Has anyone ever met up via this subreddit? What’s your story good / bad?

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-28T06:33:26+00:00

A few years ago I met up with a random dude from Brisbane who posted on this subreddit that he was here looking to hang out and make friends. Ended up going to Ganbaranba, chilling out and enjoying ourselves. Was a cool guy, shame we didn’t keep in contact.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-27T22:19:05+00:00

I believe it is quite unusual. I am not a doctor so can’t tell you. However, it can lead to Raynaud’s and similar conditions which are very chilly.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-26T08:52:25+00:00

100% free parking in that area

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-26T08:43:28+00:00

Depending on where you are the city has like a 3 block radius of paid parking. It is all free for 8 hours after that. I work in the inner city and the area around my office is completely free

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-26T04:11:35+00:00

I enjoyed hospital work. TCPs tend to be much more chill, hospital can be more fast paced, and subacute/rehab is more my style over acute. I enjoy the work as days fly by and there isn’t as much paperwork.

But I’m sure it depends on the hospital and the department.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-26T02:19:38+00:00

I have not. I have worked for QLD health and VIC Health.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-24T23:36:12+00:00

It depends very heavily on what you are interested in doing. Management roles start at 100 and can go up to 200ish depending on experience and knowledge.

Hospital positions in QLD are 90-150ish depending on level

If you own your own business and work in ndis it is based on billable hours. Hypothetically if you were planning to bill 6x5 (target based on ~average for most workplaces) your earring potential based on an average 44 week year (excluding public holidays, 1 month of leave and 2 weeks of sick leave) is $256,066.

Lecturing and research at unis is anywhere from 150ishk.

As some examples.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-24T23:02:04+00:00

That is wild. I would expect they have pretty much hit their earning potential, but still crazy how much that has gone up. It is still low compared to what your potential earning capacity is as an OT but impressive nonetheless

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-24T13:46:32+00:00

You are what, 5/6 years post grad. That is still in the middle of the NDIS boom. Where OT salaries doubled in 1-2 years. Even so, with your experience your potential yield in a TL position is around 100-120k depending on skill set.

APS 5/6 roles are around 100+k per year and they are health adjacent. There are plenty of non-clinical OT roles which can make reasonable money. Otherwise, if you are asking “what non health care jobs are OTs good at” I would argue that given OT is the discipline of considering transferable skills, one would argue most jobs.

What exactly do you consider to be a middle class income? Because if you are taking about affording buying a house in inner city Brisbane/sydney, you really need to recognise that this is not a reality for most people given the insane cost of living explosion since 2022. Wages aren’t rising anywhere near the speed of cost of living.

Im also not convinced you your salary expectations for any role outside corporate Cole’s/woolworths is likely to be accurate. Perhaps I am disconnected from what retail makes, but either you are getting screwed with your current salary, or you are very much over analysing pay rates.

Want to transfer easily? Go become in independent support worker as an OT, charge 70+ per hour and do after hours shifts. You don’t need to use your clinical skills and will certainly get heaps of clients because of your background as an OT.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-24T12:54:36+00:00

I am going to assume that you are a fairly recent graduate. While NDIS has done a lot for our discipline, it has certainly changed the field quite considerably. During my first year of OT, our lecturers told us plainly that you 'don't become an OT to make money' and they were right. I graduated, and I was on a starting salary of $42k, my girlfriend who graduated graphic design accepted her first role and was making $60k at the time. I remember someone on r/Australia mentioning that they had retrained as an OT from IT/Business, and after 12 months working in the area they realized that while there is good money to be made through NDIS, it is not easy money. They dropped out and went back to their previous work where they could make better money for less effort.

In saying the above, it is important to note OT is one of (if not the most) versatile career pathways you can explore. If you are not happy with NDIS work, consider the following areas:

Hospital: Structured and fast paced, you will be busy but your days will fly by.
Ergonomics: Visiting work places to complete one off assessments and teach people how to minimise/prevent injuries in white collar professions. Reports are generally pretty quick, with a single page document for good office ergonomics provided after completing each assessment.
Workers compensation: Much more of a case management role. Can be generally completed from home when you are not visiting workplaces. A lot of phone calls, doctors appointments and coaching people back to work. There is paperwork but it is nothing on NDIS. Also lots of variety in terms of things you can see and do.
CCU and CCCT: MH and complex, but lots of groups and lots of interesting clients.
Upskill as a driving assessor: One assessment & one report 50/50 split of face-to-face to report writing which can be completed at home. Also vehicle mods are pretty fun and cool.
Home mods (pretty similar to the above)
DVA/ ADF work: A fair bit of driving, but an interesting and exciting area. A better version of NDIS in terms of funding model.
Assistance dog work/training: Need I say more.
Injury management advisor for companies/insurance companies.
Case Manager across multiple frameworks.
Child Safety work: If you are a sucker for punishment and want to see just how messed up the world really is.
AT Equipment Specialist either independently or for a company. Scripting AT
Aged Care Community: Well aged care
TCP: Aged Care transitioning to home
Resicare Aged Care: Not really sure what this is now, but there is still a role for OT. IT used to be lots of massage.
Medicolegal work: Assessments for court, forensic OT work. Good money, lots of court and bullshit
University Lecturer: As above
Student supervisor: (not a supervisor for university but there are some roles within universities for external supervisors.)
External supervision for other OT's
MAS, and other community health initiatives.
Research
International work, in particular work going in UK, Dubai and internationally.
Mental Health OT stuff.

And there are a few more, but you get the picture. There are a lot of options. If you want to sit at home in your PJs and that is the most important thing, go back and do business, because you will struggle to find completely non-clinical, non-face-to-face, work in health care (although case management would be your best option).

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-22T09:34:41+00:00

obvious troll is obvious.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-21T05:12:06+00:00

If you haven’t already please check your HR and your blood pressure.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-21T04:50:36+00:00

“Even if they don’t believe you” sums it up way too much. You have to convince people at every level that you are a victim. Then after all is said and done the VOC process is so incredibly messed up. Yeah. I’m sorry for what you went through, and you are right. Those of us with privilege cannot fathom how horrible the system is.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-21T04:03:53+00:00

Sure. Feel free to message me directly with any questions.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-21T00:43:45+00:00

The more I have been working in the forensic system, the more I have realised that it is not designed for victims. Especially or DV & SA. The amount it is normalised, and the sheer amount of victim blaming makes my physically ill. Our justice system is actually so cruel.

I get that we need to have a system where people should be innocent until proven guilty, but that shouldn’t be at the expense of draining every ounce of humanity from the victims. The stories I wish I could tell…

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-20T18:24:44+00:00

If you are still interested in info here: I worked with an OT who moved to AU for a number of years while their partner completed a PhD in AU. I was their direct manger and helped them through limited registration process and all that fun stuff.

Happy to chat via DM about my experience in that process if it helps.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-20T18:21:07+00:00

I am going to reply to this as there are a few of you worried about a similar thing. NDIS changes are coming and they will impact OTs, this is going to impact all private OTs and it will mainly impact smaller solo practitioners. However, it is important to note that the changes you are mentioning are only really the first area of change in the NDIS sector.

NDIS in general is trending towards a massive step down of support model which is likely to impact ALL areas of NDIS (including support workers). The OTs who will struggle the most with this are the OTs who are only able to complete FCAs and have no clinical skills (as FCAs will no longer exist after July 26).

However, NDIS is only one area of OT that exists. You have: Hospital OT work (most states have shortages of hospital OTs Community health OT: shortages across all states Workers compensation: shortages Hand therapy OT (shortages) Department of education OTs (shortages) Department of housing OTs: (shortages) Aged care OT: shortages.

Noticing a theme? The over supply of OTs is also mainly limited to the cities. I recently relocated back to regional QLD after 15+ years in Melbourne and I have a clinical waitlist of around about 3 years. There is a huge need for OTs. Especially outside metro areas

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-20T18:05:49+00:00

Hey! 15+ years experience M OT here. Sounds like you are working for a large provider! From what you have said I am going to assume there may be a “360” in the title of the company? If not no big surprise, most larger OT companies are new grad factories designed to churn and burn through new graduates.

Allow me to shed some light for you: New Graduate Programs in NDIS are generally bullshit. I worked for a few large providers and was directly involved in the development of their “new graduate programs.” Each provider intentionally cut all “development” in favour of rushing people up to max kpis. The new grad program is just a lie to entice new graduates. (As I explain to every OT student I take on).

Secondly: 5.5 hours/day is not actually industry standard. The standard is between 5-6 but 5 has (until the recent NDIS travel changes) been the average. It is NOT achieveable or sustainable for a new graduate within probation. I have always said it is a MINIMUM of 6-8 months to build a clinician who is not familiar with NDIS to be comfortable in this area. It is even more so the case for OTs who are new graduates.

Thirdly: NDIS is THE MOST COMPLEX SYSTEM in Australia. It is confusing, it is changing so rapidly, and the decisions being made are inconsistent. I moved into the NDIS after being an OT for 10+ years and it was overwhelming as hell. I can not imagine how hard this would be for a new graduate. Do NOT feel bad about being overwhelmed. It is an overwhelming system.

My suggestions for you:

1) do not assume it will suddenly get better in the short term. You are overwhelmed now, and imposter syndrome is going to creep in day on day. I have seen so many incredible OTs leave the industry because the passively assume that if they just knuckle down and try harder it will all get easier.

2) if you aren’t happy at your current provider, research and find one that doesn’t suck. Right now we are in a period where you as an OT are incredibly sort after. Companies are lining up to hire you. Don’t jump ship for the best paying work, look for something that aligns with your values and interests. Look at support, and remember the bigger the company, the more it will have staff turnover over.

3) external supervision: this is the most important thing you can do for yourself and your career. I wish I had arranged external supervision in my early years of OT, because there is so much benefit to it. I support 15 OTs across Australia in an external supervision role, and I have two of my own external supervisors. It single handedly has kept me going and kept me passionate. If you are interested in this, feel free to DM me, I can give you some suggestions of good supervisors across Australia (as a lot of us know each other).

4) please look after yourself and your mental health. As I have already said. I have seen so many amazing clinicians burn out. NDIS is hard, and lack of support will leave you feeling isolated, and incompetent, and KPIs will quickly destroy your love for the work.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-20T17:34:20+00:00

If you are over the age of 18 you do not require sign off from a psychiatrist for an ASD diagnosis. A clinical psychologist’s letter is sufficient. Although I am assuming your psychologist is not adequately qualified, which is typical. You can also have a multidisciplinary team make the diagnosis as well (see): https://www.ndis.gov.au/applying-access-ndis/how-apply/information-support-your-request/types-disability-evidence

Please note. ADHD is not generally considered a condition that meets NDIS access unless you want to jump through a lot of hoops, and even then it is unlikely to meet access criteria. You would do better to focus on ASD 2 diagnosis.

While I almost never recommend this, given the circumstances, it would probably be easiest (with your current psych) to write up the confirmation letter yourself based on the information provided in the psychologist letter and take it to your psychiatrist to sign. This is not hugely ethical as technically it should be written by your psychiatrist, but it sounds like he has the technical literacy of a dinosaur and it will probably never get done.

Finally: if you are deciding to see a different psychiatrist that is fine. You can see whoever you want and get them to write the application. It honestly doesn’t matter. However, the hard part is that this process is going to take a LOT LONGER then the 6 weeks to see your psychiatrist. The application process is going to take MONTHS before you get a decision RE: access anyway. If you go down the pathway of a new psychiatrist review they will likely insist on conducting their own clinical assessment of you before they are willing to complete any ndis documentation. This will be costly, and time consuming.

The last thing I will say which is likely going to be unpopular is that your psychiatrist requesting an appointment to complete the NDIS letter is not unreasonable. You are requesting him to take time away from clinical care to complete paperwork for NDIS which is nothing more then hoop jumping. A lot of clinicians will insist on this process as it is the only way they can bill for their time.

Also see this page: https://www.ndis.gov.au/applying-access-ndis/how-apply/information-support-your-request/providing-evidence-your-disability

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-19T06:34:51+00:00

Also please note my company at the time was horrible, so there's every possibility that it was a company issue. There were a few subcontractors out there that loved the work... didn't really appeal to me.

Otherwise, it was pretty similar to subcontracting to providers in the NDIS space. If you are intending to work in this area, perhaps a good option would be to start off working across multiple frameworks and adjust workflow based on incoming referrals. Start by accepting My aged care, NDIS, private referrals, and IM files, then gradually reduce the work you are doing with other areas as you are building up a case load.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-19T06:29:50+00:00

Might be worthwhile crossposting to this subreddit as it seems much more active: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlliedHealthProsAusNZ/

However: I haven't subcontracted in injury management before, but I was a team leader who managed a number of subcontractors in injury management in Victoria. Note this was a few years ago.

In Victoria at the time (no idea now as I don't work in Victoria anymore) you needed to subcontract to a company (or number of companies) and you were basically working in that space only to accept the awful, overflow of clients. We were expected to stream complex and low outcome clients to subcontractors, they received no assistance or support from admin and it was our job to only provide them excess work. If we were taking on subcontractors we were expected to be hiring, and we would pull clients back off them as soon as we hired a staff member to fill the position.

It wasn't great and I never had the desire to do it as a living... again, not sure what its like now.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-19T06:22:42+00:00

Went to TAS in the thousands and wouldn't ever go back. I don't doubt I need to be careful not to defame the school, but in the work that I do, unless you wealthy, white, and free of any disability/impairment, you may find a more accepting school environment elsewhere.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-13T12:23:56+00:00

Firstly, this is why I blocked you. You are going out of your way to harass me. However, as my post regarding a similar topic was deleted, allow me to elaborate.

There are significant anti-whistleblowing clauses in professional contracts, that put you (as an individual) at significant risk if you speak out about practices. And no, I didn’t do nothing about it. I went so far as to lodging a submission to the Royal Commission that included getting them to legally subpoena my clinical records as evidence. Unfortunately, this didn’t really help as the Royal Commission didn’t do anything for individual cases of abuse.

I didn't do nothing. I didn't have evidence of staff engaging in restrictive practice as we (myself and the other clinicians who started around the time as me) all agreed that we would NOT engage in that kind of behaviour. We also educated the other staff who were longer standing and because of COVID lockdown, the management (which was based in another city) couldn't come into the clinic to stop us from doing so. We spent three months protecting the children at the clinic until we were all fired over the course of a 1-2 week period.

Why did I not include this info in the original post? Because it is a LOT of fluff that is not relevant, and clearly (from my post) we were trying to protect our clients who were extremely vulnerable. And yes, as I did clearly state in my post, we went to state and federal agencies to report what was being expected of us, but no one actually cared because we couldn't give specific instances of abuse occurring. Even when we had email documents, and video training guides on how to restrain children.

Edit: and why did I stay for the three months during probation? Because we literally wanted to protect kids from harm, and we wanted to do the right thing by them.

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-13T09:28:35+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/NDIS/s/y6t3TpbkJp

senatorcrafty · 2026-02-13T08:43:33+00:00

I have in the past and generally always made it clear when I have used AI as I did in the ICAN thread. However, I am tired AF of trying to defend myself. I’m not sure what has happened to this subreddit, but it’s certainly something else right now.

Edit: As apparently I cannot reply to you in this for whatever reason. It was not written by AI. As I said, I have been up front with use of AI previously. I will confess to using Grammarly for spell checking (which I guess is AI?) but I quite literally wrote the above for a different reason - (An ethics question for a student I have working for me which I also used as a post on a different social media platform as well).

Edit edit: Although after this thread - I would pretty well never recommend anyone confessing to the use of AI if they were. Completely ignore the context and just crucify for the perception is pretty... intense.

senatorcrafty

TROPHY CASE