Senior Occupational Therapist

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• Parental Leave Cover
• Part Time – 30.4 hours per week (flexible start and finish times)
• Macleod location

Austin Health is the major provider of tertiary health services, health professional education and research across three campuses in the north-east of Melbourne and statewide. We have a highly engaged, diverse and collaborative workforce that is unified by our goal to help people live healthy and fulfilled lives. 

About the department

Booboop Narrakwarren Nagarra-Jarra -noun (BNNJN) is part of the Mental Health Division within Austin Health and is a newly established Service situated offsite from Austin Health in a purpose-built facility.  The SCFC is one of many programs within Infant, Child, and Youth Mental Health Service (ICYMHS) and provides a specialised therapeutic residential service for children aged up to 12 years who have experienced adverse life events.    

About the role 

The Senior Occupational Therapist will integrate occupational therapy knowledge of and experience in how mental health, social, emotional, behavioural, systemic, and environmental factors impact children’s and families’ motivation, roles, routines and occupational performance within the developmental context of childhood and family life 

The Senior OT is an integral part of the team, collaborating on groups, formulations, treatment, discharge planning, capacity building, program planning, quality improvement and service development.   

 A regular day will see you: 

• Contribute to the understanding of the child’s strengths and difficulties from an occupational performance perspective and support the understanding of sensory processing and the role of sensory interventions in the treatment of trauma related behaviours, providing recommendations to support co-and-self-regulation awareness and self-regulation strategies at an individual / group / family / staff / school level. 

• Assist in the coordination of the Centre’s group therapy program. 

• Provide psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions to children and families residing at the Centre  

• Provide discipline specific and / or clinical specialist expertise and assessments that both contributes to excellent clinical outcomes for children and their families as well as the parents/carers and within care systems. 

• Coordinate referrals and admissions of children and families to the Centre 

• Liaise with relevant community agencies, provide secondary consultation, training and promote the service to wider community   

About you 

If you are passionate about working with children and families and have knowledge and experience in the use of current theoretical approaches and best practice and enjoy being part of a multidisciplinary team and contribute to the development of shaping the future of an innovative child and family mental health team, we are keen for you to join us! 

To be successful in this role you’ll bring with you:

• Display a high level of knowledge and practice in, the principles of recovery-orientated, trauma-informed, family-centred, and collaborative care and expertise in engaging children and their families within a range of settings. 

• Provide high quality, evidence-based clinical assessment, risk formulation and treatment at an individual or systems level as indicated by clinical need. Treatment modalities may include individual, parent, family, and group therapy. 

• Support the leadership team in providing direction and leadership, based on expert clinical knowledge and experience, in a multidisciplinary team environment. 

• Demonstrated ability to provide secondary consultation to families, and to primary and other specialist service providers on behalf of the team (at a senior clinician level). 

• Willingness and ability to work flexibly outside business hours. 

Our benefits 

Working at Austin Health means enjoying a strong sense of purpose, engaging in meaningful work every day. Our people also receive a variety of rewarding benefits, including: 

• Greater take-home pay through generous salary packaging, for living expenses, meals, and holiday accommodation. 
• A suite of wellness initiatives designed to support you, including discounted fitness memberships and special offers on health insurance, and a comprehensive wellbeing program. 
• Onsite childcare at Austin Hospital, easy access via public transport and car parking options. 
• Mentoring and career development opportunities. 

Work with us! 

We are committed to cultural safety and health equity for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander People. We celebrate, value, and include people of all backgrounds, genders, identities, cultures, bodies, and abilities. We welcome and support applications from talented people identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, people with disability, neurodiverse people, LGBTQIA+ and people of all ages and cultures. 

If you feel this role is right for you, we encourage your early application. Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, we encourage you to apply. What matters most is your passion, your drive and your willingness to learn and contribute. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and interviews may take place prior to the closing date. This means we reserve the right to close a job ad prior to the advertised closing date. 

All appointments are made subject to a satisfactory National Police Check and if required, a Working with Children Check. If you require any reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process, you are welcome to reach out to the hiring manager: Christine Denton, Child and Family Centre Manager at Christine.DENTON@austin.org.au

Interested in finding out more about this opportunity? Read the position description for further details. 

Application closing date: Wednesday 4 February 2026