Senior Occupational Therapist - NRICH Service and OASIS Unit

Therapy Coalition; Adelaide; On-site; AUD 112,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) is seeking a Senior Occupational Therapist to lead geriatric assessments and care across two services in Adelaide. You will supervise OT staff, mentor students, and drive service improvements while delivering expert functional and cognitive assessments for both inpatients and outpatients.

Registration as an Occupational Therapist with AHPRA is required. The role supports a values-driven, collaborative team within SA Health, offering ongoing

Qualifications

• Registration as an Occupational Therapist with the Australian Board is required.
• Senior clinical experience in aged care, geriatrics, or acute hospital settings.
• Ability to supervise and mentor OT staff and students.

Responsibilities

• Lead comprehensive functional assessments and discharge planning for older patients.
• Provide clinical supervision and professional development to junior OT staff.
• Contribute to service improvement, audits, and evidence-based practice.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to deliver patient-centred care.

Skills

Senior-level OT experience

Functional & cognitive assessments

Discharge planning

Clinical supervision

Interprofessional collaboration

Education

OT registration (AHPRA)

Job description

• Northern Adelaide Local Health Network – Lyell McEwin Hospital & ACH Healthia - ELIZABETH VALE 5112
• Salary: $112,139 - $120,284 p.a. plus Superannuation and Salary Sacrifice benefits – AHP3
• Ongoing Full-Time

About the Role:

Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) is looking for a Senior Occupational Therapist to bring clinical depth, collaborative instincts, and genuine commitment to older adult care across the Northern Adelaide community.

This role offers an opportunity to work within two unique services:

• The Northern Reablement and Intermediate Care to Return Home (NRICH) Service. This state-first hospital substitution service is delivered in partnership with ACH Group, at the HEALTHIA Residential Aged Care Home in Elizabeth South. Together, the ACH Group and NALHN, provide specialist multidisciplinary aged care support for NRICH patients across 24 hours a day, seven days per week. The team provide medical oversight, care coordination and an individualised reablement program to optimise functional independence in a home-based setting to support safe discharge to home.
• The temporary Older Adults Supportive Interim Stay (OASIS) Unit is a 20-bed service that provides short-term person-centred care to Older People who are medically and behaviourally stable and awaiting transition to their next care environment. The OASIS Unit provides a care environment that is more home like when compared to that of a traditional acute or sub-acute ward. It is designed to maximise wellbeing, preserve physical function, support behavioural stability and facilitate timely access to longer term care within a RACH.

What You'll Be Leading

Working within the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN), you will deliver expert occupational therapy assessment and intervention to geriatric inpatients and outpatients, while contributing to a multidisciplinary team dedicated to complex geriatric care. Your core responsibilities will include:

• Conducting comprehensive functional assessments, discharge planning, and home environment evaluations for older patients with complex needs
• Providing clinical supervision, mentoring, and professional development support to junior OT staff and students
• Contributing to service improvement initiatives, clinical audits, and evidence-based practice development within the Geriatric Service
• Collaborating with medical, nursing, and allied health colleagues to deliver coordinated, patient-centred care across the care continuum

What You Bring

• Demonstrated senior-level clinical experience in aged care, geriatrics, or acute hospital settings
• Strong skills in functional and cognitive assessment, including standardised geriatric assessment tools
• Proven capacity to provide clinical supervision and contribute to a positive learning environment
• Sound understanding of discharge planning within SA Health's model of care frameworks
• Effective communication and interprofessional collaboration skills in complex, multidisciplinary environments

To be eligible for this position, you must have an appropriate Degree or equivalent qualification which entitles registration as an Occupational Therapist with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia

About You:

In this role you will have strong interpersonal and communication skills which will enable you to successfully problem solve, resolve conflicts and negotiate, including the ability to engage in difficult conversations, whilst building and maintaining relationships. An ability to effectively manage multiple, diverse and competing priorities and demonstrated resilience within a stressful and complex environment is essential to this role.

This is an excellent opportunity to contribute to a passionate, highly driven, dedicated and progressive team.

About Us:

The Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) is a leading provider of public healthcare services in South Australia, and one of the largest employers in northern Adelaide.

NALHN serves over 400,000 people in northern Adelaide with a comprehensive range of high-quality healthcare services, including emergency, surgical, obstetric, neonatal, paediatric, oncology, geriatric, palliative care and rehabilitation, and mental health care, as well as primary health care services with a focus on community health promotion and chronic disease management.

With a commitment for ongoing upgrades to our facilities and the introduction of new services, our priority is delivering exceptional health and wellbeing services that enhance the quality of life for our community.

Our 300-plus Allied Health professionals play an integral role in multidisciplinary teams delivering outstanding care to patients across our acute, subacute and hospital avoidance services.

At NALHN Everyone Has a Story, Everyone Matters, Everyone Contributes and Everyone Grows.

At NALHN, we have a strong commitment to providing a clinically interesting professional experience, with structured and supportive education and professional development, and career progression pathways.

Some feedback from current employees about working as Allied Health Professionals in NALHN includes:

“My favourite part about working in NALHN is the close working relationships we have across Allied Health to optimise patient care.”

“I feel like I’m part of a growing and developing service.”

“I love the great team dynamic and the culture of learning and support.”

Our Local Health Network Sites and Services:

NALHN provides a range of hospital (inpatient), outpatient, community and home-based services across multiple sites in Adelaide’s north and north‑eastern suburbs, including Aboriginal health, mental health, and GP services.

Lyell McEwin Hospital – the major hospital in northern Adelaide for emergency care, complex and multi‑day surgery, medicine, obstetric, paediatrics and outpatient services.

Modbury Hospital – a general hospital with emergency care, elective surgery, medicine, outpatient and sub‑acute services, rehabilitation, geriatric and palliative care.

Mental Health Services – adult and older persons mental health services and statewide forensic mental health services, across hospital and community settings.

Watto Purrunna Aboriginal Primary Health Care Services – provides culturally responsive primary healthcare services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in‑hospital and across four community sites.

Primary Health Care Services – including GP Plus sites at Elizabeth, Modbury and Gilles Plains.

Benefits of working at NALHN:

From salary packaging to flexible working arrangements, a large range of opportunities for movement and career progression, you’ll find there are lots of benefits of working with Northern Adelaide Local Health Network.

Incremental wage increases in-line with the Allied Health Professionals, Assistants and Psychologists Enterprise Agreement 2025

Access to experienced clinicians across a broad range of expertise, who are supportive of collegial sharing of skills and knowledge in different therapies and client presentations.

Salary packaging is an option for saving money by paying for some of your everyday expenses from your salary before it is taxed.

Relocation assistance may be available for successful applicants from interstate or overseas.

NALHN supports and fosters a culture in which employees feel they belong and feel safe at work. The culture aims to encourage all people to use their talents and to be valued and rewarded for their contributions.

In addition to this, other benefits of working as a Senior Occupational Therapist in NALHN include:

• professional development opportunities. We have a well-established Allied Health Education unit which offers high-quality, targeted in-house training, and under the current enterprise agreement staff are also eligible for a Professional Development Allowance and entitled to claim reimbursement of eligible professional development expenses to allow you to continue to build upon your professional foundations
• opportunities to participate in research. NALHN have an Allied Health Research Chair, who is able to work with clinicians and teams to support clinical research
• regular clinical supervision, allowing you to receive individualised support, learning and development to help you achieve your career goals

SA Health is committed to providing an inclusive workplace that embraces diversity and inclusion for all employees. We strongly encourage applications from people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, culturally diverse backgrounds, members of the LGBTIQA+SB community and people who live with disability and/or neurodivergence.

We are committed to making workplace adjustments to provide a positive and supportive work environment. You are encouraged to let us know if have any support or access requirements during the recruitment process and beyond to ensure you can perform at your best.

The South Australian public sector promotes diversity and flexible ways of working including part-time. Applicants are encouraged to discuss the flexible working arrangements for this role.

Appointment will be subject to a satisfactory Criminal History Check.

Check(s):

• DHS Working With Children Check (WWCC)
• National Police Check (National Police Certificate) for aged care sector screening – apply to any of the accredited bodies approved to offer a service direct to the public. Accreditation is provided by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. See our National Police Certificate accredited bodies page for links to lodge screening requests.

Immunisation Risk for this position is – Category A (direct contact with blood or body substances)

SA Health Services are required to implement the Adressing vaccine preventable disease: Occupational assessment, screening and vaccination policy in the workplace.

Job Ref: 953199

Enquiries:

Office of Aged Care, Rehabilitation and Palliative Care

Phone: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

Application Closing Date:

6 November 2026 – 11.55PM

Role Description and Further Information:

953199 - Senior Occupational Therapist, NAGS - ACRPC - AHP3 - Role Description.pdf