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Speaker 1: Right now, because we know that a shortage of physiotherapists

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Speaker 1: across the Northern Territory has seen Charles Darwin University stepping

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Speaker 1: in to bridge the gap. An aging population in the NT,

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Speaker 1: as well as those escalating levels of.

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Speaker 2: Chronic pain that come along with it, mean a.

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Speaker 1: Lack of specialists are leaving many untreat it. So Charles

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Speaker 1: Darwin University has put plans in place to start offering

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Speaker 1: a two year master's degree in physiotherapy from next year.

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Speaker 1: So part of its expansion of allied health training is

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Speaker 1: what this is in an effort to boost the workforce locally. Now,

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about the situation is Charles Darwin University's Dean

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Speaker 1: of Health and Human Sciences, Dominique Upton.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to your dominic, Good morning to you, lovely

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Speaker 2: to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Now, what has prompted cdu to Taylor of course, to

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Speaker 1: physiotherapy here in Darwin I well.

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Speaker 3: Exactly what you said in the introduction. We've noticed that

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Speaker 3: the territory needs a lot health professionals from across the

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Speaker 3: range of disciplines and one of those is in physiotherapy

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Speaker 3: that's currently not available in the territory. There's a shortage need,

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Speaker 3: which means that people are going out there suffering from

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Speaker 3: chronic conditions, as you've said, or acute conditions, and we

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Speaker 3: need to start growing our own professionals so they can

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Speaker 3: serve the communities that they actually live in.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think this is a great idea in terms

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Speaker 1: of you know, growing our own trying to keep wonderful

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Speaker 1: territories here and you know, trying to whether it's young

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Speaker 1: people or whether it's mature age students, trying to keep

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Speaker 1: them here so that they then are able to service

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Speaker 1: the territory.

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Speaker 3: Yep, that's the spot on spot on. We don't speak

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Speaker 3: partis only. I don't want to create an opportunity for

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Speaker 3: people to leave the territory and have a brain drain

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Speaker 3: ow to have a brain brain from the southern Eastern

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Speaker 3: States to us so they can come and study here

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Speaker 3: and work here and live here and love here. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: we don't want to push people.

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Speaker 2: Away doing No, that's exactly right now.

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Speaker 1: How crucial is training specialists here locally at the moment.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a real key thing that we've really got

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Speaker 3: our teeth into, and it's really essential. I mean we've

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Speaker 3: got workforce shortages, we've got a unique population, we've got

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Speaker 3: a unique geography, we've got a unique environment, and that

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Speaker 3: means that the turnover of people within the entiaes you know,

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Speaker 3: is quite high. So people might come here for a

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Speaker 3: year or two and then leave and then we have

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Speaker 3: to start recruiting again, and across all of the alt

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Speaker 3: health professions, across the whole of the health service, trying

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Speaker 3: to retreat and retain professions is extremely difficult. We've got

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Speaker 3: some stellar people that stay here, really love here and

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Speaker 3: really sorts of contribute highly, but we need more and

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Speaker 3: more because of the conditions that we're going to unmir.

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Speaker 1: So when it comes to the physiotherapy course, how many

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Speaker 1: students are you hoping to have as part of this course?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we hope in the first year to have

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Speaker 3: twenty to twenty five and then as ars go on,

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Speaker 3: hopefully we can expand that.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, we obviously know that Charles Darwin is

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Speaker 1: based in well, you've got campuses in Darwen, also in

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Speaker 1: our springs, but how do you think that this new

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Speaker 1: course will benefit those more regional areas.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, that's a key issue for us. I

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Speaker 3: think I think there are two ways that we're going

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Speaker 3: to try and dress that. What is set up the

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Speaker 3: course in such a way that students in Nullen Boy

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Speaker 3: for example, or caterin Tennant Creek are actually still the

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Speaker 3: online and they can come into one of the sensors

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Speaker 3: to their clinical practice and then they can do their

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Speaker 3: placements either back in their home location or in the

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Speaker 3: special center. So that means there's an opportunity across the

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Speaker 3: whole of the territory distance to engage.

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Speaker 1: And I know that we obviously, you know, we also

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Speaker 1: see a lot of those wonderful allied health professionals out

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Speaker 1: in our communities as well, whether they live out in

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Speaker 1: those different remote communities or go out there as locos

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Speaker 1: or traveling in and out. How important is it then,

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Speaker 1: you know, even with physiotherapy and some of the other

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Speaker 1: different areas.

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Speaker 2: Of health and you know, being able to get them out.

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Speaker 1: To those different different communities and different remote areas.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, at Central Onto the course that we've set up,

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Speaker 3: we made sure that as a rule and remote the

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Speaker 3: theme to it is an indigenous theme to it. There's

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Speaker 3: a digital literacy scene to it. So all of these

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Speaker 3: things which are unique, not necessarily unique, but really special

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Speaker 3: and important to the territory. Would try to embedding the

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Speaker 3: court development in the court design and some of those

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Speaker 3: placements sorry, you're right, those placements will be out ruled

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Speaker 3: and remote areas as well. You know, some of the

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Speaker 3: specialist one of the obvious have to do in in

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Speaker 3: the local hospital setting. Also other community based placements they

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Speaker 3: can do out elsewhere.

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Speaker 1: And dominic I as you said, they're hoping for twenty

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Speaker 1: to twenty five as part of this initial course and

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Speaker 1: then I'm assuming trying to boost those numbers thereon.

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Speaker 3: Yep, that's correct. Yeah, I mean at the moment we're

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Speaker 3: designing the course developed in the cause we have to

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Speaker 3: go through professional body accreditation with the Australian Physio Council.

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Speaker 3: They could see and that's all in train and then

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Speaker 3: hopefully you run it from start next year.

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Speaker 1: Well, wonderful to hear I reckon about these different ways

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Speaker 1: that we are obviously growing our own, particularly in the

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Speaker 1: field that you're in with health and human science. I

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Speaker 1: would imagine that there's going to be plenty more work

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Speaker 1: happening in this space, Interheed.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we've got I think you spoke to all

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Speaker 3: of my colleagues. We've got audiology coming on now, so

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Speaker 3: we've got about twenty students on that starting of course

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Speaker 3: start of March. We've got ditectics coming on in the

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Speaker 3: middle of the July August. The next year we'll have

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Speaker 3: physio hopefully and clinical exercise physiology, and so the progression

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Speaker 3: keeps going. So we are really trying to grow around

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Speaker 3: workforce right to the territory and dominic.

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Speaker 1: Has COVID sort of prompted that or you know, has

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Speaker 1: it been really sort of seeing the impact of COVID

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Speaker 1: and the shortages that we have in the territory, but

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Speaker 1: right across the board I suppose around Australia as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think it's a reten fretting point

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Speaker 3: you make. I mean, we were on this journey I

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Speaker 3: think before COVID here, but it's really sort of accelerated

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Speaker 3: our progression because previously across the whole of Australia they

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Speaker 3: relied on people moving either into state or emigrating from

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Speaker 3: other countries to come to Australia and practice of course

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Speaker 3: of close borders or closed boarded internal as well as externally.

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Speaker 3: That hasn't been possible, so the health service has really

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Speaker 3: sort of suffered not only the territory, but because the

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Speaker 3: whole of Australia.

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Speaker 1: Well, Professor Dominic Upton, the Dean of Charles Dallen University's

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Speaker 1: College of Health and Human Science, I really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having a chat with me.

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Speaker 3: Now, thank you your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you