Occupational Therapy for Adults

Every person deserves to choose how they want to live. Just because someone can’t speak, move, or think the way that they used to, doesn’t mean they don’t know what they want. People living with a disability have the same right to be included in society as everyone else, in a way that maintains their dignity and independence.

Everything changes with a new diagnosis. There’s grief and uncertainty because it’s hard to know what comes next. People feel guilty, that their care is a burden on loved ones. It’s lonely when friends stop visiting, and it makes them feel like they are invisible and don’t matter. Just getting out the door is exhausting and requires a lot of effort.

We support people in iCare (Lifetime Care and Support, Dust Diseases Care, and Workers Care) and from CTP and other insurance schemes, who require significant support to coordinate their treatment, rehabilitation and care needs.  We have strong local networks with multi-disciplinary team members and support worker agencies who are passionate and skilled in supporting people with significant injuries to deliver coordinated, collaborative and comprehensive care.

We support clients who have had significant injuries or conditions from a car accident or work injury with their recovery phase, throughout their life, and end-of-life care. This may include conditions such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, amputations, lung illnesses (such as mesothelioma, silicosis, asbestosis) and other conditions where people become eligible for access to icare (Lifetime Care and Support, Dust Diseases Care, and Workers Care), CTP and other insurance schemes. 

We work collaboratively with our extensive local network of health clinicians, medical team, and support networks to help you to reach your goals in a coordinated and comprehensive way.

Our team has significant experience supporting people to access simple to complex assistive technology to meet their needs. We will design a comprehensive strategy that considers your all of life goals and needs, and how the equipment interacts in your environment. This could include solutions like wheelchairs and other mobility devices, cushions, complex seating and positioning, pressure care and comfort equipment, electric beds and mattresses, hoists, power lift recliner chairs, mobility devices, mobile shower commode chairs and much more.

We walk alongside you on your journey to ensure that the whole process is followed from assessment to delivery, setup and training, and long-term maintenance, so that you have the equipment you need in working order, and the skills to use them. We have creative solutions to help when budgets are limited, or when waiting for approvals, and develop maintenance plans schedules to reduce risk of vital equipment breaking down.

• Wheelchairs and Cushions: From a basic small wheelchair, up to very complex power wheelchairs and beach wheelchairs, we’ll get you out and about in comfort and style.
• Hoists: Getting stuck in a chair or bed can be scary, and when family and carers try to help by lifting they become at risk of an injury. When it gets hard to get up from chairs or out of bed, we use a range of hoists to help to reduce the moving and handling risks for your carers. From floor hoists to ceiling hoists there are options that can help when you need it. 
• Electric Beds and Mattresses: We don’t take moving around in bed for granted. If it’s getting hard to move in bed, people become at risk of pressure injuries. A great combination of an electric bed and pressure relieving mattress can give you back confidence so that you can get a great night’s sleep.
• Power Lift Recliner Chairs: A chair that is fitted to your needs can make it so much easier to get in and out of your loungechair. A good fitting power lift chair can help you to get out of your chair as independently as possible.
• Bathing equipment: We’ve helped thousands and thousands of clients to be able to get back to having a bath or shower through using equipment and home modifications, to get back to showering or having a bath as independently and safely as possible. Every person’s situation is different, so we will design a strategy that will work for you. We can assist with simple solutions such as a shower chair or grabrail, up to complex, customised mobile shower commode chairs.

If you have a muscle that moves, we can put it to work to access technology that keeps you connected with your world.

• AAC: It’s a human right to be able to communicate and express your needs, and we help people to do this through their electronic devices. We work with Speech Pathologists to setup technology solutions for AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) including switch control and mounting of devices.
• Computer Access: We integrate your technology systems so that you can access your computer, phones, tablets and other devices so that you can stay connected with family and friends. 
• Adaptive Gaming: We have a range of adaptive gaming options you can try so that we can design solutions to keep you participating in electronic games for fun and maintaining social connections.  From PC Gaming, Playstation, Xbox and Switch, we can assist you to get back to playing your favourite games. If you’ve not played games before we can help you to explore a range of games like puzzles, word games, racing, sports and other games that keep your mind active and engaged.
• Home Automation: We work closely with specialised electricians to design integrated home automation solutions so you can control your home environment using as little as a twitch from a muscle.

Occupational Therapists support people with life-limiting illness to participate in essential and meaningful activities, focusing on maintaining ability, dignity, a sense of control and quality of life.  At Capable Spaces, we understand that palliative and end of life care impacts on the person with the life limiting condition and those who love and support them. We offer person and family centred care throughout the end-of-life care journey.   We bring a wealth of experience working with people living in the face of dying and have a compassionate, holistic and flexible approach to help people adjust to changes as their condition progresses.

Living with cancer can impact on physical, cognitive and emotional wellbeing.  Occupational therapists can assess and support people with a range of cancer-related symptoms throughout their cancer journey from diagnosis while undergoing treatment and beyond.  We can support people with choosing the right assistive technology and home modifications to maximise independence and with strategies for the management of cancer-related symptoms such as fatigue, pain, cognitive changes and breathlessness.  We support people to engage in activities that are meaningful to them.  Our team is well connected with local Oncology and Palliative Care services and has established a strong local network of other multi-disciplinary team members who are similarly passionate and experienced working in the Cancer Care space.  

We support people to maximising their independence while maintaining safety for those with complex neurological conditions. Some of the conditions we regularly treat include spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinsons Disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s Disease (HD), Young Onset Dementia, and other complex neurological conditions.   

We bring our skills and experience and work closely with our strong local network of passionate multi-disciplinary team members to deliver coordinated, collaborative and comprehensive care.

Our occupational therapists design home modifications suited to meet your needs, with solutions that add beauty and value to your most precious asset. 

• Home Automation: We design integrated home automation solutions so that you can control your home devices. If you can’t physically operate devices in your home, we will design an integrated system so that you can operate your home environmental controls such as automatic door openers, windows, blinds, air conditioners, lighting, security cameras, video door chimes and more.
• General Home Modifications: We assess your home modification needs and design modifications based on the Australian Standards AS1428.1 for solutions such as ramps, modified steps, platform lifts and other access modifications, handrails and grabrails, bidets, and minor bathroom modifications. We will connect you to a wide network of colleagues working in complex home modifications if you require extensive complex home modifications. 

Mental Health OTs aim to enhance the individual’s independence, social inclusion, and overall well-being.

We support Individuals with mental health conditions such as Depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia, and for those who may experience severe anxiety, depression, psychosis, and significant social isolation, which may be impacting on your daily functioning. Mental health Occupational Therapy can assist you with

• Assessments: complete assessments to identify your specific needs and challenges.
• Personalised Intervention Plans: Develop a tailored intervention plans to address your needs, focusing on skill-building activities for self-care, work, and leisure.
• Capacity Building: Provide training in daily living skills such as cooking, cleaning, and personal care. Offer cognitive rehabilitation to improve memory, attention, and problem-solving skills.
• Social Skills Training: Help improve social interactions and communication skills, and facilitate participation in community activities to reduce social isolation.
• Stress Management: Teach techniques to manage stress and anxiety, provide strategies for coping with mental health symptoms.
• Community Integration: Support community participation and integration, assist in finding and engaging in meaningful activities and roles within the community.

Being able to move, mobilise, get in and out of beds and chairs, and in and out of showers is critical for people to be able to live safely with dignity. We also want to avoid any risk of injury to a carer, from people lifting and carrying people when it could lead to a back injury. 

We design a comprehensive moving and handling programme with you and your support team incorporating 

• Equipment (such as hoists, electric chairs, electric beds, and mobile shower commodes and other manual handling options)

• Home modifications

• Moving and handling protocols 

• Educational programmes and team training days so that everyone supports you in a consistent and safe manner.

Being able to access the supports that you need through NDIS requires comprehensive and skilled report writing to justify the funding request that meets the requirements of NDIS legislation. We regularly complete detailed and comprehensive reports including

• NDIS Access Assessments
• Functional Capacity Assessments
• Home and Living Assessments
• Supported Independent Living (SIL)
• Specialised Disability Accommodation (SDA)
• Assistive Technology
• Home Modifications

When someone has changes in their physical abilities, cognitive abilities such as planning, memory or safety awareness or fatigue, managing daily household tasks can be extremely challenging.  With our team of Occupational Therapists and Allied Health Assistants, we can help people identify their strengths and barriers in managing household tasks.  Whether these are new skills to learn to be more independent or you need help to find new ways of doing these tasks, the Capable spaces team can create an individual plan to build capacity with a range of household tasks such as:

• Cooking
• Cleaning
• Shopping
• Budgeting, paying bills and financial planning
• Routine building
• Community access such as public transport training 

Caring for someone takes time and energy and it’s incredibly draining. Watching family members battle complex health conditions, we’ve seen how sustainable support from experts eases the load on family members, so don’t have to bear the responsibility of all care. Our aim is to look for ways to keep clients alive, well and thriving so they can do what they want to do in life.

• Family and Caregiver Education: Provide education and support to families and caregivers. Offer strategies to encourage independence and participation in daily tasks.
• Moving & Handling training and equipment to decrease your risk of injury
• Supports: Requesting supports to help you at home so that what you do is more sustainable. This can include domestic assistance, lawn maintenance, personal care supports and community access