Allied health provision ‘grossly insufficient’

The number of allied health workers in residential care fell sharply between 2020 and 2023, a new report reveals.

Released this week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the 2023 Aged Care Provider Workforce Survey shows that, last year, 6,400 allied health professionals and assistants were working in aged care homes – down from 11,200 in 2020, a decrease of 42 per cent.

Dr Chris Atmore – policy and advocacy senior advisor at the Allied Health Professions Australia – told Australian Ageing Agenda she was unsurprised by the finding. “It accords with the decrease in average allied health care … to most recently just over four minutes per day,” she said.

Furthermore, AHPA’s 2023 study of allied health professionals working in residential aged care found that almost one in five of respondents had lost their role, and 48 per cent had their hours decreased.

“Others were leaving the sector or considering leaving due to concerns about declining service quality,” Dr Atmore said. “This exodus exacerbates the problem, leaving fewer professionals to provide essential services.”

Dr Atmore told AAA a major reason for the fall in numbers is the lack of any mandatory targets for allied health services, unlike care minutes for nursing.

Another significant contributing factor is the failure of successive governments to implement the royal commission recommendations concerning allied health, which called for allied health to be treated as an intrinsic part of aged care and be provided to every resident according to their needs. 

However, as Dr Atmore points out, this requires a multidisciplinary team approach where allied health professionals engage as needed alongside nurses, personal care workers and GPs, which is yet to be embedded in residential aged care.

“At present there is no consistent process across facilities for identifying and meeting residents’ allied health needs, and no associated monitoring of whether this is being done,” she said.

Dr Atmore described allied health provision in aged care as “grossly insufficient”. As an example, Dr Atmore pointed to the total national headcount of 64 psychologists working in the sector. “This means that residents are not getting care that would prolong their functioning and quality of life and reduce the losses and costs of having to be hospitalised,” she said.

To address the decline in services, Dr Atmore said there needs to be a concerted effort “to implement the royal commission’s relevant recommendations; embed a multidisciplinary model of care; develop a comprehensive allied health needs identification and care planning framework; and make meeting those needs mandatory for providers, supported by ringfenced funding.”

Referencing the AIHW statistics, Dr Atmore told AAA: “Allied health has for too long been the poor relation in data collection – including in the workforce survey – where, for example, fulltime equivalent allied health positions were not able to be calculated and compared across time because hours worked by allied health staff were not collected in the 2023 survey. Some gaps in data may also reflect the small numbers of allied health professionals, perpetuating a vicious circle. We urgently need an allied health aged care workforce strategy and associated dataset that is capable of meeting retention and recruitment challenges.”

She added: “Only through these measures can we ensure that aged care residents receive the support they need – and are entitled to – to live full and dignified lives.”

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