Telehealth uptake by families seeking allied health services for young children: does culturally and linguistically diverse background matter?

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities, including children, can face a multitude of barriers when accessing health services. With increased availability of paediatric allied health telehealth services in recent years, uptake of these services by children and their families from CALD communities is not well understood. The aim of this study was to describe the demographic characteristic of families from CALD and non-CALD backgrounds seeking speech pathology or occupational therapy services for their children, determine if telehealth uptake differs between families from CALD and non-CALD backgrounds and between families across different language groups, and identify factors influencing telehealth uptake. Although, rate of telehealth uptake was significantly lower for families of clients from CALD communities, neither CALD status nor language independently influenced uptake of telehealth when a broader range of factors were considered. Contrary to expectations, speech pathology clients were less likely to uptake telehealth services compared to occupational therapy clients. Additionally, where families of clients lived rather than CALD background per se impacted likelihood to uptake telehealth. To ensure equitable access to services for all children and their families, health services need to be mindful of the multiple factors influencing uptake of allied health telehealth services.