A Katherine healthcare worker with a distinguished career has been named the joint winner of a prestigious health award at this year's NT Health Professional of the Year Awards.
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Named Health Practitioner of the Year in the CDU Allied Health Practitioner category, Team Leader for the Community Allied Health Team in Katherine, Elaine Jaeschke, looks back on an extraordinary 35-years career with NT Health.
She shares the win with Alexandra Murrell, a Speech Pathologist at Carpentaria Therapy Services.
For more than three decades Mrs Jaeschke has touched the lives of clients, families, staff, service providers and communities across the Big Rivers region.
"Arriving in Katherine in 1987 with physiotherapy skills, and planning to stay two years, I quickly found work with the Department of Health in a health promotion role," she said about the beginnings of her Territory health career.
"Looking back at those thirty plus years, I am privileged to have worked with many skilled and dedicated health professionals, support staff, managers, service providers and amazing clients, whom I learn from every day."
Mrs Jaeschke has held many roles where she has directly influenced the allied health services provided to Big Rivers Region, including advocating for and achieving the first occupational therapist and speech pathology positions, delivering the first electric wheelchair and developing the Katherine Region Aged and Disability Services.
Through her work she has championed the delivery of on-country services, with a focus on providing an equitable and quality service to all people and communities in the Katherine region.
"I appreciate and value the approach of Aboriginal clients and services, which help us grow as a service and individually," she said.
Upon her retirement in July this year, NT Health thanked Mrs Jaeschke for her 'dedication in supporting families, carers, service providers and community organisations for the past 35 years'.
"Elaine might be retiring - but her NT Health legacy lives on through the many services she helped establish," the Department said in a statement.
The 2022 NT Health Professional of the Year Awards were held in Darwin on Friday, recognising the Northern Territory's most outstanding primary health care workers.
"The Health Professional of the Year Awards recognise health professionals who go the extra mile to improve the health and wellbeing of Territorians," NT Primary Health Network CEO Gill Yearsley said.
"We have an incredible community of hardworking health professionals in the Territory, particularly in our remote Indigenous communities, and these awards are a chance to celebrate those individuals.
"We received some amazing nominations across all sectors and regions of the Territory including dieticians, remote GPs, Aboriginal Health Professionals, nurses working in schools, midwives, occupational therapists, and primary health support workers.
"To hear how these people are changing the lives of everyday Territorians was inspiring to all."