25 August 2021 posted by Recovery Partners

It’s a question many university students and graduates of Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy or Exercise Physiology ask themselves: Why choose a career in Occupational Rehab?

Brendan Allen is a Rehabilitation Consultant with Recover Partners who is passionate about encouraging students and graduates to choose a career in Occupational Rehab.

“Occ rehab gives you the opportunity to build positive working relationships with your clients. For me, that is why I chose to work in health, to build strong professional relationships with people and assist them to achieve their goals. I think this sets Occ Rehab apart from a lot of acute hospital settings, where you don’t get as much opportunity to build relationships with your clients,” says Brendan.

“Occ Rehab can offer great career progression and a wide range of flexibility to progress your career and provide leadership and direction to others,” he continues.

If you want a diverse career where you’re making a meaningful difference to people’s lives, Occupational Rehab is a smart and rewarding choice.

Variety and skills

Every day really is different. You certainly won’t find yourself staring at a computer screen from 9 to 5. Occ Rehab allows you to work autonomously; you get the freedom to manage your own caseload, calendar and time, which in turn allows you to have great work/life balance.

The variety of work is great. You have the chance to work with Same Employer Services, New Employer Services, as well as conduct single service Functional Capacity Evaluations, Pre-Employments, Activity of Daily Living Assessments and many more.

Brendan describes the different skillsets he uses each day.

“You use your clinical skills in a range of contexts. For example, I can be using my clinical knowledge to discuss treatment plans with Physiotherapists/GPs, my verbal communication skills to build rapport and ensure all parties are up to date as well as my written communication skills to provide professional email updates to key parties. I also get the opportunity to use my time management skills to organise my calendar and tasks.”

Every day is different

“My work changes from day to day. In the morning, I might be out on the road using clinical knowledge then back in office in the afternoon completing pre-employments. Or I might be at a work site assessment, followed by a client lunch then completing an ergonomic assessment later on,” Brendan explains.

“There’s also plenty of single service assessments where I can use my clinical skills. Functional Capacity Evaluations, Activities of Daily Living assessments, ergonomic assessments and plenty more. There’s definitely a lot more to Occ Rehab than just doing case management.”

Meaningful relationships

The real highlight for Brendan is the clients he works with.

“Most importantly, each day we get to work with people from all walks of life. You get the opportunity to support your clients from when they are confused and overwhelmed with their injury and the return to work process, to when they are back at work. It’s really rewarding to see clients recover and return to a point where they are happy and healthy.”

Why choose Recovery Partners over other allied health providers?

Now you have better insight into the daily life of a Rehab Consultant, let’s discover why working at Recovery Partners is so rewarding.

“Recovery Partners has so much to offer and a genuine desire to help people and companies to prosper. We were also in the top 10 Great Places to Work in Australia in 2020,” Brendan humbly brags.

Professional development

“Recovery Partners really take an interest in you and help you achieve your career goals. I’ve had opportunity to attend multiple professional development courses. Recovery Partners also offer talent mapping, if you have a particular area of interest, you can carve out a unique role for yourself…. I’m interested in promoting this career path to students and grads and have had many opportunities to do so, including helping to write this blog and participating in the University of Newcastle Allied Health Employment Expo.

Flexibility and travel

Recovery Partners have officers all over Australia so you will have the chance to travel and work from major cities and regional areas. This is a fantastic way to diversify your work and grow your network. Your work as an Occupational Rehab Consultant offers a lot of flexibility. You have control over your calendar and there are work from home options.

“For example, the recent lockdown in Newcastle, we have had the flexibility to immediately transfer all work to working from home. You can also opt to work from home as required to fit in with your personal schedule,” says Brendan.

NDIS

Brendan explains the most unique part of working at Recovery Partners is the work they do with the NDIS.

“A really unique aspect of working at Recovery Partners is working with the NDIS. You can choose to do clinical work under NDIS, only Occ Rehab work, or a combination of Occ Rehab and NDIS work, giving you the best of both worlds.”

Company culture

Last but not least, Recovery Partner have an outstanding company culture, including wellness initiatives such as Audible subscriptions and Take Your Dog to Work Day.

“I’ve made really good mates at work. One of our values is Friday Fun and we do activities such as dinner, going out for drinks, bowling or virtual cocktail classes.”

Brendan values the friendships he has made almost as much as the company parties he has been to.

“Finally, we throw great parties (covid pending) where they will fly you and your partner to the event. At our End of Financial Year party we had an awesome band, face painter, balloon maker, as well as pass the parcel with Tiffany necklaces and Chanel cologne.”

If you or someone you know is interested in a career in Occupational Rehab, visit our Careers page.

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Disclaimer – these articles are provided to supply general safety information to people responsible for OHS in their organisation. They are general in nature and do not substitute for legal and/or professional advice. We always suggest that organisations obtain information specific to their needs. Additional information can be found at https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/