Explore your passions

Explore your passions in regional Australia

From the green, rolling hills in Grenfell, to Albury, a town that hugs the vast Murray River and nestles the border of Victoria – Sarah Knight, Behaviour Support Practitioner left Central West NSW to study occupational therapy at Charles Sturt University, Albury campus.

“I was able to land a seven-week placement with Marathon Health after seeing a stall set up on campus,” Sarah said.

Sarah’s placement not only gave her the opportunity to experience outreach, shadow experienced clinicians and work with participants from all stages of life but helped her explore her passion for supporting people on the autism spectrum.

“I loved spending time with a multidisciplinary team, there was a lot of variety throughout my seven-week placement which got me curious about a career with Marathon Health,  I was also studying a passion subject that involved positive behaviour for autistic people and how that related to OT, that was when Josh asked if I would be interested in joining his team.” Sarah said.

Josh McPhee, Team Lead for Southern Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) knew that even though Sarah didn’t have any prior experience in PBS, her knowledge and expertise as an OT student would be a terrific asset to his team.

“Having Sarah complete a placement with us meant that we had the opportunity to meet her and see that she had valuable industry skills that would benefit our team and we wanted to give her the opportunity to explore something she was passionate about.

In this role Sarah has her own client load, writes clinical reporting documents, and can ask lots of questions; meaning she will graduate with both theoretical and practical experience,” Josh said.

The support Sarah receives from the team is second to none, one she describes as the organisation’s values in action.

“It’s reflective of Marathon Health’s culture, everyone wants to see you succeed and they all have a passion for their work and their clients.

It’s refreshing to see; I love that I am being supported in not only my degree but my future career in health,” Sarah said.

At Marathon Health, we understand the importance of flexibility in the workplace, especially when we can support students like Sarah in their final year of study – showing them the possibilities country health can offer. Through this we hope to entice more passionate healthcare professionals to a career in country health and address the gaps in healthcare.