Allied Health Professionals Day
Today marks Allied Health Professionals Day, a time to recognise the dedication and commitment of our allied health workforce.
We have more than 1,160 allied health professionals working across our sites and services.
Our allied health professionals play a special role in supporting our patients. They are often the team who surround our patients throughout the long days of rehabilitation and recovery.
They help ensure our patients eat right, move safely, communicate well and remain supported in the community. They also play an important role in undertaking research to support patient outcomes and inform evidence-based practices.
Tonight marks the annual Department of Health's Excellence in Allied Health Awards night, and we wish our four finalists the best of luck.
Our finalists include:
Allied Health Researcher of the Year - Kristie Harper, Occupational Therapist, SCGOPHCG
Kristie is a passionate mentor and leader who builds research capacity across allied health by supporting clinicians, supervising students, and promoting research at national forums. Kristie’s research focuses on improving care for older adults, particularly in emergency departments. Her PhD established a new evidence base for allied health-led falls management, which has been implemented locally through the Allied Health Care Coordination Falls Pathway and cited in international guidelines. She leads and supports 26 active research projects, including studies on AI powered rehabilitation, augmented reality in home assessments, and early intervention for cancer-related lymphoedema - with direct application in WA health services. Her work with international teams such as GEAR (Geriatric Emergency Care Applied Research) and OPERATE (Older Persons Early Recognition Access and Treatment in Emergencies) ensures WA is at the forefront of innovation in geriatric care.
Early Career Allied Health Professional of the Year - Natalie Pepping, Clinical Neuropsychologist, SCGOPHCG
Natalie played a pivotal role in shaping the Behaviour Evaluation and Review Team (BERT) at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. This multidisciplinary service aims to reduce workplace violence and aggression, improve safety for staff working with patients presenting with behaviours of concern, improve patient experience and outcomes, and increase staff knowledge and understanding of drivers of patient behaviour. Drawing on her neuropsychological training, Natalie contributed to the development of BERT’s model of care, ensuring the service was person-centred, trauma informed, evidence-based, and suited to the complex inpatient setting. Despite being an early career allied health professional, Natalie’s initiative, clinical insight, and ability to lead across disciplines has been exceptional. She has demonstrated how early career allied health professionals can drive systemic change that improves patient care, protects staff and fosters a safer healthcare environment. Working with complex inpatient presentations, including acquired brain injury, dementia, trauma, and significant psychiatric comorbidity, she applies a high level of neuropsychological expertise to support some of the hospital’s most challenging and vulnerable patients.
Allied Health Educator of the Year - Stephanie Teoh, Pharmacist, KEMH
Stephanie champions a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement in medication education. For example, Stephanie worked collaboratively with the library to ensure up-to-date clinical decision support tools are accessible to the workforce, she also worked with the Business Information and Performance to develop a medication incident dashboard to enable the analysis of medication errors to encourage reflective learning following an incident. She led hospital-wide surveys and explored ways to support and engage the clinicians ensuring training is not only informative but also respectful of clinical time pressures. Through a secondment to Sir Charles Gairdner and Osborne Park Care Group this year, she shared her expertise by developing self-directed learning packages including Medication Prescribing and Medication Administration which are now published across three hospitals at SCGH, OPH and KEMH. These modules have improved staff efficiency, ensured consistent education standards across disciplines, saving nursing and medical practitioner time and enhancing medication safety and understanding of pharmaceutical services and legislation.
Allied Health Team of the Year: Multidisciplinary Foot Ulcer Clinic Team, Podiatry and Medical Specialities, SCGOPHCG
The Multidisciplinary Foot Ulcer (MDFU) Clinic Team is a multidisciplinary team coordinated by the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Podiatry department. It is dedicated to meeting the needs of patients with complex and limb threatening diabetes-related foot complications. The MDFU team is a highly integrated and dedicated team of experts, with a focus on limb preservation, reducing preventable amputation and hospital admission, maintaining mobility and independence, and improving health outcomes for vulnerable patients with high-risk foot complications. The outpatient MDFU clinic provides a consultant-led weekly clinic, which provides expert integrated care in one clinic, including all specialties required to manage complex high risk foot disorders. This allows patient centred care by having the patient managed simultaneously by all necessary team members, reducing fragmentation of care, and improving efficiency of management planning and health care delivery.
Thank you to each and every one of our allied health staff and best of luck to our finalists.