Growth in demand for speech pathologists and occupational therapists through the NDIS has helped an Albury-born graduate to return to the Border.
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Jade Telfer completed a Bachelor of Health Sciences – Speech Pathology at Charles Sturt University in 2013, and moved to Melbourne to work with therapy organisation Everyday Independence.
The organisation was conducting outreach in the Border region from a base in Bendigo, but growing need prompted Ms Telfer to initiate talks about opening a branch in Albury.
Ms Telfer, as team leader, and three staff recruited locally have begun taking referrals with the business opening this week in the same building as Murray River Spine.
“A big part of our work is occupational therapy – that helps people become independent in their homes,” she said.
“We have two OTs, we will be looking to recruit a physiotherapist and hope to keep growing the team in Albury.
“We will also do outreach in outlying areas and go where the clients are – the evidence suggests people get the most out of therapy in their home environments.”
Working in Melbourne, Ms Telfer dealt regularly with people recovering from brain injury, including those referred on by the Transport Accident Commission.
“That was unique to the site I was working at, the other big part of the work we do is with children who have developmental delays, and a lot of sites are driven by the NDIS which will be similar in Albury,” she said.
“One of our large sites is in Geelong, where the first NDIS trial happened, and that’s where we’ve got most of our experience.”
Ms Telfer said the scheme had increased fexibility for use of funding.
“We’ve seen amazing outcomes for adults living with a disability, and for young children who might not have had the funding before or who weren’t accessing mainstream school previously,” she said.
“It’s opening up opportunities for them to have choice and control and it’s really rewarding.”
For more information about the service call 1300 179 131.
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