University of Queensland graduate, Helen Rowe has been given an opportunity to travel around the world for seven weeks to learn more about allied health working in the area of Chronic Pain management.
Ms Rowe was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for 2008, also known as Travelling Fellowships, awarded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
This year the Winston Church Memorial Trust provided the opportunity for 120 Australians to travel overseas and undertake research not available in Australia. Benefit to the Australian community played a significant role in the selection of the Fellows.
Ms Rowe will be traveling in early 2009 to study the clinical practice of allied health team members within Multidisciplinary Pain Management Centres in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and New Zealand.
“I’ve been interested in the concept of the Churchill Fellowship for a long time. I saw an advertisement for it and I was at a time in my career where I wanted to grow as a practitioner, but was not interested in that point in time in further academic study. I wanted to add to my knowledge base and the Fellowship offered an opportunity to travel around the world and learn in clinical settings,” she said.
Ms Rowe will be observing and talking to allied health practitioners during her trip, in hope of learning more about the roles of allied health and the clinical settings they work in.
"I am interested in both their theoretical and evidence-based focus and the practical daily issues they face," she said.
The information obtained will be used in the Tess Cramond Multidisciplinary Pain Centre, Royal Brisbane Hospital and reported on throughout Queensland & Australia.
“I want to bring information back and make it useful to other practitioners ultimately improving the quality of service provision to patients,” she said.
Ms Rowe has been working as an Occupational Therapist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for five years. She has also been running her own private practice in Paddington for 10 years.
Ms Rowe graduated from UQ in 1979 with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy and has since acquired a Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling, a Masters in Counselling and a Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Hypnosis, all from Queensland University of Technology.
Media: Helen Rowe telephone 040 7694 354 or Charu Agarwal at UQ Communications 3365 2339
