Student Telehealth Program

We are seeking volunteer members of the Australian community to interact with our allied health professional students on the Student Telehealth Program. As a participant on the program, students will discuss concerns that you may have about your health and well-being over phone or video.  Interactions may include several sessions over a number of weeks, and may take up to two hours in total.  The aim of the interactions is to help you to identify and enact solutions for improvement in an area of health and wellbeing that is of concern to you.

About the project

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a dramatic transformation of how healthcare is delivered, with many changes likely to be permanent. One of these key areas of change has been in the delivery of health services using telehealth modalities, particularly via telephone and video conference. Delivery of health services through telehealth modalities is now considered "the norm" where previously it only represented a small fraction of healthcare interactions undertaken. This creates an immediate challenge for universities seeking to educate students in a way that best prepares them to be a part of the future healthcare workforce.

The School of Primary and Allied Health Care has developed a Student Telehealth Program that will provide opportunities for a range of health professional students to learn how to conduct telehealth interactions. Students are provided background training in telehealth delivery to work with volunteer participants from the community to identify areas of health and well-being that the participant may need assistance with.  Using a shared decision-making approach, students and volunteer participants establish strategies and goals to improve health and wellbeing over several telehealth interactions.