Frequently Asked Questions

OT intervention may involve:

No. The Potential Ability Group is able to provide Occupational Therapy support to people of any age.

There are a number of rebates and funding support options available for children, young adults and adults. Please refer to our fees and funding supports for detailed information.

Our fees for NDIA and DVA clients are set by these government agencies. To be fair and equitable to all our clients we maintain these fees across all clients by department, regardless of whether funded by these agencies or privately.

Please refer to our fee schedules.

To be fair and equitable to all our clients, travel is averaged out as applicable and shared between all clients, so no one is disadvantaged by being the first or last appointment of the day (travel to and from appointment) or advantaged by being the second, third, etc, client who don’t pay a travel fee because the therapist is already in the area. This allows us to set low and fair fees upfront.

Our fees are set to be fair and equitable to all our clients, so frequency, time of day of appointment and location do not impact anyone or disadvantage them. Travel is set to only cover our costs and we often charge significantly less than the NDIS permissible rate (relevant for NDIS funded clients only).

Yes, reports take time to complete by the OT's and include specific information. Sometimes it is not necessary to have a typical report at the end of an intervention, and depending on the circumstances you may prefer a summary email from the therapist for example. If you would like a written report, please advise your therapist or our friendly office staff. Please note that some funding bodies require a report at the end of an intervention, this cost will likely be covered by that body, however if you have any questions please contact us.

Anyone can refer. However a GP or specialist referral is required for some funding support options, such as Medicare and DVA. Please call the office to discuss this process. To make a referral, please fill in our online referral form.

Please complete a referral form. Our friendly admin team will liaise with you to complete the referral and once processed be in touch to book an initial assessment.

We currently have a waiting list for ongoing weekly/fortnightly services in some regions. If applicable, we are happy to add you to our waiting list and contact you as soon as there is availability. Please contact the office if you would like to check this prior to completing a referral.

Generally speaking, once we have all the required information we can allocate an OT within 72 hours and then book the initial assessment as soon as possible dependent on the OT availability.

This will depend on the individual, however as a guide an assessment is on average between 1 and 1½ hours and a therapy session runs on average between 45 minutes to 1½ hours. We don’t utilise shorter appointments as this simply doesn’t allow enough time for the OTs to complete a thorough assessment / therapy session and longer appointments allow us to have less frequent sessions, so less travel fees also.

No, at The Potential Ability Group we come to you. This allows our therapists to observe the client in their own environment and means that the challenge that they are experiencing can be better understood. It also allows the therapist to best plan therapy with the available tools/space in mind.

A TCA, or Team Care Arrangement, is a Medicare funded referral which allows a client with a chronic medical condition/s to get input from their regular medical practitioner (doctor) as well as other health professionals, such as Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Dieticians and more. These health professionals work together to provide a team approach to the client’s needs.

TCA’s were formally known as EPC (Enhanced Primary Care) Plans. A TCA is put in place by a client’s doctor and must involve at least two other health professionals. These other health professionals report back to the doctor. The doctor will hold regular reviews of the TCA with the client to discuss progress towards their goals and further input needed.

A TCA referral can cover up to 5 allied health appointments through Medicare in the one calendar year, and the referral itself lasts one year from the date of referral. At The Potential Ability Group there is a gap payment for services even with a TCA referral, please discuss the costs with our office staff as you will be required to pay on the day of your service.

Yes – The Potential Ability Group is registered to provide supports under Therapeutic Supports, Early Childhood Supports, Home Modification, Behaviour Support and Custom Prosthetics. The common Support Categories include ‘Improved Daily Living Skills’, ‘Finding and Keeping a Job’ and ‘Improved Relationships’.

At The Potential Ability Group, our Occupational Therapy team works closely with families, teachers, and other supports to implement strategies to help our client’s engage in occupations in their home, at childcare, kindergarten and school environments. The term ‘occupation’ refers to what we do to fill our time, and what has value to us. For children these occupations could include:

Occupational therapists apply evidence-based approaches that are holistic and client and family centred to provide effective intervention.

To answer your question directly, it’s not. We don’t actually have a ‘Head Office’ or any office space for that matter. As you may know, all our OT sessions are conducted in home, community or in school, so we don’t need a physical office space or therapy rooms for our OTs to work from. Our administrative and management teams all work from home offices and are connected online. Our team is spread across South Australia, servicing different areas and most live local to the region they provide services. McLaren Vale is simply a central location for many of our staff and it is where our mail goes. Think of it as a virtual office for the business.

The Potential Ability Group believes in work-life balance, we want our team to relax and spend time with their families on the weekend.

We have a number of service agreements with both government and non-government organisations and are available to discuss contract/locum opportunities with other organisations, requiring Occupational Therapy services, please contact us and ask to speak with one of our Senior Clinical Lead Occupational Therapists.