Reform impacts on occupational therapy
The reality is very different to what was hoped for, writes Christina Wyatt – professional practice advisor in aged care at Occupational Therapy Australia.

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Giving you the whole aged care picture
Occupational therapists have long been an integral part of multidisciplinary residential aged care. Addressing the health and wellbeing of older people within aged care facilities, occupational therapists deliver a multitude of services that support healthy and positive ageing.
This includes promoting engagement in meaningful activities, supporting social inclusion and participation in leisure activities, addressing safety and cognitive change, prescribing assistive technology, and creating aged friendly, safe and inclusive enviro...
Well said, Christina. The Commonwealth Government remains silent on whether they intend to implement several key Royal Commission recommendations on allied health. This is simply not good enough considering the previous Government accepted most of those recommendations three years ago.
Those recommendations included providing allied health services on a needs basis, with aged care providers generally being the ones paying for that provision. But instead, we know some providers are simply telling consumers and their families that they don’t provide the service and that consumers should seek it themselves. This then means that despite already paying for residential aged care, consumers are paying privately (or part paying via the few Medicare visits permitted) for allied health services that the Royal Commission regarded as essential to wellbeing and quality of life. This makes a mockery of any claim that our aged care system, as recommended by the Royal Commission, prioritises reablement.