We have a strong focus on working with people who have neurological conditions, such as Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and Huntington’s disease. Our core services include Home Modifications, Assistive technology/Equipment, Home and Living and therapy support.
We exist to provide exceptional therapy services that support people with disabilities in our community.
LAUREN HART – OPTIMAL LIVING THERAPY FOUNDER
We believe in providing personalised care for every client. Our team of Occupational Therapists work closely with individuals, understanding their unique goals and challenges to develop tailored solutions that help them to get there.
We value open and honest communication and take the time to discuss your specific situation to ensure that our services are the right fit for you. We’re an NDIS and ICWA registered provider.
Quick Facts
As of September 2021, the NDIS has provided support to over 500,000 Australians with disabilities, helping them to lead more fulfilling lives and actively participate in their communities.
Since the NDIS’s introduction, 80% of participants reported an increase in their ability to access the services and supports they need, ensuring a more inclusive society for people with disabilities.
The NDIS not only benefits participants but also provides essential support for their families and carers. 93% of families and carers reported that the NDIS has made a positive impact on their ability to support their loved ones with disabilities.
At Optimal Living Therapy, our vision is to enable and support people with disabilities to achieve the level of independence they desire and can attain.
We are committed to applying creative thinking and problem-solving skills to tackle challenging issues, seeking innovative solutions that enhance the lives of our clients.
We strive to be genuine partners to our clients, placing them in the driver’s seat of their therapy journey. We believe in empowering individuals to take charge of their progress, making informed decisions about their care and aspirations.
We also recognise the importance of investing in the growth and development of our team. Our team receive continuous support, and a nurturing environment where they can evolve into the Occupational Therapists they aspire to be. This ensures that our team is equipped to provide exceptional support and care to the clients we serve.
Through these principles, Optimal Living Therapy strives to create a positive impact on the lives of our clients, fostering independence, self-determination, and making a valuable contribution to the people we work with.
A snapshot of our history
FOUNDED
OLT was founded in 2016 when Lauren started working as a sole trader in community rehabilitation with clients following motor vehicle accidents through ICWA. In 2018 Lauren needed support so she incorporated OLT and Therese Sullivan (our now Operations Lead) came on board as our first team member.
REGISTERED AS AN NDIS PROVIDER
In mid 2019 the NDIS roll out had mostly occurred in Perth and the demand for an OT service working with clients who had complex neurological disability was high, so Lauren and Therese decided to register as NDIS providers and start working with a few clients to understand the scheme.
HIRED OUR SECOND/THIRD TEAM MEMBER
Once we were working in the scheme we found our skillsets were well suited to working in the NDIS, and were soon overwhelmed with referrals, and so we set out to recruit a new team member in June 2019. Soon thereafter, we brought our fabulous Practice Lead on board because the admin was overwhelming and it was not our strong suit!
SDA | HOME LIVING
In October 2019 the SDA Design standard rolled out and Lauren became a registered SDA Assessor after working in SDA as an OT/Livable Housing Assessor since it started in WA in 2018. At this stage we also deep dived into the SDA Rules and developed our SDA assessment template, and developed our Home and Living Service which is a key pillar of our services today.
OPENED OUR OFFICE
In June 2021, our team had grown steadily to a team of 12, with demand for our services continuing to grow we needed a space to collaborate when we didn’t want to work from home, so we opened OLT HQ in June 2021.
EXPANDED TO GREAT SOUTHERN
June 2021 was a big month; we expanded our service to the Great Southern across June/July and went operational in August 2021 servicing Albany, Denmark and the surround communities. This was a big learning curve for us all, but an exciting step to start to provide services to a regional area.
LAUNCHED OTUITION
In March 2022 we launched OTuition, a solution to the learning problem we were finding within our team and the wider OT community. Entrenched in the Home and Living space it was challenging to teach every new team member that came on board the complexities of SDA and SIL, information that we’d built up over years wasn’t translating in PowerPoints to our team, or external OTs seeking mentoring in this space. We decided to spend the time capturing all of our knowledge and templates into formal e learning courses that were engaging, practical and quickly implementable into practice. We are continuing to build and add to OTuition and have big plans in 2023/2024.
WON GRANT WITH F2H
The move to the Great Southern really opened our eyes to the service shortages facing participants in regional areas. With workforce challenges even more prominent we started exploring how we could reach and support more people, without more OTs. This led us to exploring an Allied Health Assistant model, and a FIFO model with Fly2Health. As we were embarking on trials and plans for this a grant became available to address the exact issues we were trying to solve and so we applied and got it! That was September 2022, we commenced in October 2022 and we are now 10 months into a 16 months grant to deliver an Allied Health Assistant training framework in that region.
WHAT’S NEXT IN THE JOURNEY?
Who knows, but our mission to deliver high quality, high integrity OT services to Perth and the Great Southern continues, as does our intent to contribute to solving some of the education and mentoring challenges OTs are facing in the NDIS environment.