Allied Health Assistants
Under the supervision of an Allied Health Professional, Allied Health Assistants assist in the delivery of allied health services including Speech Therapy. Allied Health Assistants do not and must not replace the requirement of a qualified Allied Health Professional but work alongside them to implement a specific and prescribed number of goals and strategies.
Why we work with Allied Health Assistants
Allied Health Assistants are an excellent way to provide you with accessible, affordable and more frequent therapy support. We want to provide you with the greatest therapy support as soon as possible but unfortunately this can not always be done via sessions directly with an Allied Health Professional, therefore our Allied Health Professionals work alongside our Allied Health Assistants to provide therapy support earlier and at a lower cost so you can be accessing allied health services sooner than later and more frequently.
Who Allied Health Assistants are
Depending on their qualifications, Allied Health Assistants can be Students studying Speech Pathology as well as individuals that have completed their Certificate III and IV training in Allied Health Assistance. Students that are Allied Health Assistants must have the suitable theoretical and practical credentials to understand and conduct sessions prescribed by the Allied Health Professional.
What Allied Health Assistants do
Allied Health Assistants assist in providing a ‘specific’ therapy program based on the assessment, review and ongoing supervision of an Allied Health Professional. This program includes goals and ways to achieve the goals, whilst tracking the progress of the individual they are supporting so the Allied Health Professional can keep revising and improving the prescribed therapy program.
Allied Health Assistants assist in maintaining and increasing the intensity and frequency of practising therapy goals in a cost effective way as the cost of accessing a qualified and supervised Allied Health Assistant is less than an Allied Health Professional. Therefore, you and/ or your child can receive more dedicated therapy support and practice in efforts to achieve your/ their goals.
Benefits of working with an Allied Health Assistant
Accessing Allied Health Services
We acknowledge the ongoing difficulty of accessing allied health services for individuals that require support as well as the cost of accessing services for an ongoing basis. Working with a supervised Allied Health Assistant can help increase your chances of accessing the therapy support you need sooner than later and at an affordable cost.
Practising therapy goals
Practice and consistency is a big key to achieving therapy goals. Having the support of an Allied Health Assistant can assist with practising therapy goals to help increase the achievement of therapy goals and the time taken to achieve.
Supervision
All sessions are planned and prescribed by an Allied Health Professional so you can be sure that you/ your child are receiving quality therapy support in efforts to achieve your/ their goals. An Allied Health Assistant simply helps the Allied Health Professional by supporting their client to further practice and work towards their goals and helps the client achieve their goals with their therapy assistance.
NDIS funding support
We support individuals accessing funding to ensure effective and accessible services are provided in alignment with the funding program. Under the NDIS, Allied Health Assistant sessions are highly encouraged and accessed under the same funding group as allied health services. In this case, individuals that have funding support for allied health services can access both Allied Health Professional sessions and Allied Health Assistant sessions.
How to start working with our Allied Health Assistants
Contact us and intake process
Get in touch with us with the below contact form. If the contact form doesn’t work for you, please call or email us. Once your referral is approved, we will guide you to complete the intake process to help start and plan your sessions.
Assessment and Therapy Plan with an Allied Health Professional
Our Allied Health Professionals will conduct a Therapy Assessment and create a Therapy Plan to prescribe to the Allied Health Assistant to implement under their supervision.
Therapy sessions with Allied Health Assistants
Our Allied Health Assistants will then provide the therapy sessions following the prescribed Therapy Plan from the Allied Health Professional.
Reviewing and updating the Therapy Plan with the Allied Health Professional
From the Allied Health Professionals’ supervision and review of the Therapy Plan and goals, they will update the Therapy Plans accordingly for the Allied Health Assistants to implement under their supervision.
Frequently asked questions
How are Allied Health Assistants supervised and accountable to the Allied Health Professional?
Allied Health Assistants must only provide the therapy support that has been prescribed to them to follow from the Allied Health Professional. Allied Health Assistants are supervised by Allied Health Professionals by attending regular meetings with them to monitor, discuss and review the progress of each client they assist under their supervision.
Allied Health Assistants are trained to understand the goals and requirements of the clients they assist, as well as how to deliver the goals and track their progress. Allied Health Assistants are also provided with specific documents and notes to assist in the provision of a prescriptive therapy program for each client.
Allied Health Assistants will have opportunities to contact their supervising Allied Health Professional to assist in ongoing problem solving. After each session, Allied Health Professionals will monitor the completed progress notes and tracking information to monitor the progress as well as the current and future requirements of a client.
Are Allied Health Professionals in the session as well?
What is done during the session is under the prescription and supervision of the Allied Health Professional, so Allied Health Professionals most likely will not physically be in all the sessions. Allied Health Professionals will be in sessions to review or assess a specific skill that needs teaching or supervision.
How are Allied Health Assistants chosen for a client?
All clients that are considered suitable to be working with an Allied Health Assistant, must be screened and assessed by an Allied Health Professional. At Voice Within Therapy Centre, all our referrals, including for suitable Allied Health Assistant cases are screened by Allied Health Professionals to ensure suitability and effectiveness, both in the assessment phase, as well as during the intervention process at intervals through ongoing reviews and supervision with the Allied Health Assistant.
What are Allied Health Assistants not allowed to do?
Allied Health Assistants are not allowed to conduct any assessments, change the client’s goals or do any independent therapy planning, these tasks can only be done by an Allied Health Professional.
How can I understand my or my child's suitability for Allied Health Assistant sessions?
We welcome any discussion or queries regarding your or your child’s suitability for Allied Health Assistant sessions. Our Clinic Administrator and Speech Pathologists can assist you through the discussion to identify suitability.
The most important aspect of suitability is if we can have a set of goals that can be tracked and prescribed by the Allied Health Professional and that can be clearly implemented and tracked by an Allied Health Assistant through engaging tasks. Should we be able to achieve or plan to achieve this goal, we would have a good chance at providing effective therapy and positive change by working with an Allied Health Assistant.
Can I see an Allied Health Professional as well as an Allied Health Assistant?
Yes you can, depending on the availability of both the Allied Health Professional and Allied Health Assistant.
What am I billed if an Allied Health Professional is running the session?
You will be advised if an Allied Health Professional is running the session by themselves or with an Allied Health Assistant and you will be billed the Allied Health Professional rate instead of the Allied Health Assistant rate. You will also be advised if therapy assessments and reviews need to be run by Allied Health Professionals as appropriate for development or to update therapy goals and these sessions will also be billed at the Allied Health Professional rate. Our current rates can be found in our client information pack.
Why do I pay for travel for out of clinic sessions?
Travel can be an essential tool that helps provide better convenience and logistics to provide therapy services at locations to assist client accessibility. Our travel fees take into account the time and distance needed to be travelled by our team members for them to attend the sessions. Our travel fees have been carefully considered in line with the set NDIS pricing guidelines and travel expenses.
Am I able to claim Allied Health Assistant sessions via Medicare or Private Health Insurance?
Allied Health Assistant sessions are not claimable via Medicare or Private Health Insurance at this present time as Allied Health Assistants are not recognised as a Medicare Health Provider. Allied Health Assistant services can however be claimed via the NDIS.
Do I have to stay onsite for my child’s therapy session?
Yes. All parents, caregivers or guardians are required to stay onsite either at the clinic or at home to ensure the best safety and effective therapy. At the clinic, all parents, guardians or carers are encouraged to sit in the therapy session, but as an alternative you can wait in our waiting spaces. Please refer to our staying onsite policy for further information.
Please get in touch
We would love for you to get in touch to determine the best next steps for you. Please kindly fill out and submit this contact form.
General Contact (allied health assistant services page)
Join our team
If you’re interested and qualified to be an Allied Health Assistant, we’d love to hear from you! Please fill out a quick application form here.