Short answer: usually not. What you need is funding, and that is a different thing.
Occupational therapy is not a referral-gated profession in Australia. You can contact an OT directly. What determines whether you can proceed is not a referral — it is how the sessions will be paid for.
No referral needed. What you need is occupational therapy funding in your plan, usually under Capacity Building — Improved Daily Living.
If it is in your plan, you can contact an OT and start. Your plan management type determines which OTs you can use: self-managed and plan-managed participants can use anyone, NDIA-managed participants need an NDIS-registered provider.
If OT funding is not in your plan, that is a conversation for your next review, and evidence of functional need is what supports it.
No referral needed. Under Support at Home (formerly Home Care Packages) occupational therapy is a clinical support, funded by the government. Your care partner or provider can arrange it, or you can contact an OT directly and ask them to speak to your provider.
You do not need a GP referral and you do not need a Medicare care plan.
Referral needed. This is the exception. There are two Medicare pathways to occupational therapy, and both need your GP. A GP Chronic Condition Management Plan covers a limited number of allied health sessions per calendar year, shared across all your allied health providers. Separately, under the Better Access initiative, eligible occupational therapists can provide mental health sessions on a GP referral.
The rebate does not usually cover the full fee, and the session limit is small. For most people with substantial or ongoing needs it is a supplementary pathway rather than a primary one.
No referral needed. You can contact an OT directly and book.
Some private health extras policies cover occupational therapy. Cover and rebates vary considerably between funds and policies, so check with yours — an OT cannot advise on your specific policy.
Hospital discharge planners often arrange community follow-up, but the arrangement does not always survive the discharge. If you were told an OT would be in touch and nobody has been, you do not need to wait for that referral to be chased. You can contact an OT yourself.
Rather than a referral, expect these questions on the first call:
Those four answers are usually enough for an OT to tell you whether they can help, roughly when, and roughly what it would cost.
On the Mornington Peninsula, make a referral online or ring 0478 687 771. If we are not the right practice for what you need, we will say so.
No. You need occupational therapy funding in your plan, not a referral.
No. Your case manager can arrange it, or you can contact an OT directly.
Only for Medicare-rebated sessions — either a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan or a Better Access referral for mental health OT.
Make a referral using the online form, ask a question, or just say hello. We reply within two business days.