Allied Health

Credentialed Diabetes Educator

Our Credentialed Diabetes Educator has undertaken a rigorous credentialling program and has specialist knowledge in the field of diabetes education.

What is Diabetes Education? Diabetes Education is about assisting people with diabetes (or at risk of diabetes), their families and carers.

Shab Melli is our Community Pharmacist and Credentialed Diabetes Educator (CDE) with a special interest in diabetes technology (Continuous Glucose Monitoring and Insulin Pumps). Shab helps her patients with diabetes (or at risk of diabetes), to gain the knowledge, skills, motivation and confidence to self-manage their condition, overcome challenges, and to lead their healthiest life possible. She also support carers and guardians of people living with diabetes.

Shab understand that diabetes is different for everyone and adapts their care accordingly. She use the latest evidence-based information and to give advice which is tailored to the individual circumstances of a person, including their lifestyle, culture and other personalised needs. Shab Melli works in conjunction with your General Practitioner and other specialists (ie Endocrinologist) involved in your diabetes care to help ensure individualised optimisation of your care.

People should see our CDE if they are:

  • type 1 or type 2 diabetes
  • diagnosed with prediabetes or told they have high blood glucose
  • children with type 1 or type 2 diabetes
  • women with gestational diabetes, during and after their pregnancy
  • women with type 1 diabetes who are planning a pregnancy, are or have recently been pregnant
  • any person living with an intellectual disability and type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and their carers or guardians

Shab Melli is able to:

  • educate you on your diabetes, including complications with diabetes and its connection to other health conditions (eg. eye care and looking after your feet)
  • offer you advice and support around lifestyle changes that help with diabetes management
  • provide education on the self-monitoring of blood glucose levels including technique and interpretation of results
  • give you guidance on medication management safety which includes the use of insulin therapy
  • support your goals and the implementation of strategies to achieve your health goals

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy helps people recover from physical or mental illness, so they can participate in the activities they want and need to do. At Specialist Medical and Therapy solutions our client centered allied health professionals help people of all ages, from children to adults to the elderly, to participate in all aspects of everyday life. From working, taking care of yourself at home, to hobbies and interests. We call these activities ‘occupations’. These activities occupy our time and bring quality and purpose to life.

Our occupational therapist can visit you at your home or work and provide an ongoing assessment of what you do and the things that are important to you including any issues you may be having. The aim being to allow you to participate in the occupations you need and want to do as independently and as safely as possible. These environments will be assessed by our occupational therapist who has a wide knowledge in disability and illness. He or she can also provide advice on home modifications and therapy equipment, or even adjusting the activity itself. Your safety will always be a priority.

Our occupational therapists have experience in neuro-rehabilitation and are able to work with people experiencing limitations as a result of an acquired brain injury (Head Injury, Stroke etc.) or a neurological disorder (Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease etc.). The rehabilitation aims to maximise participation in any chosen daily activities such as shopping, dressing, or succeeding in work/studies.

We also provide Occupational Therapy Interventions that are goal directed working towards client and family centered outcomes.

Peter Petrou our Occupational Therapists is completely passionate about the ‘occupation’ in occupational therapy, empowering clients to engage in the activities that matter to them. He will give advice on specialised equipment, its safe use and purchase information in regard to suppliers of appropriate equipment. As an experienced therapist he will be able to identify any safety issues; falls hazard spots around the home, and provide falls education information.

Pete has worked in a variety of acute and rehabilitation settings and has gained a wide base of clinical experience in stroke, acquired brain injury, chronic neurological conditions, orthopaedics, amputees, mental health, aged care and palliative care.

Pete provides assessment and therapy to adults and children with the following areas of difficulty:

Adults
    • Activities of daily living, including management of personal hygiene, dressing, and grooming. meal planning and preparation, cleaning and home maintenance. Therapy may be conducted in the home.
    • Upper limb deficits as a result of stroke, brain injury, progressive neurological disease or traumatic orthopaedic injury. Therapy will focus on retraining in relation to functional activities.
    • Upper limb spasticity
    • Cognitive dysfunction as a result of stroke, brain injury, progressive neurological disease or aged related illness. Assessments and therapy in relation to daily functional activities, comprehensive reports as requested for third parties i.e. guardianship tribunal. Assessment and therapy may be conducted in the home.
    • Fatigue/ Pain as a result of neurological dysfunction, oncology, cardiac or respiratory conditions.
    • Falls including risk screening, education on prevention, home assessments and equipment prescription.
… and for Children
    • Handwriting
    • School readiness
    • Play skills
    • Social engagement
    • Self care

Podiatry Services

Foot problems can have a huge impact on the quality of our life. A podiatrist is a foot and ankle specialist who can help prevent, diagnose and treat a wide range of problems with the foot, ankle and lower limbs. These foot problems can arise from underlying medical conditions caused by diabetes and arthritis, sports injuries to the foot and ankle, skin and nail problems, other problems with gait or walking, or growing up problems where a child’s growth and development is assessed and monitored.

Our podiatrist will be able to monitor and manage the issues allowing the patient to maintain an active and mobile life.

Moustafa Raad our Allied Health Podiatrist is a registered NDIS service provider and has a keen interest in all aspects of Podiatry including Sports Podiatry/Biomechanics, the diabetic foot, treating flat feet and knee pain, children suffering from in-toeing and out-toeing, and geriatrics. His main drive to pursue Podiatry is his passion for sport, working with people and treating lower limb injuries to help improve quality of life.

Podiatry services available to children and adults (including DVA card holders) provided by Moustafa include:

Adults
    • Diabetic foot assessments; neurological and vascular assessments. Education and advice about the effects of diabetes on lower limbs.
    • Geriatric foot care; treatment of nails, regular foot and lower limbs check-ups.
    • Treatment of corns, callouses, warts, ingrown toe nails, fungal nails.
    • Custom made and prefabricated orthotics for; flat feet, lower back pain, hip pain, knee pain, leg pain, foot pain, bunions, leg length differences.
    • Workers compensation.
    • Sports injuries; soft tissue, tendonitis, fractures, sprains and strains.
    • Injection therapy; prolotherapy (proliferation therapy used for joint and ligament issues).
    • Soft tissue therapy/dry needling/foot mobilisation for muscular concerns regarding the lower limbs.
    • Department of veteran affairs (DVA) – general foot care, assessments and orthotic prescription.
… and for Children
    • Extensive biomechanical and gait assessment.
    • Custom made orthotics for; general foot pain, flat feet, in toeing (pigeon toed), out toeing, Osgood Schlatter’s disease (growing knee pain), severs disease (heel pain in children), toe walking, leg length differences and lower back pain.
    • Footwear assessment.
    • Ingrown toe nails; regular care and partial nail avulsion surgeries (under local anaesthetic).
    • Treatment of verrucae (warts), corns and callouses.
    • Growing pain concerns.
    • Children with disabilities; walking aids, ankle foot orthotics, orthopaedic footwear, custom made orthotics.

Psychology

Psychologists are experts in helping people cope with thoughts, feelings and behaviours in various situations. The psychology behind pain is more complex. People often think of pain as a purely physical sensation. However, pain has biological, psychological and emotional factors. Pain is a factor in many injuries and the ‘pain experience’ is understood to be greater than the physical sensation of pain. The interference of pain on performance of daily activities and the emotional burden of pain, can drive a change in behaviour. The psychological becomes interwoven with the physical and can become self-defeating. Our Allied Health Psychologist Dr Kathleen Casey,  can help you cope with the feelings and behaviours that accompany pain.

Regarding persistent or chronic pain, the most effective way to deal with this is to adopt what is termed a “bio-psycho-social” approach to the problem. This is true whether persistent pain has a resulted from an injury at home, an accident at work or a slowly progressing chronic illness. Taking a bio-psycho-social approach means recognising that getting better will involve not just medical investigations, medications and hands-on physical treatment, but also the importance of boosting psychological and social well-being in order to progress along the recovery pathway. Injury is often coupled with an emotional burden that can lead to self-defeating behaviours. Mood and motivation are usually affected as an injury may restrict previous activities.

Dr Casey together with our skilled and compassionate team seek to understand the factors that have shaped each person’s unique psychological response to the problem of pain and to provide coping strategies that assist with both emotional and physical recovery. When a person who has persistent pain learns how to gradually get active without triggering significant pain increases, their quality of life can substantially improve. Learning strategies to settle symptoms of anxiety or depression can also help with physical recovery.

Most of the psychological strategies are based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Mindfulness treatment models. Both models are evidence-based interventions.