Inside Young Street Medical in Wollongong. Photo: Supplied.
Wollongong’s first dedicated integrative medicine clinic has opened, transforming the way healthcare is delivered by blending traditional medicine with complementary therapies — all under one roof.
Young Street Medical, which opened on 3 February and will host a grand opening celebration on 28 February, has been met with overwhelming demand, as it offers an holistic, patient-centred approach that includes general practice, allied health, and complementary therapies all within a calming, spa-like environment.
The clinic is the brainchild of founder Nancy Lowe, who had a successful personal experience with integrative medicine and saw a need for a dedicated clinic in the Illawarra region.
She approached integrative GPs Dr Charlotte Middleton and Dr Ashley Berry, and Health Practice Creations Group, to help bring the vision to life.
Dr Charlotte said integrative medicine was the practice of combining traditional medicine with the best of complementary therapies or products, such as nutrition, vitamins, massage and acupuncture.
“While Nancy’s health journey was very successful, she found care difficult to access at times,” she said.
“She began to have a vision of what it would look like to have a clinic where you’ve got your GPs, allied health professionals – such as physios, exercise physiologist, osteopaths – and then your complementary therapists – such as naturopaths, Chinese medicine practitioners and clinical herbalists – all under the same roof.
“It was about patients being able to be seen in a collaborative environment, being able to have holistic patient-centred care, and giving them different treatment options for their own health journeys.”
In addition to general practice services, the clinic offers specialised care in areas such as menopause, weight loss, mental health, and nutritional support for cancer patients.
It also has practitioners who specialise in conditions such as hypermobility/Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), and MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome), along with being host to a large interdisciplinary EDS clinic of excellence.
“The demand by patients to get on our books and then from practitioners hoping to be a part of the practice has been, to be quite honest, overwhelming,” she said.
“I think it really helps that the look and feel of the practice is different – it doesn’t look like your average GP practice.
“I’ve actually had more than one patient commenting that they feel like they’re walking into a day spa.”
Dr Charlotte said the clinic boasted a warm and calming atmosphere, with plants, soft lighting, botanical colours and a Zen garden – all selected intentionally.
“It’s really important that patients, from the minute they walk in the door of a clinic, feel like they’re going to be well looked after, and that they’re in a calm, safe and relaxing space” she said.
She said much of the demand for the clinic came from a greater awareness about different types of care available today.
“We know that around 80 per cent of people are taking vitamins and supplements ” she said.
“So as a doctor, I personally feel it’s vital we have at least some sort of understanding about what those vitamins and supplements can do, their interactions with somebody’s medications and how we can best support them to be able to use both.
“The same goes for complementary therapies and educating ourselves on what can benefit our patients.
“I love that we can now offer our patients something a little out of the box.”
She believed the current medical model in Australia wasn’t sustainable, with it needing to be moved to a proactive wellness model rather than a reactive model of care.
“The way we generally practice is a sickness model where we’re waiting for people to get sick before they come to us, and even when they do, there’s often a tendency to provide what I think is a Band-Aid solution,” she said.
“As practitioners, we really should be trying to get to the root cause of people’s illnesses and that’s the reason we’ve done the tree logo for Young Street Medical.
“It’s about having that root cause analysis, where you start at the roots of someone’s illness and work your way up to optimise their health – much like optimising the growth of a tree.”
Dr Charlotte said the aim was to promote good health and try to prevent illness happening in the first place.
She said it was also about allowing patients to find and have access to different treatment options they felt best suited them.
In a bid to help with promoting proactive health, she said the clinic would also serve as an educational hub, hosting workshops and case conferences for patients and medical professionals within the clinic space.
Young Street Medical is located at 24 Young Street, Wollongong and is hosting grand opening celebrations on 28 February, where the public are invited to tour the facility and meet the team from 3-4 pm.
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