PEOPLE IN HEALTH CARE
Anita Hobson-Powell, Chief Allied Health Officer
Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Government
Filmed Sunshine Coast, Queensland | September 2024
Anita Hobson-Powell holds the position of Chief Allied Health Officer for the Australian Government within the Department of Health and Aged Care. With a background as an exercise physiologist and extensive experience leading allied health professional associations*, she has been entrusted with three main priorities. First, she aims to raise awareness about the significance of allied health professionals and their role in the healthcare system. This involves ensuring that decision makers and individuals engaging with health services understand the contributions of allied health professionals.
Second, Anita is focused on increasing engagement within the sector and fostering collaborative relationships with government entities and regulatory bodies. By enhancing recognition and value of allied health professions, she aims to strengthen their involvement in decision-making processes and policy development.
Finally, her strategy includes promoting the inclusion of allied health services in government policies, programs, and reforms. This entails advocating for the consideration of allied health from the inception of new programs or policies, ensuring their active involvement, and emphasising the value they bring to both professionals and consumers of healthcare services.
Anita spoke to Australian Health Journal on her role overseeing the development of Australia’s first national allied health workforce strategy. This initiative involves collaboration with state and territory governments and the sector to address recruitment, retention, and ensuring the availability of a skilled workforce to deliver healthcare services across various domains.
She speaks to the vital role of the allied health workforce in preventive healthcare strategies and improving the health and wellbeing of Australians.
Recognising the delivery across Australia Anita recognises the importance of addressing healthcare needs in rural and remote areas, highlighting the essential contributions of the allied health workforce in meeting these unique challenges.
*Editors note – Anita’s past roles
- Former Chair of National Alliance of Self Regulating Health Professions
- Former CEO of Exercise & Sports Science Australia
- Former Board Member Allied Health Professions Australia
-
30 years on, Viertel Foundation legacy continues
One of Australia’s largest charitable foundations, the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation, is celebrating three decades of transforming Australian healthcare – with more than $90 million invested in medical research and a legacy of breakthroughs that are saving lives. Viertel Fellowships support some of Australia’s best and brightest researchers and clinicians, with 70 Fellowships awarded to date.
-
Emerging researcher appointed to James Packer Chair in Mood Disorders at UNSW
The UNSW Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health is widely renowned as the pre-eminent psychiatry research department in the country and one of the leading university psychiatry research groups internationally. In 2023 it celebrated 60 Years of Psychiatry & Mental Health at UNSW Sydney.
Australian Health Journal spoke with Professor Kimberlie Dean, Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW Sydney, about the recent appointment of mental health disorders expert and clinician researcher Dr Aswin Ratheesh to lead the James Packer Chair in Mood Disorders at UNSW Sydney. -
Retaining a clinical perspective in macro level changes
Dr Shona Sundaraj BAppSc (Phty), MBBS, FRACGP, MBA is Group Medical Director at Medibank, bringing over two decades of clinical and systems experience to strategy, research and stakeholder engagement. She leads the Medibank Better Health Research Hub and Chairs the Health Research Governance Committee, guiding stakeholder engagement, competitive grant rounds and partnerships with universities, translational research centres and peak bodies to support evidence based improvement in care.
