Summary

Remote and rural communities across northern Australia have fewer health professionals, particularly in allied health services. This lack of access to services and preventive care often results in higher costs due to avoidable hospital admissions and preventable medical treatments.

Currently, State, Territory and Federal governments, along with agencies such as NDIS require economic modelling and business cases before funding ongoing disability and rehabilitation services. These analyses must be tailored to the remote and rural context and include input from the local communities.

This project implemented and evaluated a flexible new service model in collaboration with communities in Nhulunbuy (NT) and Weipa (QLD).

The new model of care is a student-assisted approach, where funding is provided for an allied health professional who, in addition to delivering direct services, also supervises and mentors allied health students to support service delivery. This model is funded through a shared FTE model (Service and Learning Consortia) where several agencies contribute funding for a varying fraction of services delivered across two locations.

Expected outcomes

• The implementation and evaluation of a new model of student-assisted disability and rehabilitation care.
• Assessment of economic costs and consequences of two existing and one new model of disability and rehabilitation care.
• Assessment of community engagement and responsiveness to the new service delivery model.
• Preparation of a business case for government for sustainable funding of appropriate allied health service delivery in remote communities across northern Australia.