Allied health is a group of health professions and associated support workforce that provide care to help improve people’s health, function, and quality of life.

Allied health professional services can include providing advice and education to assist people to prevent or to manage health conditions, providing assessments or tests, and developing treatment programs with the patient and their family, and other members of the healthcare team.

Allied health professions include audiology, dietetics, exercise physiology, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, speech pathology, and social work.  

Becoming an allied health professional requires a university qualification, generally a Bachelor or Masters degree. There are opportunities to work as an allied health assistant whilst undertaking these studies.

Allied health assistants are key members of the allied health team who support allied health professionals and provide direct client care. Allied health assistants complete a Certificate III or Certificate IV qualification. In an Allied Health Assistant role you could work in a pharmacy, an optometry, physiotherapy or podiatry practice, a hospital, school or aged care facility. So what do you like? Is it feet, eyes, the mind, healthy eating, getting people moving, or something else? Do you like working with children, new mothers, older people or other groups?  Do you enjoy doing technical tasks and using equipment and technology, connecting with people and making a difference to their quality of life?

• Allied health assistants can work with a range of allied health professionals, or focus on one area such as dietetics.
• Optical dispensers work in optometry practices and fit and repair optical appliances such as spectacles and spectacle lenses.

Below is a pathway that gives you some options if you are interested in working in allied health. Everyone has their own journey. Where you start and where you end is up to you!

Other roles you could consider in community pharmacy are working as a pharmacy retail manager or dispensary assistant. These require study at the Certificate IV level. Visit the Community Pharmacy Assistance career pathways for more information.