About WaitWell
WaitWell helps families connect with clinicians sooner, offering guidance and practical support while you navigate long waitlists. The platform is designed to help parents and carers access timely and tailored information from qualified professionals, to help you understand your concerns, and feel more supported during periods of uncertainty.
Built by people with backgrounds in social innovation, healthcare, rural community development, and social enterprise, WaitWell works alongside existing clinics and providers rather than replacing them. The goal is simple: make support feel more accessible, responsive, and human for families who need answers sooner.
Right now WaitWell can help people looking for information about speech and communication development, with more services planned for development in the future.
Our Story
WaitWell was developed in response to a familiar problem in health and social services: families often spend long periods on waitlists with very little practical support in the meantime. During that gap, loved ones are left trying to work out whether their concerns are serious, what they should be doing at home, and whether they are waiting for the right kind of help.
The idea behind WaitWell is that support does not always need to begin with a full assessment, diagnosis, or ongoing therapy plan. In many cases, a light-touch interaction or short conversation can help families make sense of what is happening, reduce unnecessary worry, identify more urgent needs, and begin using practical strategies straight away. WaitWell provides early professional input while families are waiting for more comprehensive services. It is designed to support families, activate early intervention where appropriate, and help make waitlists more useful by clarifying need, urgency, and next steps.
Our Vision
Families should be supported from the moment they need help, not just when they reach the top of a waitlist.
Our Founders
Dr Ed Johnson
Ed is a social entrepreneur with degrees in linguistic anthropology and speech pathology. He worked in rural and remote Australia (mainly in Wirdajuri and Kamilaroi communities) for 10 years as a speech pathologist before moving into academia.
Ed completed his PhD in 2021 at the University of Sydney which focused on the phenomenologies of rural families of children with intellectual disabilities, and humanistic digital allied health support delivery and capacity-building with National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants across rural and remote Australia. Based on the findings, he co-founded Umbo to support Australians in underserved communities and populations to access speech pathology and occupational therapy. Umbo has saved NDIS participants over $33million in direct service costs since its inception, and continues to invest 50% of profits into funding services for people who can't afford to see a therapist.
Professor Lee Wallace
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Dr Scott Davis
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