Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapists (OT’s) and Occupational Therapy Assistants (OTA’s) work with people to support their participation in everyday activities. This can include self-care activities, leisure, play, work and life skills such as social skills or accessing the community.

Building and strengthening foundation skills such as handwriting, cutting, tying shoelaces, self-care (dressing, feeding and toileting), concentration, attention, coordination, balance and movement allows your child to get the most they can from their learning environment.

Therapy is focused on developing and implementing skill development and strategies to aid this across all the environments that the child encounters. Without this focus, children can just become very good at demonstrating a skill in one location with the one person and in the one way they have practiced it. Occupational Therapy, like Speech Therapy, is focused on children being able to develop and then use these skills across all the environments they encounter to be the most flexible and proficient they can be.

Occupational Therapy can assist with a wide variety of conditions including:

Seek to discover each individual’s strengths, and what is making the doing challenging by looking, listening, suggesting, and exploring abilities.
Support individuals to participate in a range of activities through teaching skills, changing the environment to better support engagement, looking at how objects are used or varying the way of doing things.
Help in situations which matter to someone, such as learning to use scissors, learning to play, coping with changes, concentrating on a task, accessing the bathroom, cooking, catching the bus, gardening …. the list goes on depending on what people want and need to do at any time.
Bring a range of therapeutic approaches to support their interventions recognising that one approach does not suit all, and at times one thing needs to be tried at a time.
Support people by trialing and prescribing equipment like wheelchairs, beds, chairs, and changes to homes such as ramps and home modifications.

There are a number of signs which could indicate your child may benefit from occupational therapy, these may include:

Difficulty functioning within their school, home, social or recreational environments
Difficulties colouring, cutting, holding cutlery
Problems with dressing, toileting, brushing teeth or other daily tasks
Messy or poorly constructed handwriting
Difficulty with sitting at a desk or table, fidgeting or excessive movement
Clumsiness, struggles to participate in playground games or sports
Lack of motivation in managing their self-care, or doing their usual daily activities
Behavioural difficulties or concerns in environments

Fees

Initial Consultation = $540 includes a written summary
Formal Assessments = $190 per hour (can take 4-6 hours) includes a written assessment
Occupational Therapy Session = $190 per session
Occupational Therapy Session with an OT Assistant = $135 per session
Mobile Occupational Therapy Session = $190 per session
Mobile Occupational Therapy Session with an OT Assistant = $135 per session
Travel Fee = $0.97 per 1 km + time travelled to and from the clinic
Report writing = $190 per hour

How do I get my child started with therapy?

Please contact us by phone, email or our Contact Us page.

Our Front Desk Team will be able to answer your questions and explain how our service works. We will collect information from you about your child and the service you require. At times we may not have a waitlist and can schedule an appointment straight away. If we do not have capacity we will add you to our waitlist. It is difficult to say how long our waitlist is, it could be a couple of days or a couple of months.

As soon as a place becomes available, we will contact you to discuss if the spot will work for your family. The initial consult will be booked and we look forward to seeing you in the clinic for your first session.

No referral from a GP or Paediatrician is necessary to attend our clinic.

How do I pay for your services?

We have a number of payment options available. More information can be found on our Funding & Fees page:

NDIS

Kids Therapy Hub is NOT an NDIS registered provider however we are able to offer our services to NDIS Self-Managed and NDIS Plan Managed participants.

We are unable to offer our services to NDIS Agency Managed participants.

Private Health

Our clinic is a registered provider with most Private Health Insurance funds. You may have benefits available through your Private Health Insurer for Allied Health Services under ancillary or extras cover however this is dependent on your level of cover.

If you are unsure of your cover please contact your Private Health Insurer prior to making an appointment. We have a HICAPS terminal in our clinic for easy on the spot claiming from your health fund with you only having to settle the gap amount, making it a seamless experience.

Chronic Disease Management Plan – previously known as the Enhanced Primary Care Plan

This program enables you to receive a partial rebate for up to 5 sessions over a calendar year for certain Allied Health Services like Speech Pathology and Occupational Therapy. The rebate benefit is $58.00 per session.

Helping Children with Autism / 135

This initiative is a funding scheme that enables children with autism or other pervasive developmental disorders to access early intervention services. Children under the age of 13yrs may be eligible for assessment and treatment funding. Children under the age of 15yrs who have a previous diagnosis of ASD or PDD may be eligible for treatment funding only.

Eligible children are entitled to a maximum of 4 rebated sessions for Allied Health assessments (i.e. Speech Pathology or Occupational Therapy) and a further 20 rebated sessions for Allied Health intervention. These rebated sessions are available once a lifetime, and once used, cannot be claimed again. The rebate benefit is approximately $82.00 per session.

Better Access to Mental Health / 137

This initiative is a funding scheme that enables children diagnosed with Autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Fragile X syndrome, or a moderate or greater vision or hearing impairment, including deaf/blindness aged under 13 for diagnosis aged under 15 for treatment (must have been diagnosed before age 13) to access funding.

Private Paying

Families that do not have access to funding options, will be considered private paying clients.