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
Supporting Our OT Workforce Community Michael Barrett, OTA National Manager, Government and Stakeholder Relations
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very day, Australia’s occupational therapists demonstrate their value to our communities. Whether it be in health and community services, residential aged care facilities, schools, workplaces, or private homes, occupational therapists enhance the quality of life—and often the productivity—of their clients. And this value is being increasingly recognised. That is why demand for occupational therapists has long outstripped supply. Despite new undergraduate courses being established almost every year, those graduating often have multiple job offers. OTA members operating larger practices routinely tell us they cannot fill job vacancies, despite the often very generous packages on offer. Two things are abundantly clear. First, the problem is growing. Second, it will generate new opportunities for individual practitioners while posing profound challenges to the profession as a whole. The workforce shortage will become more pronounced as the NDIS continues its rollout, and more Australians with disabilities are deemed eligible to join it. The NDIS has already drawn significant numbers of allied
health professionals from other areas of practice, and there is no apparent reason why this trend would suddenly stop. We can expect to develop shortages in areas of practice that cannot compete with the NDIS hourly fees. At this point, Australia’s veterans and war widows have become victims, as the DVA finds it unviable to pay experienced occupational therapists their hourly rate. But veterans may prove to be the canaries in the mineshaft, as other client cohorts may soon also find themselves struggling to maintain long-standing relationships with occupational therapists. And, of course, demand for occupational therapists will boom as our population ages. Whether opting to age at home or move into a residential aged care facility (RACF), Australia’s rapidly growing elderly population will need occupational therapists to ensure their physical safety, health, mental wellbeing, and quality of life. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is due to release its final report—and most likely a suite of sweeping recommendations—to government early this year. Indications to date—particularly recommendations made in a separate report
Australia’s rapidly growing elderly population will need occupational therapists to ensure their physical safety, health, mental wellbeing, and quality of life. 8 otaus.com.au
by the commissioners into the management of COVID-19 in RACFs—suggest a call for a much greater allied health presence in these facilities. Occupational therapists, more than other allied health professionals, are trained to prevent functional decline and enable meaningful activity and participation—an expertise that will be fundamental to 21st century aged care in Australia. Given there are too few occupational therapists to go around now, how will Australia find potentially several thousand more, and at very short notice? Assuming the Federal Government does not want to be politically compromised by its inability to implement a key recommendation of the royal commissioners—and possibly only 10 months out from a federal election—the government may well seek a quick fix. Any government, irrespective of party, will likely subordinate considerations of clinical excellence to considerations of a pressing political nature. Herein lies the challenge to our profession, and to the quality of occupational therapy in Australia. The government may resort to three obvious quick fixes that would present serious threats to the occupational therapy profession. First, allowing other allied health professions to move into areas of practice traditionally, and quite rightly, within the occupational therapy scope. From time to time, OTA receives reports of such practices, sometimes done with implicit approval of the responsible department or agency, which itself must answer to a minister in search of an immediate solution.
