Empowering Child Life Therapy in the workforce: The bespoke design of education to support new therapists.

Abstract

Child life therapists are bachelor qualified early years educators and are employed in Australia as Allied Health Professionals. Despite being an important profession in supporting children in the hospital environment, there is no formal certification or qualification in Australia to support the credentialing and professional identity of child life therapists (CLT). The impact is twofold: 1) there is no formal workforce pipeline within this crucial professional group in children's care and 2) the scope of practice can be undefined. Recognizing this gap and impact on workforce supply, Monash Children’s Hospital collaborated with partners to build interactive modules based on best practice education principles that met professional scope of practice standards as defined by the Association of Child Life Therapists Australia.