With the introduction of the NDIS has come to the opportunity for many who could not afford much-needed therapy to access these services. However, what has not happened is an increase in the number of therapists to provide this. In fact, many therapy providers have moved away from supporting people with a disability due to regulatory requirements under NDIS.

Occupational Therapy has been the hardest hit for lack of therapists, with speech and Psychology very close behind. Think about what year 12 student even knows what Occupational Therapy is? Let alone chooses to study it at university.

Go on as many waitlists as you can – you can always remove yourself when you get service elsewhere.

If you can put yourself on services cancellation lists – most services receive around 15% of appointments cancelling in any week – with short notice you could get weekly therapy through some cancellation lists

Ensure your therapist is supervised and trained – with such big shortage providers may be tempted to pay salaries that are inflated and to cover costs decrease supervision and support to therapists so they can see more clients. Given the high number of new graduate therapists entering the area, this could affect the quality of services. New graduate therapists benefit from 2-4 hours of supervision and support each week and extra time to prepare and research – this impacts on how many clients they can see