. The allied health sector in particular needs flexible clinical education models to develop its workforce to meet these growing needs.