The Use of Allied Health Assistants to Better Meet Disability Workforce Needs in the Northern Territory

The allied health workforce in the disability sector is struggling to meet the volume of population needs. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has caused an increased demand for allied health therapy, resulting in workforce shortages. This is a national trend that is amplified in regional and remote areas such as the Northern Territory. Extensive waitlists and allied health burnout are commonly reported difficulties. One of the proposed solutions to mitigate these issues has been to utilise allied health assistants. The purpose of this research is to identify the extent to which allied health assistants can be utilised to support the allied health professional workforce to meet disability population needs in Northern Territory. This research will follow three research stages: to critically review and map the available research about therapeutic outcomes for the disability population when receiving a delegation model of therapy with allied health assistants in a scoping review; compare what is identified from the available literature, with what is happening in NDIS allied health assistant therapy service models by measuring and categorising the clinical tasks, interviewing allied health professionals about clinical reasoning for delegation, and; interview consumers to determine what they need from therapy services to achieve their therapy goals, and to explore if allied health assistants can meet this need. Information identified from this research will be used to develop best practice guidelines for utilising allied health assistants in the Northern Territory disability workforce.