We caught up with Jane, our Clinical Director recently, for a get to know you chat. Join us as Jane shares her background, her vision for clinical growth at Allied Therapy Services plus her love for ocean swimming and pineapple on pizza!

Welcome Jane! 

Can you start off by telling us a bit about yourself?  

Oh yes, professionally, personally or both? 

Oh look, go nuts, whichever you like, maybe a bit of both? 

Bit of both! 

Professionally, my clinical background I’m a physiotherapist, and I’ve worked predominately in neurological and trauma community rehabilitation which really, I liked, and I still love that work, I think it’s a really valuable role.  

During my time I’ve done lots of different things; in particular I’ve worked in education with undergraduate students, a role I’ve really enjoyed, and I continue to teach at Deakin and occasionally at ACU (Australian Catholic University) in Ballarat.  

I’ve done a bit of research, all different types; qualitative, quantitative, part of big trials, small and quality improvement activities, it’s something I really enjoy. 

I’ve completed my Graduate Certificate in Trauma and Burns Rehabilitation with a big focus on quality improvement activities and outcome measures.  

It’s been a very varied career so far and I know I’ve got a bit to go, but I was looking more for some leadership opportunities and combining that with my personal life, so some flexibility, and found that other companies could not offer what Allied Therapy Services could. And I really value the clinicians that Allied Therapy Services have and the values organisationally so I decided to put my hat in the ring for the Clinical Director role, it sounded like it would fit my skills, and that’s were I’ve been since January this year (2023). 

That’s me professionally! 

Personally, I live down on the Surf Coast and have done so for the last 10 or 15 years now since moving from Melbourne with my partner, he loves to surf and that was the attraction and I love the beach, so it seemed like a good place to go. And I have got two young kids at home, they keep me very busy, we just started 4-year-old kinder this year which is an exciting time.  

I like to ocean swim, that’s my jam, that’s my thing. I’ve done my 7th Pier to Pub this year and a couple more years I’ll be ‘shark bait’ material. 

What’s ‘shark bait’ material? 

It means when you get to 10 years you get a special medal and you’re part of the shark bait club. 

Is that a Finding Nemo reference? 

I’m not sure, I’d hate to think that the reference is actually about, there is a great white shark that hangs around the Lorne Pier? So I could be in reference to that. 

Yeah let’s not think about that too much! 

Yeah, well it’s a really cool hobby, I’ve met some wonderful people! And living down here has a really good mix of enjoying a really prosperous career but also having a great personal life, so that whole work-life balance thing. 

Can you tell us a bit about your role at Allied Therapy Services? 

Sure! So I am the Clinical Director here which is an all-encompassing title. My responsibility is oversight of service delivery, including quality improvement activities, innovative or new service exploration.  

It’s a role that works really closely with the clinical lead team, who advise on processes and are a team who help mentor the clinicians. They are a wonderful resource for the clinicians so it’s my job to make sure that runs as smoothly as possible, and they’ve got the support they need to do that.  

The role also has an aspect of research, so I’ve got some really great connections with Deakin, ACU and a few others forming. And also, looking at organisation wide values and making sure that our services are meeting and exceeding current practice in terms of evidence-based healthcare. 

Cool! 

I know, it’s a really exciting role, it has a really nice mix of strategic leadership as well as operational leadership. 

I have learnt so far in my career that I really like working with people, it’s something I really enjoy, but I also enjoy the quality aspect of my work and keeping up with the latest evidence. This role is a really nice mix of people skills and working with people and delving into the more intellectual, evidence-based practice as well. 

And I think it’s a really good chance to bring my passion around that delivery of clinical care. It’s cool to have the background as a clinician to apply to the decisions that we make together as a team. 

Why did you join Allied Therapy Services? 

Allied Therapy Services have a really great reputation, in terms of prioritising high-quality care, and we also have a great bunch of clinicians working for us. 

That’s really important. 

The timing for me personally, it was probably time in my career to start looking for a bit of a change. I was looking for a bit more growth, responsibility and leadership opportunities but I wasn’t able to find roles that matched with the nature of work that I was looking for, which was more part-time, with flexibility to assist with my other duties outside of home.  

So, the timing was right for me when this position came up.  

It was something I did have to think about and weigh up the choices and the change.

It’s nerve-wracking moving from something you’ve known for a long time, but it was time for a refresh and time to go to the next level of my career. 

And Allied Therapy Serivces not only has a great reputation but a great scaffolding to jump into a role and be elevated with a team supporting. 

What do you think makes a good leader? 

I honestly think the basis and key component of a leader is to trust the people that you are leading.  

And I think there are lots of ways you can go about that, around building up the people with you and taking them on a journey and identifying their strengths and areas they may need to improve and using their strengths and allowing them to grow within a team.  

A really great leader understands their team and trusts what they do.

So, if you’ve got a team who’s really thriving and you trust them and you can do that little bit extra for them, it’s a nice positive relationship. 

I think also, you really need to believe in what you do, and with Allied Therapy Services, that was a really important point, if I was going to come to a company, I had to really believe in what they were doing and I know that Allied Therapy Services really values and believes in the work that we do and I think that’s really evident through everyone who works here and who practices as a clinician. 

So, I think that’s important as a leader that you trust your group, you believe in what you’re doing and then there are some other basic things like being organised and accountable and being really approachable. 

I see no hierarchy in this role in a sense, I’ve got responsibilities and my team has responsibilities and things work and if we can’t we let each other know and help each other out.  

That's the good side of being a leader, I think. 

Can we loop back to what you said about believing in what you do, there’s an authenticity here at Allied Therapy Services, something you can’t quite bottle, what do you think that is? 

Maybe it’s the type of person who is drawn to this sort of job and when I say job, I mean a clinician working with a patient.  

You have to be a really humble person and you get exposed to things that really ground you.

It's really a heart moment as a clinician when you’re there and a person achieves something or does something, even if it’s just a small step in the right direction.  

There’s a massive energy that shifts between you when that happens, it sounds very spiritual, but I think if you’ve experienced that it helps you do your best. You know that’s what’s happening on the ground so in the background, that helps you drive to make sure that’s easier to achieve and easier to access.  

It’s a really cool thing to witness. 

What opportunities are there for Allied Therapy Services clinically? 

I believe Allied Therapy Services is positioned to be leaders in collaborative practice in the community. 

What is collaborative practice? 

Collaborative practice is the more modern term for interdisciplinary practice, which means clinicians are working together towards the same goal, so for example a speechie and a physio work together to achieve a goal with a client.  

There are lots of components of that, but one is understanding what each other’s roles are and all learning together. And I think we already have that culture so I think that Allied Therapy Services can be leaders in that community. 

The challenge is that it can be easy have collaborative practice when you are all together in a traditional setting like a ward or an office, but the challenge has always been how do we do that in the community and the real world, where you have GPs involved, and carers or a school.  

And I think we are positioned to be drivers of collaborative practice in the community, and we could be contributing and leading changes in that space. 

There's also a great opportunity for us to be regional champions in the delivery of allied health. We know that access to allied health for regional and rural Australians is really challenging.  

And I think again we have experienced clinicians who have an enormous amount of knowledge and can think of innovative ways of delivering allied health therapies to provide increased access to clients who do have those regional or rural challenges.  

We have some wonderful technology and really great streamlined administrative services that can allow clinicians to work at the top of their scope of practice and I think we can be really great champions for rural and regional health in particular allied health. You know they’re just some small immediate things after 6 weeks here! 

What excites you about Allied Therapy Services? 

I’m really excited by my immediate team, so the Clinical Lead team, who I just happen to have surround me, they have an enormous amount of experience and passion. They are a really exciting group of allied health clinicians who I can see will be able to bring a lot of ideas and drive towards some of these goals for Allied Therapy Services. 

I’m also really excited that we have the resources and the expectation that we do improve, and we do things differently, but we also do it with a purpose, with a reason.

We don’t just do stuff because we want to do stuff, it’s because we want a great outcome for our clients, that excites me. 

And another thing that excites me is the culture of prioritising you as a person and the other responsibilities you carry outside of work. That really excites me, and that’s something that I didn’t realise until I started, that has set me free.

Allowing that flexibility at work and what that can do to reinvigorate your passions and desires, if you know that you are supported in both scopes of your life, personal and professional. 

They are not separate, there's going to be an overlap from time to time.  

That's liberating, people have said you look lighter, and I do, I feel free, I feel I have a chance to live my life a little bit and not be rigid by 10 minutes, or 15 minutes. 

Ok now, let’s do some word association! 

What? Ok professional Jane, professional. 

Community. 

Spirit? Am I that person? 

Physiotherapy. 

Rewarding. 

Leader. 

Trustworthy. 

Weekend. 

Swim. 

Work. 

Enjoyable. 

Dog or cat? 

Dog 

Pineapple? 

YES, give me a pizza with pineapple all over it! 

“Laughs” Thanks for your time, Jane!