MBA621: Allied Health Services for Australia's Aged Population

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of allied health services in Australia, specifically focusing on the benefits they offer to the aged population. The report begins with an introduction to allied health, emphasizing its importance in maintaining the health and well-being of older individuals. It then describes the services provided by organizations like Uniting AgeWell, including residential and home care, therapy programs, and social support. The report details the required skills and knowledge for allied health professionals, such as intervention, rehabilitation, and coordination. It also explores various types of allied health services like occupational therapy, music therapy, genetic counseling, and dietetics. The analysis further examines the effectiveness, efficiency (production and allocative), and equity of these services, highlighting clinical and population effectiveness, as well as strategies to ensure equitable access. The report concludes by discussing opportunities for improvement and the potential for expanding allied health services to meet the growing needs of Australia's aging population. The report is a case study analysis as per the assignment brief.

Allied health services in Australia
(for the benefits of aged
population)

Introduction
It is important to maintain to maintain health when people are
getting older and their ability to work is gradually declined. Thus,
preventive health services are essentially beneficial to them.
The term allied health is popular in Australia that describes the
broad range of health services that aims to provide the best
medical outcomes to the patients with the help of diagnosis,
treatment, and prevention procedures of diseases.
Allied health is a new concept that uses special skills and
knowledge for older people to help them to maintain their health
and wellbeing.

Description
• The Australian government provides benefits to older persons through allied
health services by involving various private health institutes.
• Uniting AgeWell organization provides best allied health services for those who
are 50 years old and above.
• There are various programs like residential and home care, independent retirement
living program, therapy program, short term care restoration program, social
support etc. offered by the organization for the aged people.
• Physiotherapy, massages, free hand exercises, stretching exercises, occupational
therapy are the examples of these type of home based allied health services.
• Aged persons can access these services by connecting with the agency through
simple and easy communication methods. (Taylor & Francis, 2019).

Required skills and knowledge
The specialist knowledge and skills that are essential for the allied health services of Uniting
AgeWell organization are:
• Intervention: the practice of intervention motivates people to live healthy lives. The process
also helps to reduce the possibilities of chronic diseases. For example, regular visits to the
nutritionist may help the aged people to identify what is good and what is bad for them.
• Rehabilitation: the rehabilitative care process helps people to gain their strengths after
serious injury or illness. For example, a person recovering from the severe heart attack needs
rehabilitative care process (Allied Health Professions Australia, 2019).
• Health strategies: the allied services provides various health related strategies to the old age
people to stay fit and live independently. For example, various work out processes,
massages, yoga training etc are also the forms of allied care process to assist people to live
freely.

Continuation…
•Coordination: it is one type of allied care services which provides health related information and assist
the aged people by choosing the best care programs for them.
Uniting AgeWell is a famous allied health organization that aims to promote wellness in the journey of life
for the old individuals. It also focus on choice and independence of anyone’s life and aims to ‘doing with’
rather than 'doing for’ the old individuals. The agency support and promote necessary clinical care for the
individuals of above 50 years old. (AnglicareSA, 2019).
According to the statistics, 15% of the Australian population are 65 years and over in 2019 and socialist
are assuming that the increasing rate of old age people is because of adult mortality rate declination as
well as a decrease rate in fertility . The reason behind this statistical data is the better service provision
by various allied health agencies and Uniting AgeeWell is one of them.

Types of allied health services
The broad range of services that are provided by the allied health professionals of Uniting AgeWell are
as follows:
• Occupational therapy: occupational therapist helps older people by reducing hazards, minimizing risks
so that they can easily participate in everyday occupations. The therapist plays a crucial role by
modifying environments and methods to support the older people’s participation in daily life occupation
(Pdfs.semanticscholar.org, 2019).
Key areas of activities are: play activities, household management activities, educational activities,
social activities, paid and unpaid work activities, etc.
Reasons:
when people are trying to adjust to life after a major accident, injury, stroke, etc.,
when people are suffering from disabilities for long term illness,
when people are trying to adjust their life after retirement from work.

Continuation
• Music therapy: music is used by professionals to improve the physical and mental health
of older people. It is a research based profession where the therapist incorporate various
musical methods to meet the needs of older people.
Areas of care are: autism, oncology, illness due to age, rehabilitation, neonatal care, etc.
Reasons:
 when people are suffering from communication impairments due to neurological
disorders,
 when people are suffering from various cognitive impairments due to dementia,
 disability in intelligence, etc.

Continuation…
• Genetic counseling: it is a new age allied service where counselors provide information about the
genetic condition of the patients to their family members and they work as a team.
They ensure the inherent traits of the person and assume the risk factors if any associated with the
patients.
The process involves various genetic testing procedures through which the counselor interpret the
genetic condition of the individual.
Key areas are: reproductive counseling, cancer counseling, pediatric genetic counseling, etc.
Reasons:
When people are planning for a family,
When a couple wants to know the genetic condition of their upcoming babies,
When people want to know about the chances of cancer disease

Continuation…
• Dietetics: dietitians are the professionals who have vast knowledge in food and nutrition and they guide
patients by mentioning the appropriate diets and food habits based on their age and weight and height.
Areas of care that a dietitian provides are: nutrition therapy based on the medical conditions, food service
management, nutrition for overall public health.
Reasons:
Patients are diagnosed with chronic diseases,
When chronic diseases are not in a state to manage
Diseases due to poor food habits
Need to review the nutritional conditions periodically
Some other equally popular allied care services are:
Physiotherapy, optometry, prosthetics, psychology, speech therapy, social work, perfusion, osteopathy, etc.

Effectiveness
•Clinical effectiveness:
There are several home care policies and packages for the individuals who are above 60 years old. Old age persons with chronic
diseases also can avail the allied health home care facilities.
People can participate in various commonwealth health programs to be connected socially. This may help older individuals
relieving from their loneliness.
Core medical treatment is not enough for those who are suffering from chronic diseases or survive from severe physical injuries.
This may help older individuals relieving from their loneliness.
They need to go through various allied health treatments along with the core medical procedure to get back into the normal life.
Allied health services are the accumulation of various services and activities that have already been mentioned in the previous
slides.

Effectiveness
• Population effectiveness:
 Availability of various allied health services actually improving the healthcare
system in general.
 Most of the healthcare centers in Australia offer allied health services for the
patients to meet the health needs of the population.
 Some of the allied services are based on home care system facilities and some can
be obtained from the private practice sectors.
 Allied health is also engaged with the advocacy activities and policy making
procedures to optimize the allied health facilities for everyone. There are various
kinds of beneficiary policies for the old age people in Australia so that they can
easily and effectively avail different allied health services (Augusta.edu, 2019).

Efficiency
• Production efficiency:
Aging population in Australia is partly help the allied service system by increasing the
use of care services. The rate of hospitalization is much observed in the older population
than the younger population.
According to the available statistical data, 30.7% of the population of the age 65 and
above are a regular customer of the allied service producing companies.
It is an indication of the increasing productivity of the services to meet the requirements
of the customers.
The production efficiency of the allied health services are increasing in a constant manner
within the country by combining with each other to offer services at low costs (Riley,
2019).