With a background in mental health work combined with a life-long love of music, Emily Thorburn is hoping her unique skillset can help put a dent in the paediatric health crisis.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Having spent most of her life in Orange, she was able to observe from an early age what kind of care was available to children in regional and remote areas.
"There's this ongoing challenge to have clinicians with the right skillset to meet the needs of our population," Ms Thorburn said.
"Our needs are growing but there is still this lack of specialised paediatric services and health services across the board.
"It does force our children and families to seek help outside our area, needing to travel long distances or just not receive the help that they need at all."
Following the completion of her master's degree in creative music therapy, Ms Thorburn opened her own private music therapy practice called Music in Mind.
This made her the only one of her kind in Orange, with the next closest music therapist residing in the Blue Mountains.
"We still have a lot of work to do in getting the word out, especially in regional areas because 95 per cent of music therapists work across the eastern seaboard," she said.
"There are certainly people who have been waiting for this service to be available in this area and have jumped on it."
Ms Thorburn described music therapy as a tool to help people across multiple facets of life.
Physical, mental and emotional health are all areas she believes can be improved through her services and those like her one.
But for regional areas in particular, she added that children could not just be reliant on one of two services to help.
"As many facets and prongs that we can have on the approach to support our children and our community growing up in the most healthy way we can, we should be embracing all of it," she said.
"We need all of our allied health clinicians working together to wrap around our youth to give them the best chance of success."
ACM agrees with Ms Thorburn's message.
Editors from the Central Western Daily, Northern Daily Leader, Western Advocate, Daily Liberal and The Daily Advertiser have penned an open letter to NSW Premier Chris Minns which called for adequate funding of services that help our kids.
The letter came following calls by Royal Far West for the state government to fund and develop two new paediatric clinics in Dubbo and Wagga, for a cost of $6 million.