Hands on Health aims to assist communities to improve the delivery of health and other services to marginalized people, utilizing the resource of community volunteers.
The work of HOH occurs both in Australia and around the world. Volunteers work in communities providing various therapies and services to those who would be otherwise unable to access them. These services include; chiropractic, general medicine, hairdressing, massage, naturopathy, nursing, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology and legal advice.
Hands on Health assists communities to establish clinics in which volunteers work in particular healing and service professions. Volunteers also work as welcomers who are there not only to assist the practitioners but also to provide a network of people to be there for those who are lonely or isolated and may have no one else to be there for them.
Hands on Health also provides training for healthworkers in basic myotherapy (massage) in communities where there is no access to this type of care. In this way communities are empowered to care for their own people in a sustainable and affordable way.
Testimonial
As I have now completed my clinical rotation at the Flowerdale HOH outreach c linic I would like to thank HOH for allowing me the opportunity to take part in the greatest educational experience I have had in my eight years with RMIT University Health Sciences. The HOH team have been pivotal in providing me and my colleagues with a brilliant real life experience which will hold me in good stead over the next few years as I make my transition i nto private practice.
The people of Flowerdale HOH are lovely and the conditions presented to me in the clinic were typical of the hard working, active country lifestyle. The quiet picturesque countryside was something a boy who has spent 25 years in the heart of Melbourne would not have seen or experienced without this opportunity. I have even given thought to practising in the country over the coming years. I would encourage anybody to take the opportunity to work with HOH as it is something they will never forget.
Chris Vandeloo, RMIT student chiropractor
HOH is sponsored by the Chiropractors' Association of Australia
www.chiropractors.asn.au
