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Home About AOPA

Why the Robert Gardner Memorial Prize ?

Monday, 02 July 2007 00:00
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AOPA History
A Seminar entitled "The Future of Splint Making convened by Mr. W. Burt, A.I.B.S.T., L.I.B.S.T., was held at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and attended by interested people from all Australian States and New Zealand. From this meeting a resolution was passed to form an Association.

Mr. Robert Gardner called the first meeting in New South Wales. A committee from this meeting agreed to work on formation of Rules, to be circulated to all States. 6 December, 1975:

The Inaugural Meeting of the Australian Orthotic Association was held at the N.S.W. Society for Crippled Children Headquarters, Sydney.

Meeting attendees;                                                                            

 PRESIDENT  Stuart BARRELL  
 VICE-PRESIDENT  Richard LENNON   
 VICE-PRESIDENT  Alexander COOK   
 SECRETARY  Thomas ST.VI NCENT  
 TREASURER   James SKINNER    
 REGISTRAR   Walter BURT  
 PRESENT  David CHALMERS  Michael CONROY
   Thomas DAVIDSON  Jack FAULKNER
   Peter FRANKS  Robert GARDNER
   Hector GILLIES  Kenneth HILL
   Ron JACKSON  Robert JAMES
   Trevor JONES  Kevin LAYBUTT
   Bryan YEATES  

 An Extraordinary Meeting was held in Canberra to change the name of the Association to "Australian Orthotic Prosthetic Association".

At the 1989 Annual General Meeting the Association agreed to become Incorporated under the Incorporation's Act and to appoint D. RADFORD as its first Public Officer.

At the Annual General Meeting in Hobart, the Association modified its Statement of Rules and Purposes to eliminate the Executive Committee and cause the expanded National Council, with representation from each of the Sections, to be the governing body of the Association for all national matters.

State Sections Inaugral meetings

  • 25 September, 1976: Victorian Section 
  • 23 February, 1977: New South Wales Section
  • 28 March, 1979: Western Australian Section
  • 31 March, 1982: Queensland Section
  • 19 September, 1982: Tasmanian Section
  • 4 August, 1988: South Australian Section
  • 3 November 1999: Tasmanian Section officially stand alone (formerly running with the Victorian section).

Australian Orthotic Prosthetic Association Today

AOPA is the peak national body representing Orthotists & Prosthetists in Australia. 

The Association objectives are;

·         To promote the training, education and professional status of Orthotists and Prosthetists.

 

·         To promote honourable practice, eliminate malpractice and decide questions of professional usage and courtesy among Orthotists and Prosthetists.

 

 

Newsflash

Summary of Consultations

Scoping Study for a Centre for Allied Health Research

 The Menzies Foundation has provided funding for a feasibility study into establishing an Australian Centre for Allied Health Research in Melbourne. (see Project Plan, Perry, A., 2007).

People Involved:

A multi-disciplinary planning group was established to progress this study. Members consist of:

PI:        Professor Alison Perry, School of Human Communication Sciences,  La Trobe University.

CI:        Professor Meg Morris, School of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne 

CI:        Dr. Carol McKinstry, School of Occupational Therapy, La Trobe University

CI:        Ms Jenelle Loeliger, Senior Dietitian, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

CI:        Prof Susan Paxton, School of Psychology, La Trobe University

 Ms Carol Chenco was appointed on 1st October, 2007 as a part-time Research Associate to this study and Ms Deb Benetti provides part-time secretarial support. 

 Since October, Carol has designed and set up an informational website and has contacted relevant key stakeholders (university Deans; academic groups, clinicians, health managers, professional and philanthropic organisations) to organise the running of focus groups and conduct interviews across Victoria.

Webpage:

An informational webpage was set up on the La Trobe University website attached to the School of Human Communication Sciences’ homepage.  This details the background to the project; introduction to the planning group; how the project will be progressed, what we expect to achieve and progress updates.  There is also a submission form for interested individuals or groups to document their views by completing the form and sending back to the Research Associate.

See: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/hcs/centreallied/index.html

Contact with Stakeholders:

Contact has been made with many stakeholders, to conduct an interview / discussion or to arrange to run focus groups or a forum. Contacts include:

·        The Department of Human Services (DHS), Victoria

·        Joanna Briggs’ Centre for Evidence Based Practice in Nursing and Allied Health in South Australia

·        Deans of the divisions of allied health at Monash, Melbourne and La Trobe universities

·        Heads of the schools of allied health at Deakin, La Trobe, Swinburne and RMIT universities

·        *Staff across the division of Allied Health La Trobe university

·        *Staff across the division of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne

·        *Menzies scholars in allied health

·        *A Victorian dietitians’ research group

·        *The Orthopists Association of Australia

·        The director of allied health services at the Royal Childrens’ Hospital and MCRI

·        *Allied health managers and senior clinicians at Southern Health

·        Allied health managers and senior clinicians at Northern Health

·        *Allied health managers and senior clinicians at Loddon Mallee health districts

·        Allied health managers and senior clinicians at Ballarat and Stawell

·        The Chronic Illness Alliance network, and

·        *Allied health professional organisations.

*Focus Groups / Forums conducted in 2008.

All Focus Groups are run with two members of the planning group in attendance. Participants’ views are either tape-recorded for later transcription, or documented in vivo, by one of the Team, while the other person runs the group.  

Discussion revolves around four issues for each group: the need for a centre; the site for a centre; what a centre could/should provide; how should it be organised (i.e., governance).

All key points raised are identified, recorded, typed and a summary is sent back to all participants for everyone who attended to amend/agree before the data are logged.

At the end of the whole process, we will aggregate all the points raised in the focus groups, then analyse the recurring themes and points of concordance, as well as recording disagreement/divergent views.

To date, close to 100 people have participated, in 10 focus groups, but we have many more focus groups to run…

For those unable to attend focus groups or discussions and/or those people who have an interest in contributing to the consultations, we encourage you all to make submissions via the pertinent section of our website.

Carol Chenco, Research Associate

Wednesday, 21 January 2009