Synopsis

Allied Health Professions Day is recognised internationally on the 14th October. To celebrate, this Grand Round will showcase the great work of our RCH Allied health teams. The Executive Director of Ambulatory Services and Chief Allied Health Officer Doug McCaskie will commence proceedings, followed by a panel of Allied health clinicians who will showcase how their current work builds capacity and changes the lives of our patients, their families and the community.

Moderator 

Angela Crooke is a Senior Social Worker and Allied Health Clinical Educator at the RCH. Being a qualified social worker for almost 20 years, 15 of these at the RCH, Angela has worked across all medical units. Angela has worked with multidisciplinary teams in the hospital to ensure better outcomes for patients and their families as well as supporting staff in her current role to develop skills in communication, teamwork and leadership.

Panellists 

Ashlee Cruz is a Senior Occupational Therapist in the Occupational Therapy Department. Ashlee has worked at RCH for the past 13 years and during this time has developed expertise with children who have complex medical and neurodevelopmental needs. This has led to a passion for supporting best practice in car seating assessment and prescription for our most vulnerable patients.

Cathy Lewis is the Chief Orthoptist at the RCH and lecturer in Orthoptics at Latrobe University. Cathy has over 30 years’ experience working and volunteering as an orthoptist, 14 of those years were spent as the sole orthoptist in a busy ophthalmology outpatient clinic in Arendal, Norway. Passionate about evaluating systems and processes for efficient and effective delivery of paediatric ophthalmic care, Cathy co-developed and implemented several initiatives at the RCH to improve access to patient-centred care, including orthoptist-led clinics and collaborative models of care with external providers.

Leah Rotin is a Senior Social Worker and has worked at the RCH for the past 17 years. Leah has worked with the Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program (VPPCP) since 2012 providing leadership around psychosocial and bereavement care in the palliative care context. Leah has extensive experience working with patients with life limiting conditions and their families with a passion in using research and education to drive clinical improvement in the provision of care to children with palliative care needs and their families.

Rachel Williams has ten years’ experience as a Clinical Technologist. At RCH, the Clinical Technology role is a blend of scientific, clinical and technical medical device knowledge in paediatric and neonatal intensive care. Rachel has expert knowledge in a wide variety of devices from ventilators to continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT).

Amanda Cunningham is a Social Worker currently working across the Complex Care Hub and within Neurodevelopmental and Disability and Clinical Haematology teams. Amanda’s practice is child-focused, trauma-informed and she always aims to make herself redundant with the families she works with. Amanda previously worked in early psychosis research at Oxygen Youth Health and in chronic Adult Mental Health at Western Health.