There are a number of Allied Health Assistant (AHA) roles established at Bendigo Health in a variety of areas including inpatient, rehabilitation and community settings. AHAs are supervised by allied health professionals to work with individual patients or with patients in group programs.
The Bendigo Health Audiology department is a part time service employing 2 Audiologists. Audiology provides outpatient diagnostic hearing assessment services to both adults and children, and enjoys close links with the acute Ear, Nose and Throat clinic. Bendigo Health Audiology is the only public provider of hearing testing for children under school age in the Bendigo region. The service also now boasts state of the art tympanometry and acoustic steady state response diagnostic testing equipment.
The Dietetics and Nutrition department has over 30 staff and provides services to acute and sub-acute inpatients, residential services and across a range of community programs. Clinical dietetics focuses on the inpatients and manages nutrition based medical issues. The community and residential services have a stronger public health, health promotion and home based nutritional focus. The department also manages the Home Enteral Nutrition program.
Exercise Physiologists at Bendigo Health contribute to a range of clinical programs including Outpatient Rehabilitation, inpatient care, mental health and community programs. Grade 1 Exercise Physiology rotations exist with strong support from senior colleagues in a developing research culture with involvement in student placements.
The Occupational Therapy Department consists of over 90 occupational therapists and provides services to a large number of programs at Bendigo Health, the department aims to provide timely and accessible services to patients, clients and residents of Bendigo Health. There is a large Grade 1 rotation program with additional targeted support provided to new graduates.
More than 90 Physiotherapists at Bendigo Health work across the continuum of care. Physiotherapists are involved with innovative delivery of services including Physiotherapy led Orthopaedic Waiting List Services and Level 4 Pain clinic services aiming for continuous quality improvement in a person centred approach.
Podiatrists are employed at Bendigo Health across a range of programs with a particular focus on the management of people with diabetes in high risk foot clinic, inpatient and rural community settings.
The Psychology service is staffed by clinical psychologists, clinical neuropsychologists, clinical health psychologists, general psychologists and provisional psychologists. Psychologists at Bendigo Health provide a wide range of services aimed at aiding recovery and adjustment following illness, injury or trauma and allowing individuals to gain maximum benefit from the specific programs offered.
Social Work operates in a diverse range of services including inpatient settings, community and mental health areas. Using an empowerment model, the focus of service is to assist clients to gain confidence to take responsibility and control of health and wellbeing and assist in finding resolutions to problems causing concern. Social work services provide a value add approach within the medical model to address the emotional/psychosocial aspects of health.
Speech Pathology at Bendigo Health is a professionally and clinically diverse service, offering assessment and treatment for communication and swallowing disorders across the continuum of care. The team of more than 20 speech pathologists contribute their expertise to acute and subacute inpatient services, local and regional outpatient rehabilitation services, community health paediatrics and severe communication impairment.
