Amity Health: not-for-profit health and wellbeing services in Albany
Amity Health is a not-for-profit health and wellbeing organisation in Albany. Our head office is at 136 Lockyer Avenue, and our Community Allied Health Services hub is at 45 Collie Street. We have supported adults, families and children in the Great Southern for over 25 years, and we work across the Great Southern, Wheatbelt, Goldfields, Midwest and South West regions of Western Australia. We are a registered charity as well as a not-for-profit, and we are a registered NDIS provider.
What began as a local service has grown into an organisation that works alongside government, not-for-profit organisations and local providers to improve access to care in regional Western Australia. Our stated purpose is to deliver a wide range of services that improve the health and wellbeing of communities living in regional Western Australia, and our vision is enhancing lives through connection, access and opportunity.
How our services are organised
We provide services in three core streams: health, chronic disease and ageing; mental health; and children, families and community. We know that living in a rural area can make quality services and healthcare harder to reach, and our programs are built around that. Some are funded programs available at no cost to the client, and some are fee for service, where Medicare rebates or private health insurance may apply. Our clinicians are locally based in Albany.
What we offer
Our service areas
- Allied health: fee-for-service allied health through our Community Allied Health Services team in Albany.
- Chronic conditions: the Integrated Chronic Disease Care Program and the Albany Connected Communities Project.
- Counselling and mental health: the Mental Health Counselling Program, mental health counselling in residential aged care homes, and art therapy, mental health and chronic pain counselling.
- Aged care: allied health services, the care finder program, and mental health counselling in residential aged care homes.
- Aboriginal health and wellbeing: the Integrated Team Care Program, the Mental Health, Wellbeing and Resiliency Program, and the Strengthening Aboriginal Health Program.
- Parents, carers and families: Communities for Children, Kids Hub Merredin and Kids Hub Narrogin.
- Disability services: disability services and NDIS support.
- Visiting specialists: specialist clinics held in our own Albany clinic rooms, and clinic room hire.
Visiting specialists in our Albany clinic rooms
Specialists from outside the region hold clinics in our own Albany rooms, which means some appointments that would otherwise mean a trip to Perth can be kept here. How often each discipline visits varies: some come weekly, some monthly, some every second month, and some quarterly.
The disciplines that visit
- Dermatology.
- EEG testing: electroencephalogram testing.
- Imaging and sonography.
- Occupational and environmental medicine.
- Orthopaedic surgery.
- Paediatric endocrinology and diabetes.
- Podiatry.
- Rehabilitation medicine.
- Respiratory medicine: including lung function testing.
- Rheumatology: offered by telehealth as well as face to face.
- Vascular surgery.
Each visiting specialist sets their own fees and billing arrangements, so any billing question goes to the specialist rather than to us. We also hire out clinic rooms during office hours, 8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday.
The Albany Connected Communities Project
One of our Albany programs is the Albany Connected Communities Project, a social prescribing service. Referrals come from GPs, from other health professionals, and from community members themselves. The project works to reduce loneliness and isolation, to support people with non-clinical needs that would otherwise fall back on GP clinics, to strengthen wellbeing through community-based connection, and to ease pressure on primary health care. It is a three-year pilot funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Where we work
Alongside Albany we have regional offices at Denmark (66 South Coast Highway), Esperance (Business Centre Arcade, 1A/71-75 Dempster Street), Merredin (4/11 Mitchell Street), Moora (9/11 Dandaragan Street), Narrogin (107b Federal Street) and Northam (12 Grey Street). We publish referral forms for the Albany, Denmark, Esperance, Katanning, Merredin, Moora, Narrogin and Northam offices, and for the Midwest and South West regions. Enquiries about a regional office come through the Albany head office.
Contacting us
Our Albany office is open 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. You can call (08) 9842 2797, email [email protected], or write to PO Box 5294, Albany WA 6332. Our fax number is (08) 9842 2798.
Amity Health does not provide crisis care. If you or someone you know needs urgent medical assistance, please contact your nearest hospital, your general practitioner, or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
We are funded in part by the WA Primary Health Alliance in its role as operator of the Country WA Primary Health Network, and by the Department of Health. Our ABN is 75 062 628 924.