Why is this useful for rural and remote people?

Multidisciplinary care is recognised as the preferred model for improving access to care for people in rural and remote communities, and better supporting people with chronic disease and conditions of ageing which characterises the populations of rural and remote Australia. The development of specialist allied health professions over the last 3 decades means that these professionals often have superior knowledge, skills and clinical training to treat of diseases of ageing, and chronic disease, compared to the traditional GP. Despite this, rural and remote health models continue to rely on traditional GP-led models of care. This is a barrier to utilising the broad range of health skills and capabilities available to rural and remote people. A number of models have been developed to improve the utilisation of multidisciplinary teams in rural and remote areas, most notably the CARPA Manual developed for very remote Aboriginal communities. But there is a lack of documented models of multidisciplinary care suitable for application in small rural towns, and existing funding models continue to preference GP led care which conflicts with the evidence for multidisciplinary care. Understanding how to apply integrated multi-disciplinary models in small rural communities is critical for two reasons: (1) building community confidence in multidisciplinary care as a superior solution to GP-specific models in small rural towns; and (2) providing often over-stretched and under resourced health centres in small rural towns with guidance on how to implement this model effectively.