[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”11px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Across Gippsland, the Mallee, and the Wimmera, a pattern is repeating itself: therapy waitlists stretch longer, service footprints shrink, and families in need are told to hang on just a little longer. Whether it’s a toddler in Sale awaiting speech therapy or an older farmer outside Horsham recovering from a stroke, the story is familiar and quietly devastating\u2014they\u2019re waiting, and no one is available<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t because demand has dropped. It\u2019s not about disinterest. It\u2019s about design. Our systems\u2014and specifically, how we fund and support allied health\u2014are making it harder, not easier, to get help where it’s needed most.<\/p>\n Allied health professionals in Victoria\u2014physiotherapists, speech pathologists, dietitians, occupational therapists\u2014typically undertake a four-year degree, often followed by a master’s. Every one of those degrees requires long stints of unpaid placement<\/strong>, usually totalling around 1,000 hours.<\/p>\n For Victorian students, that often means heading to a regional site\u2014think Mildura, Hamilton, or Orbost\u2014for a clinical block of 5 to 10 weeks. These placements aren\u2019t just unpaid. They often come with a second rent, extra fuel, lost casual income, and zero financial support. Unlike nursing and teaching students\u2014who now receive Victorian Government placement subsidies<\/strong>\u2014allied health students are left to absorb the costs.<\/p>\n The result? Students from lower-income or rural backgrounds are systematically disadvantaged, and regional placements feel like a personal sacrifice rather than a meaningful career pathway.<\/p>\n Imagine you’re a new graduate OT or physio, and you\u2019re weighing up whether to stay in Melbourne or take a job in Swan Hill. The regional position looks rewarding. There\u2019s variety, autonomy, a sense of purpose. But here\u2019s what else you\u2019re calculating:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s put some figures to it.<\/p>\n Same profession. Same skills. A $120,000 gap, year after year. And that\u2019s not counting the higher business costs and lower access to supervision that often come with regional practice.<\/p>\n This suggestion gets thrown around often. And sometimes it works\u2014Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton. But many Victorians live in places where that model doesn\u2019t cut it. Think of NDIS clients in Nhill, Foster, or Beechworth.<\/p>\n In-home visits are often essential<\/strong>, especially for people:<\/p>\n The current system actively disincentivises these services\u2014not because the clinicians don\u2019t want to provide them, but because they can\u2019t afford to.<\/p>\n This is not a recruitment problem. It\u2019s an architecture problem. Allied health professionals want<\/em> to work regionally. The Victorian Government has invested heavily in this through the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria (RWAV)<\/strong>, the Victorian Training Pathways (VTP) program<\/strong>, and Growing Allied Health Rural Victoria (GAHRV)<\/strong>. But these initiatives only go so far when the NDIS itself undermines viability through pricing structures that don\u2019t reflect the realities of working outside the city.<\/p>\n Even RWAV\u2019s 2024 census flagged this clearly: allied health shortages in rural and regional Victoria are worsening\u2014particularly in the Mallee, Western District, and East Gippsland. Services are closing. Waitlists are blowing out. And the workforce pipeline is getting narrower.<\/p>\n The solutions aren\u2019t revolutionary. They\u2019re practical, achievable, and overdue:<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t about tipping the scales. It\u2019s about recognising that they\u2019ve long been tilted against those serving outside the city.<\/p>\n We all do. When allied health workers disappear from the Wimmera, from South Gippsland, from the Upper Murray, families fall further behind. Kids miss early intervention windows. Older adults live less independently. Schools struggle to support students with learning differences. And practitioners burn out trying to do too much with too little support.<\/p>\n If we don\u2019t act, the question isn\u2019t why regional Victoria is struggling to attract allied health professionals. It\u2019s why any of them stayed as long as they did.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why are rural Australians waiting months for therapy while city clinics are at capacity? It\u2019s not about demand\u2014it\u2019s about economics. From unpaid student placements to travel reimbursement cuts, allied health professionals are being priced out of regional practice. And unless we fix the funding model, rural communities will keep falling through the cracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,36],"tags":[86,89,92,87,88,90,62,68,91,93],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agedcare","category-policy-regulations-updates","tag-allied-health","tag-health-workforce","tag-healthcare-access","tag-ndis","tag-occupational-therapy","tag-physiotherapy","tag-regional-australia","tag-rural-health","tag-speech-pathology","tag-student-placements"],"yoast_head":"\nThe invisible cost of training<\/h2>\n
Then you graduate\u2014and the numbers still don\u2019t stack up<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\u201cWhy not just open a clinic?\u201d<\/h2>\n
\n
Structural issues, not staffing problems<\/h2>\n
What we can do\u2014right now<\/h2>\n
\n
Who loses when we ignore this?<\/h2>\n