How much time have you got..? Occupational therapy can sometime be tricky to define, because OTs do so many different roles in so many different areas.

But the thing that binds all OTs together is that they help people to be as independent as possible and to do the things that matter most—whether that’s getting dressed, going to work, learning at school, keeping out of prison, integrating into a new environment, or participating in community life. They work with individuals across the lifespan to build skills, adapt environments, and overcome barriers caused by injury, illness, disability or by the environment itself. At its heart, occupational therapy is about enabling independence, purpose, and maximising someone’s participation in everyday life.

GPS Therapy does not have an age preference or limitations necessarily. However, while Luke has spent more than a decade working with young people aged 10-18+ in the youth justice systems in Australia and Canada, this is very different to the kind of OT interventions which would be considered standard paediatric OT practice.

Therefore, if your client is a young person with complex needs that may cross boundaries of mental health, behavioural and disability, GPS is the the place for you.

If you’re looking for an OT to work with a young child in a school setting (particularly under 10 years old), we may not be the right choice for you at this time. However, we would be happy to steer you in the right direction towards some reputable therapists with other organisations.

Based in the western suburbs of Adelaide, GPS Therapy will service Adelaide metropolitan areas as well as surrounding rural areas (think Murray Bridge or similar). Please be aware, that with recent changes to NDIS funding for therapist travel, this may limit the potential travel time to 30 minutes each direction. However, where possible, if we have multiple clients in a particular area, we will share travel costs to minimise the impact to individual clients’ funding.

The total cost for sessions or OT visits depend on a number of factors, such as the length of time spent face-to-face with clients, location and possible travel costs and whether a report needs to be written (and the type of report being requested). Also, the hourly rates offered to therapists by different funders (such as the NDIS, LSA, DVA etc.) can vary significantly.

The intake process for new referrals will include a detailed information gathering process to allow us to provide a more accurate costing for your request. Service agreements will also be provided to clients (or representatives) prior to commencing assessment/intervention, which will provide a detailed breakdown of all costs. it’s also important to note, that a service agreement will outline a maximum cost. However, the end cost will only be for the time spent and in many cases the total amount billed will be less than that stated in the service agreement.

In most cases, we will come to you and work with you either in your home or in the community. After all, the entire ethos of OT is to develop skills in the environment in which you’ll need to perform them in daily life. Therefore, it makes sense for us to get out of a clinic space as much as possible.

No. GPS Therapy is not a registered NDIS provider, which means we are unable to work with ‘agency managed’ NDIS participants. However, we are able to work with all other NDIS participants.

Yes! GPS Therapy is a registered DVA provider.

Yep! We’re also a LSA registered provider.

No, generally you don’t need a referral to access OT services. Individuals who receive funding through bodies such as the NDIS and DVA are able to self-refer. Please contact us by phone or email and we can get started on the intake process.

However, if you are planning on receiving OT services through a mental health care plan (or similar), you will need to be referred for OT services by your GP.

A standard therapy session is 45 minutes in duration. However, if the session necessitates a longer duration, we can be creative to ensure we have time to do what is needed without exhausting funding too quickly.

Duration of assessment sessions may vary depending on the assessment being completed.

Please give us a call if you have any questions and we will guide you through the process. If GPS Therapy is not the best option for you, we will be happy to point you in the direction of someone who can help.

During the intake process, we will gather as much information as possible to help inform the first session with a new client. This might involve questions to help understand the client’s age, diagnosis, living situation, support structures, their cognitive / emotional / behavioural and functional capacity and more.

Where possible (and when we have consent to do so), it is also helpful for us to view previous reports from other multi-disciplinary professionals to give us contextual and background information about the client.

After all, the more information we have before we meet the client, the more informed we are, then we use less time and funding gathering information in that first session. It also means we can get started on other, more helpful tasks sooner.

If you have any questions, please ask.