A passion for people: Occupational Therapy careers at Rocky Bay

Oct 20, 2021

Occupational therapist Mariah sits with a customer. Both are wearing a black blouse and are smiling at the camera.

Our Occupational Therapy team open a world of everyday possibilities for our customers.

Whatever the goal, our dedicated team partner with individuals to get to know and understand what drives them, and strive to help them get there. Whether that’s improving strength, getting dressed independently, transferring from the bed or getting back to work.

Get to know some of our Occupational Therapy (OT) team, who have all recently moved into Advanced Clinician roles, find out what drives them and why they want to do what they do at Rocky Bay!

Birgitta Swed recently took on an Advanced Clinician opportunity at Rocky Bay. She has been an OT with Rocky Bay for three years, and for the past two years has focused on complex equipment and complex home modifications.

Birgitta said she rose to the challenge of the Advanced Clinician role for the mentoring opportunity it would give her, as well as the chance to make more of a difference for both customers and her colleagues.

“I really enjoy mentoring others and helping people develop their skills. I am also passionate about my work and wanted to explore ways we could improve the way we work.”

Birgitta explains that Rocky Bay is her employer of choice as the organisation has a real drive to improve how we work.

“In my working life prior to becoming an Occupational Therapist, I had experience working for several different organisations, both large and small. With this perspective in mind, I feel that Rocky Bay is an organisation that genuinely cares about their staff and their customers.”

Birgitta Swed

With a different area of focus in the field, Advanced Clinician Mariah Campana (pictured top of page with customer, Alana), who works in the neuro rehab space, has been supporting Rocky Bay customers since 2015 – but first as a support worker. She started studying to become an OT whilst working her supporting role at Rocky Bay.

“This is when I discovered that working in the community and disability sector really resonated with me. I kept my support worker role (at Rocky Bay) whilst I commenced OT work at a hospital. When an OT position came up at Rocky Bay, I had no option but to take the opportunity,“ Mariah said.

Mariah started her career as an OT working across the youth and adults teams, later progressing to the Neuro Rehab team as her passion in the area developed.

“As my time progressed and I took part in further upskilling opportunities in the neuro rehab space, and worked alongside an incredible team and multidisciplinary Advanced Clinicians, opportunity arose for an Advanced Clinician role it felt right to take it – and there was great encouragement from the team to do so,” Mariah said.

“Not only will I now be able to invest and immerse more deeply into the neuro rehab sector, but I can help guide, mentor and upskill upcoming therapists and share knowledge in the ever evolving area of rehab therapy.”

Mariah said that thanks to constant progression within her discipline, and the greater disability sector always evolving, her career never feels stagnant.

“I work with an incredible team which is priceless and I’m fortunate enough to work with such amazing therapists each day. I’ve always had support and feel like a valued member,” Mariah said.

“The variety of diagnoses, development of the disability sector as well as internal and external networking opportunities has enabled my own personal career development.

“It is a challenging role and sector to work in, with a number of barriers that impede practice, however, when you see a customer succeed in their therapy goals, when they invest their trust in you and you get to be a part of their journey, it makes it all worth it.”

Rocky Bay are on the hunt for allied health professionals in the areas of occupational therapy, speech pathology, neuro rehab, and physiotherapy. Click here to find out more about the various roles on offer.

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