Company Profile
Therapy Connect
Company Overview
Therapy Connect provides flexible, person-centred allied health supports via telepractice for people who experience disability or delay in development that affects their participation at home, in the community, in childcare, education or the workplace. Our services include speech and occupational therapy, psychology, dietetics and physiotherapy, all delivered online. The individuals we work with present with challenges in the areas of learning, behaviour, communication, social interaction, mobility and motor skills, performing daily tasks and nutrition.
Therapy Connect works with people across Australia and Asia who live in rural, regional and remote areas or experience difficulty accessing sufficient therapy support to meet their needs. This may be due to geographic location, large local waiting lists or a lack of local service providers. Therapy Connect links allied health clinicians to families and their support networks via telecommunications technology, such as web-based videoconferencing, an innovative approach that has proven successful in providing timely access to highly experienced allied health practitioners for people isolated from services.
Company History
Therapy Connect was founded in 2015 by two rural allied health practitioners, Sue Cameron, a speech pathologist from Western Victoria and Simone Dudley, an occupational therapist from South West NSW, who are passionate about rural practice and improving access to therapy supports for the rural, regional and remote people they so strongly identify with.
Sue and Simone recognised the potential for high quality telepractice for people living in rural and remote areas meaning more choice and control over accessing quality allied health services. Many people who previously could only access therapy supports monthly, are now able to access experienced practitioners for weekly sessions. Therapy Connect clients report their relief and excitement at feeling connected and engaged with regular therapy sessions.
As an early adopter of telepractice, Therapy Connect acknowledged the need to contribute to the body of evidence to support telepractice as an effective and acceptable service delivery method.
Therapy Connect partnered with the University of Sydney in a research project titled “Delivering quality allied health services to children with complex disabilities”. The research was published in the Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities .
Through our work we have found that it is the regular and consistent access to experienced therapists that clients value the most. Clients like being able to set the time, location and frequency of sessions. We found that it wasn’t all about the technology or technology skills of the practitioner rather how the technology was used to support the achievement of goals and that a blended approach of both skill building and coaching is essential to linking therapeutic strategies into daily routines.