P O L I C Y, L O B B Y I N G & A D V O C A C Y U P D A T E
OTA lobbying produces a win for vulnerable clients Michael Barrett OTA General Manager, Government and Stakeholder Relations
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his edition’s theme “This is OT” is a deceptively simple expression, implying occupational therapy is a vocation easily defined and categorised. In fact, occupational therapists can be found anywhere and everywhere, assisting just about anybody at any point in their lives. The remarkable diversity of occupational therapy work across this vast and challenging continent is reflected in the great diversity of OTA’s lobbying activities in 2021. The year has, of course, been dominated by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the sudden need to lock down whole cities with just a few hours’ notice. Even with the capacity to support clients via telehealth, hard lockdowns have seriously impeded the progress of clinical care and challenged the viability of practices. OTA has sought to hold governments to account, demanding there be a credible rationale for suspending allied health services. In October, for example, the Victorian government belatedly saw reason and admitted it was anomalous to allow hairdressers to reopen in regional Victoria while still insisting that only essential allied health care be delivered face-to-face. OTA knows it has been a very hard two years for many of its members, with few communities being spared lockdowns. We acknowledge and applaud your resilience and flexibility in the face of an historic challenge.
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The year will also be remembered for a concerted and passionate campaign to prevent the federal government and NDIA from introducing a crudely designed and potentially very harmful means of assessing eligibility for the NDIS. As experts in the assessment of functional capacity, occupational therapists immediately recognised the clinical shortcomings of so-called independent assessments and their potential to do real harm. And as university-educated professionals, occupational therapists saw through the NDIA’s selective use of evidence and a profoundly flawed pilot process. In my five years at OTA, I have never seen occupational therapists come together so smartly, and join forces with other allied health professionals so readily, to achieve a common purpose: the defeat of independent assessments as initially proposed. And this was not a self-interested campaign. It was not about occupational therapists’ pay and conditions, for example. It was occupational therapists speaking up on behalf of highly vulnerable clients. The OTA submission to the inquiry into independent assessments conducted by the Australian parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS was described as “immensely powerful” by Professor Bruce Bonyhady, one of the architects of the NDIS and now executive chair and director of the Melbourne Disability Institute. The submission, based on feedback from scores of OTA members, exposed the
flawed assumptions on which independent assessments were so precariously based, and called into question the NDIA’s belated and half-hearted consultation process. The breadth, depth and passion of opposition to the proposal left the federal government with no option but to abandon independent assessments in early July. But we should be under no illusions. This abandonment is an attempt to kill a difficult issue less than a year out from an election. Next year, and irrespective of who wins the election, the federal government will be looking for means to rein in the cost of the NDIS. There is some disagreement about the extent of the cost blowout, but the scheme is costing considerably more than initially expected. OTA’s task remains one of ensuring any cost-cutting measures do not come at the expense of quality supports for participants. OTA remains willing and able to work with the NDIA to ensure genuine co-design of a scheme that should be uniquely supportive of participants and economically sustainable. In the spirit of co-design, we have already recommended a process which is effective, evidencebased and, most importantly, involves a comprehensive assessment conducted by a discipline-specific allied health professional the client knows and trusts. Occupational therapists working with veterans and war widows had an important win during the year. After a sustained advocacy campaign involving the lobbying of successive Veterans Ministers and even
