Community Health Therapy Services
The aim of community health is to meet the needs of individuals unable to access funding through the NDIS, ECEI or TADS.
The objective for the St.Giles community based support program is to think outside the square, or more importantly, remove the square altogether.
Therapy services at StGiles funded by the Tasmanian Government
The Tasmanian Government funds to provide:
- Community Health Therapy Services – Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology
- Developmental Assessment Team (DAT)
- Tasmanian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service (TPRS)
Physiotherapy
Children can access physiotherapy service if they are:
- Birth – 18 years and have problems with gross motor skills or problems with gait (how they walk)
- Have a misshapen head ( plagiocephaly )
- Have problems with clumsiness, low tone and coordination issues
- Have problems with lower limb biomechanical issues (e.g. flat feet, knock knees, bow legs) or posture.
Occupational Therapy
Children can access the community health occupational therapy service if they are:
- Birth – 18 years
- Babies or toddlers with delayed milestones
- Experiencing delays or difficulties in the following areas:
- activities they need to do daily (e.g. learning to get dressed, using cutlery, feeding themselves, toileting, playing with toys/others)
- sensory challenges (e.g. cutting hair, sleep, brushing teeth, picky eating, upset easily by loud noises, dislike of food/sand etc. on their hands)
- school related tasks (e.g. handwriting, concentration, organisation)
- fine motor (e.g. using scissors/pencils, handling small objects, using two hands)
Speech Pathology
Children can access the community health speech pathology service if they are:
- Birth – school aged (i.e. no longer eligible once a child has commenced kinder including home schooling, or delaying entry to kinder)
- Experiencing delay/disorder in the following areas:
- Receptive language (understanding of language)
- Expressive language (use of language)
- Speech sounds
- Experiencing stuttering or difficulties with voice
- Experiencing the following difficulties with feeding:
- Difficulties with transition to solids
- Difficulties with swallowing/feeding
- Picky eating
Developmental Assessment Team (DAT)
To access the Developmental Assessment Team (DAT) at St Giles you must:
- Be an Australian citizen, resident or hold a permanent visa holder (including refugee and humanitarian visa)
- For children aged 12 to 30 months:
- Identified as needing further assessment following completion of a Social Attention and
- Communication Surveillance (SACS) assessment.
- For children aged over 30 months but prior to kinder aged
- Live in Northern or Southern Tasmania only
Tasmanian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service (TPRS)
The Tasmanian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service (TPRS) supports children and adolescents with a functional impairment who will benefit from a program of developmentally-appropriate, time-limited, goal-focused, interdisciplinary rehabilitation.
This includes children and adolescents with congenital and/or acquired conditions following events such as recent injury, illness or surgery, who have goals amenable to a defined period of rehabilitation.