Occupational Therapy Townsville & Mackay
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapists (OT) work collaboratively with participants to work towards what they need and want to do in everyday life. Their holistic approach works towards gaining or regaining skills to complete day to day activities. You can work with an OT in many environments including, but not limited to, your home, community, workplace, or nursing home.
Occupational Therapists use the bio-psycho-social model in sessions which means they acknowledge the many factors to consider in your journey including your underlying biology, mental health, and social environments when considering how to help you to build capacity in your everyday life. You may work with your Occupational Therapist to build capacity in common occupations such as everyday activities like cooking, driving, and bathing. An OT collaborates with you to identify strengths and difficulties surrounding your daily life and work to devise practical solutions which optimise your capacity to engage in these activities resulting in an increased quality of life.
Alliance Rehabilitation provides a specialist rehabilitation and capacity building assessment and intervention plan to help you achieve any goals you identify. Our client-centered approach aims to maximise your engagement in the community.
Occupational Therapists at Alliance Rehabilitation are registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), the national accreditation body. AHPRA members are regulated to ensure clinicians maintain current practice supported by the latest evidence-based practice.
Benefits of seeing an Occupational Therapist
An Occupational Therapist can help you learn or relearn skills you need to maximise your independence and enjoy a better quality of life. They can provide assistance after sustaining an injury, acquiring a short or long-term disability, or a period of major life adjustment which has impacted your health and wellbeing.
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) is a term OT’s use to narrow down occupations a client needs to do to manage in daily life. This includes:
- Eating
- Walking
- Dressing and grooming
- Bathing
- Toileting
- Moving in and out of bed without help
- Control of bladder and bowels – continence
Instrumental Daily Activities (IDL) include:
- Community mobility
- Driving
- Education
- Leisure – e.g. fishing, cooking, bowling
- Work
- Budgeting and financial management
- Shopping
- Home maintenance
- Play
- Social participation
OT Services Provided at Alliance Rehabilitation
Alliance Rehabilitation offers a skilled team of occupational therapists who deliver expert advice and assessments in many different specialties. We provide:
- Community participation and leisure therapy
- Task analysis for assessment and re-training of everyday living skills e.g. using cutlery, household tasks, handwriting, and typing. This could include physically training the skill, adapting the environment, or finding assistive devices to assist in building capacity
- Upper limb rehabilitation including assessment and intervention. Intervention may include individual and group-based sessions, functional electrical simulation, sensory re-training, and robotic assisted upper limb therapy using tyromotion
- Bespoke functional splint fabrication, modified constraint induced movement therapy, and outcome assessment for hypertonicity treatment.
- Analysis of cognitive / thinking skills such as attention, memory, planning, organisation, and development of strategies to assist with changes in these skills
- Assessment of postural management including seating assessment and recommendations regarding pressure care. This includes recommendation of Assistive Technology such as seating systems, pressure cushions, pressure relieving mattresses, backrests, hoists, and slings.
- Functional transfer retraining – bed, chair, toilet, car
- Nursing home positioning program
- Fatigue management/ energy conservation
- Home modification assessment and recommendations to promote your safety and independence
- Identification, trialing, and recommendations for equipment, environmental adaptations, and assistive technology.
- Driving assessment and vehicle modifications
- Taxi Subsidy/ Disabled parking permit (in collaboration with our Social Worker)
- Goal based activities and specific task practice
- Participant education
- Functional Needs Assessments
- LSVT Big program for Parkinson’s Disease
- Increase functional trunk control and static and dynamic sitting / standing balance / ability to reach out of midline
- Increase activity tolerance / endurance
- Assessment for spasticity and ongoing management planning
- Functional Capacity Assessment for return to work
Family-Centred Occupational Therapy Townsville & Mackay
Occupational therapists promote play-based therapy with children and their support team (family, teacher, doctor) to help them reach important developmental milestones. Alliance Rehabilitation offers play learning as well as activities to support fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, self-care skills, handwriting support, and behavioural issues.
Occupational Therapy is incredibly helpful for families with children with any condition, disability, or impairment affecting their everyday life. Conditions include:
- Neurological conditions – Cerebral Palsy
- Physical disabilities – Spina Bifida
- Developmental delays and disabilities
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Abuse or neglect
- Depression and anxiety
- Sensory and attention issues
- Acute medical, surgical, and orthopaedic conditions
Our team want to help you to help your child engage and participate in activities to ensure they reach their greatest potential. OT is hands on for parents and carers so the skills you develop in sessions can be carried over to support your child outside of a clinical environment. This family-centred, collaborative therapy ensures your child has the tools to reach their goals.
Group Sessions for Occupational Therapy Townsville & Mackay
Participants are encouraged to join in with group sessions. Everyone is assessed by an occupational therapist and provided with an individualised program to work towards your goals, which is progressed regularly.
Once you are familiar with the exercises, you are encouraged to participate in the small groups which are run by an allied health assistant (AHA). This encourages independent practice and allows for increased intensity of practice. We encourage family members and support workers to assist or join in with these small groups too if required. This allows for carry over of exercises into the home environment.
Occupational therapy groups provided at Alliance Rehabilitation include cooking, tyromotion, and upper limb group.
- Cooking Group is a supervised session open to everyone and facilitates the development of basic skills to build your confidence with independent lifestyle behaviours.
- Tyromotion is a robotic and computer assisted therapy which provides upper limb therapy, cognitive rehabilitation, and maintenance. This equipment makes therapy fun, effective, and is state of the art as the first of its kind in Queensland.
- Upper limb group involves the implementation of an upper limb program to increase rotation of movement, facilitate return of active movement, increase strength, increase fine motor control, and dexterity.
Driving Assessments
If you want to learn to drive or looking to get back to driving, we can assist with an Occupational Therapy Driving Assessment (OTDA).
These assessments are supported by an Occupational Therapist (OT) with specific training in Driver Assessment and Rehabilitation and also a Registered Driving School instructor. We work closely with your GP or specialist to assist with their medical clearance to drive.
Conditions we Treat
Occupational Therapy treats a multitude of conditions including:
Injury Management
Occupational Therapists can provide support following an injury to help you return to performing tasks at your regular standard. Their collaborative approach ensures you work together to identify specific goals for recovery. This can include return to work or regular ADL’s. We also provide driving assessments if your injury has affected your ability to drive.
Stroke Recovery
Occupational Therapists work with stroke survivors to optimise function and independence for daily activities. An OT will work with you to: assess any difficulties you may have and provide education, adapt activities to improve your abilities and independence, teach strategies and techniques to overcome any difficulties you may identify, provide aids and equipment you may need or suggest, perform a home assessment, and/or advise on your return to work. Alliance Rehabilitation also provides driving assessments if your goal is to return to driving following a stroke.
Parkinson’s Disease
Occupational Therapists are a large part of Alliance Rehabilitations Parkinson’s Disease management team. They collaborate with you to optimise your function and independence for daily activities. Our occupational therapists work to identify specific goals based on symptoms and the progression of PD to ensure they work to your strengths and help you achieve those goals. Our LSVT Big program runs four days a week for four weeks and trains the brain in the opposite thinking to how PD perceives movement. It trains the brain to move big with lots of energy. The program is split between Occupational Therapy and Exercise Physiology with two sessions for each a week. The program is intensive and requires a lot of energy. It helps the brain to understand when you move big, this is a normal way of moving and when you move big you can walk faster and will not have as many falls.
Orthopaedic and Neurological Disorders
We treat a multitude of orthopaedic and neurological disorders with a focus on optimising your function and independence for daily activities. An OT will work with you to: assess any difficulties you may have and provide education, adapt activities to improve your abilities and independence, teach strategies and techniques to overcome any difficulties you may identify, provide aids and equipment you may need or suggest, perform a home assessment, and/or advise on your return to work.
Amputations and Low Mobility
We work with you to increase your level of independence in day to day living if you have low mobility or have had an amputation. An Occupational Therapist works with you to identify your goals, routines, and activities to maintain or work towards. This can include new techniques for dressing and washing, as well as home assessments for modifications.
Referral Options
There are many ways for you to be referred to our facility. Telehealth options are available and travel by appointment can be arranged. Some of our referral streams for Occupational Therapy Townsville & Mackay include:
How is Alliance Rehabilitation different?
Do you ever wish your OT and other therapists were in the same spots? As a community allied health facility, we utilise multiple disciplines to provide a comprehensive service that is more convenient for you. Our community approach allows us to tailor a program to each individual and ensure we are meeting your goals. Our clinicians collaborate with you to support your rehabilitation, and provide a comprehensive assessment, therapy planning, and monitoring to ensure you are experiencing the best quality of life. Occupational Therapy is designed to give you a happy and healthy outlook on everyday life by improving your activities of daily living to increase your independence.
