Occupational Therapy in the NDIS
An occupational therapist is an allied health professional who focuses on promoting independence and wellbeing by empowering and enabling people to participate in the everyday occupations of life.
Our Melbourne occupational therapists have a holistic and person-centred focus. They can assist you and your loved ones to develop independence in the ways that matter to the individual.
Our occupational therapists are equipped to support individuals from the ages of two upwards with a range of diagnoses. They are specifically trained to support NDIS participants through:
- Mental Health Occupational Therapy
- Functional Assessments
- Sensory Assessments and Intervention
- Assistive Technology prescription, application work and training
- Simple to Complex Home Modification prescription and application work
- Paediatric and Adolescent Occupational Therapy
- Occupational Therapy for Adults and the Elderly
- Accommodation Support
- Supported Independent Living (SIL) and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) recommendation and report generation
- Specific ongoing disability-related intervention and progress reports for NDIS plan reviews. For more information please see below.
Paediatric and Adolescent
Occupational Therapy
Tashacare occupational therapists work with children and adolescents to address issues affecting their participation in everyday life, particularly in the aspects of self-care, productivity, and leisure.
We will liaise with you to implement practical interventions that will suit your child and your family. We will also work collaboratively with other stakeholders such as childcare facilities, schools, teachers, support staff and other allied health professionals to ensure that strategies and interventions are implemented, not only at home, but in the classroom and anywhere else your child spends their time. Liaising with other allied health professions also ensures that a cohesive and consistent multidisciplinary approach is used to address your child’s barriers.
Our occupational therapists can support a range of diagnoses, such as:
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Down Syndrome
- Cerebral Palsy
- Developmental delays
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Dyslexia
- Intellectual disabilities
They can help children, adolescents and their families develop in any of the following areas:
- Fine motor skills
- Gross motor skills
- Sensory processing and modulation (how we take in and interpret sensory information from our environment)
- Visual perceptual processing (how our brain makes sense of what our eyes are seeing)
- Proprioception (our awareness of where our body is and how it moves)
- Emotional regulation
- Self-care routines
- Sequencing
- Planning
- Routine
- Feeding/eating
- Toileting
- Play and social skills
- Confidence and self-esteem
Young Children
For young children, our occupational therapists use play-based therapy to target and address the child’s occupational therapy goals and reach their developmental milestones. We aim to create a fun and enjoyable environment during therapy by using toys and games to teach and develop crucial skills for later life. Additionally, our occupational therapists provide support and information to parents on how they can continue to address the barriers at home and community.
Adolescents
For adolescents, an age appropriate therapy approach is taken. Therapy for adolescents often focuses on developing life skills such as, financial management, cooking, cleaning and maintaining a routine to increase independence and self-confidence as they transition into adulthood.
Assistive technology
Assistive technology can also be a part of our occupational therapy service for children and adolescents. Our occupational therapists will conduct assessments, identify appropriate assistive technology needs, organise trials, complete NDIS applications (where required) and offer training to ensure the items are used safely and appropriately.
Mental Health Occupational Therapy
Our occupational therapists can assist individuals who are experiencing mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
They will work with an individual to identify, understand and develop better ways to deal with a mental illness in the context of everyday life while supporting them to reach their full potential.
At the very core of occupational therapy is the belief that ‘doing’ is therapeutic and is beneficial to an individual’s health and wellbeing – after all, it’s important to feel that we have a purpose and are contributing to something in a positive way.
Our occupational therapists can support you to find this purpose, maintain hope for the future and reclaim the roles in life that are most important to you.
Individuals with mental health conditions can have trouble with:
- Low mood
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Low motivation
- Low self-esteem
- Low confidence
- Low self-efficacy
- Social withdrawal
- Psychotic symptoms
- Sensory modulation
- Emotional regulation
- Self-harm and suicidality
Tashacare’s occupational therapists embrace a recovery-oriented approach and recognise that mental health recovery is an ongoing and nonlinear journey towards creating and leading a meaningful life. They use a range of evidence-based therapies which draw on psychological theories to inform their practice.
Our occupational therapists can address the above symptoms through the following means and interventions:
- Mindfulness
- Self-Compassion
- Routine building
- Graded exposure therapy
- Education
- Sensory diets
- Crisis or safety plans
- Coping strategies
- Grounding strategies
Occupational Therapy
for Adults and the Elderly
Occupational therapists can assist adults with disabilities and the elderly to increase their independence, improve their quality of life and remain living at home for as long as possible with a sense of dignity and compassion.
Using a variety of assessments, our occupational therapists will identify the individual’s personal strengths, as well as the barriers and limitations that are preventing them from doing what they want to, need to or are expected to do in their lives. By assessing the person, their occupation, and their environment, they can help you work out practical solutions to increase independence and improve quality of life.
This can be achieved by:
- Modifying the environment
- installing grab rails in the shower, by an entrance or beside or a toilet to make access and transfers safer and easier
- installing ramps, platform steps or chair lifts to improve accessibility around the home
- completing complex and structural bathroom or kitchen modifications to allow better access
- Prescribing assistive technology (aids or equipment)
- raised toilet seats or over toilet frames to facilitate safe transfers on/off the toilet
- shower chairs or stool to reduce the risk of falls in the shower and manage fatigue
- wheelchairs, mobility scooters or hoists for mobility and transfers
- long-handled aids for personal care and dressing, such as a reacher or sponge
- special plates or cutlery to increase independence with feeding
- pressure cushions to reduce the risk and severity of pressure wounds
- Supporting skill development
- independent living skills (cooking, cleaning)
- budgeting or money handling skills
- alternative dressing techniques
- helpful coping strategies
- pain and fatigue management strategies
- routine building and self-management strategies
- Developing support or intervention plans, providing recommendations as well as providing education to the individual, their family, and their care team
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- treatment guides or plans to support individuals to achieve their goals through a collaborative effort
- providing recommendations and advocating for current and future support/service needs
- providing falls prevention education
