From the end of 2023, Amaze Children’s Therapy Services will be employing Allied Health Assistants (AHA’s).

 

AHA sessions are a great option for:

• Reducing the cost of therapy sessions (while still being overseen by your current therapist)

• Increasing the frequency of therapy sessions by supplementing with an AHA session that follows the same therapy goals

• Accessing therapy earlier through an assessment and plan by a therapist, and then AHA therapy sessions instead of waiting for regular therapist availability

• Helping NDIS funding to stretch further

• Assisting with the running of groups

 

What is an AHA?

Allied health assistants support the delivery of allied health services, under the direct supervision of an allied health professional. An AHA can not assess, diagnose, discharge from therapy, or plan therapy independently. They can however, deliver therapist designed therapy plans with regular support.

We will meet with our AHA’s at least weekly to review and update therapy plans. The AHA does not need to be physically supervised when delivering therapy sessions.

 

We have chosen to primarily use local speech pathology students as allied health assistants to deliver speech pathology therapy plans, with support from our current speech pathology team. Speech pathology students can provide speech pathology related programs or therapeutic interventions under the guidance and supervision of a speech pathologist. This is very similar to families attending a facility like the UQ Student Speech Pathology clinic, where student speech pathologists deliver the therapy overseen by qualified therapists, only there will be a much higher level of support provided here since the AHA’s are not responsible for planning the therapy or goals. These AHA’s already have the academic background and supervised clinical experience within a paediatric speech pathology setting. Gaining experience at Amaze also helps us to contribute to the growing profession, and helps them to gain additional clinical experience in a supported space.

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Funding information: Sessions delivered by AHA’s can be claimed using NDIS funding (as a Level 2 support service), and are more affordable than traditional speech pathology sessions. Their sessions unfortunately cannot be claimed through private health or Medicare, and the lower price point does reflect this.