Sarah: Hi, everyone. Welcome to another session of Conversations, and today we are having a conversation with Rebecca Purvis.
Hi, Rebecca. Thank you for coming today.
So guys, let me tell you a little bit about Rebecca. She’s the founder and managing director of the OT Group and has over 20 years of experience, Rebecca, you don’t look like you have 20 years of experience!
Rebecca Purvis: Very kind.
Sarah: …but you have 20 years of experience working within the disability field in Australia and the UK as well.
And you have a wealth of information and knowledge in a number of different settings. You’ve worked in acute hospitals and inpatient rehab communities as well as private practice. And you have worked with a number of different clients with physical as well as psychological disabilities. You have specialized training and experience in complex home modifications for adults and kids—injury management, workplace rehab, and occupational therapy driver assessment and rehab.
And wow! That is a huge diverse range. Tell me about where you’re at right now. You have OT Group?
Rebecca Purvis: That’s right. Yes. So Sarah, we are a group of experienced occupational therapists who work all over metropolitan Melbourne, as well as across regional Victoria and in Perth as well. We’re actually a rapidly expanding OT service.
We’re always looking to add OTs with different areas of experience to join our team.
Sarah: That’s right. Actually, being in the NDIS space, the need for OTs is so enormous that there is a long waiting list at the moment, but today, specifically, we’re not going to talk about other services. We want to just focus on the in-house driving school that you’ve got. As well as the driver assessments that you do as part of the NDIS—you know the requirements that some participants would have. Can you tell me a little bit about what is a driving assessment?
Rebecca Purvis: Yeah. So, a driving assessment incorporates essentially an offroad assessment where we hold an interview with a participant to collect information regarding their medical and disability background.
We look at vision and hearing tests. We look at physical health as well as any medications taken, sensory and cognitive screening, and then we also do a written road law test. That usually goes for about an hour to an hour and a half. And we call that the offroad assessment.
Once we’ve gained all the information off the road, we will then look at an on-road assessment but this is usually a baseline lesson with an NDIS participant who hasn’t had much experience on the road.
And then following the on-road component, we then look towards putting together an NDIS driving program, with lessons and ongoing development.
Sarah: So, if I was an NDIS participant looking to start my driving lessons, I’m a young person and I’m looking to get started, where would I go? And how would I go about doing the whole process? How would I start?
Rebecca Purvis: Good question, Sarah. It is a bit of a process and usually it starts with a medical report from the doctor which then goes into VicRoads, that would be a formal referral, through our online website.
Then we would put in what we call a clearance request to VicRoads, requesting clearance to proceed with the OT program. Once we receive clearance from VicRoads, we can then book them in and we commence their OT driving journey.
Sarah: So, would they have had to do their Learner’s beforehand or at which point would they start with their Learner’s licence—or at least do the theory component before they do the practical? Would that be before they get the doctor’s report, maybe they could start there?
Rebecca Purvis: Yeah. So, if they’re a participant who would like to obtain their Learner’s, they could be under a potential to drive program with any of our OTs—they’re all trained to manage potential to drive programs.
That OT would look at building the skills required, looking at road law knowledge and getting them really ready for their Learner’s, and then what would happen once they’ve got their Learner’s is we would switch them over to a driver-trained occupational therapist who would then manage the program from there.
Sarah: So I could come to you potentially as a participant and say, look, I want to get started. Can you even help me out with my Learner’s to get the theory part done? And then maybe an assessment, and then following that, driver training—is that the sequence that I would follow?
Rebecca Purvis: Yes, that’s correct. So any one of our occupational therapists look after these potential to drive programs, and then once they have obtained their Learner’s, that’s when it would come to one of our driver-trained OTs.
Sarah: And then you were talking about going to a doctor and getting a report. That would be after you pass your Learner’s, then you can go to the doctor. And what would generally be in this doctor’s report?
Rebecca Purvis: Let’s say it’s a pretty basic report. It’s recently become an online report for the GP to complete. Yeah, a pretty basic report usually mentioning details around the disability. Plus any medications taken. They put the visual acuity down as well. It’s a report that goes to VicRoads, with the medical history required to then allow the medical review team at VicRoads to provide clearance to proceed with the driving program.
Sarah: Would your OTs organize this and send it off to VicRoads perhaps? Or would it be the participant who has to?
Rebecca Purvis: Normally the participants don’t know much about the process when they come to us. So, we have a very detailed description on our website, with all the details around the driving programs and how they work.
Usually, our office management team would direct the participant’s mother to go to the GP and get the medical report done. And then once the medical report’s done, they would normally send a copy script as well, and then we would request clearance from VicRoads, at which time they would also send through a copy of the medical report to us.
Sarah: Right. So it sounds to me like, basically, if you wanted to get your driver’s licence, the first thing you’ve got to do is go and see an OT. Go and see the OT Group. They’ve got the whole path set out for you, and then you would go through the stages and obviously it takes a little bit of time and depending on the disability, the different avenues and one of them might be vehicle modification, for example. So how would that work in an OT setting and with your driver training as well?
Rebecca Purvis: So, we have as part of the OT Group, an in-house modified vehicle that has all the modifications, from a left foot accelerator, to all the hand controls, for those participants who are unable to use their legs for driving, and we have specialized driving instructors who are well-versed in teaching and looking at ways to drive with the use of vehicle modifications.
And we might do a number of lessons with the occupational therapist, so the occupational therapist works on which hand control is the most appropriate, for example. And then we would put together a driving program for our specialized driving instructors to follow.
Then we would commence the program and the occupational therapy. We’ll get in and out of the car, with every few lessons to see how the participant’s progressing.
Sarah: So, you have the driver-trainer and the OT in the car with you. Helping?
Rebecca Purvis: So, the driving instructor is in the dual-controlled vehicle and sits in the passenger side of the car with the two pedals.
Usually, our NDIS learners are brand new and they haven’t been in a vehicle before. So often in the first few lessons the driving instructors do a lot of intervening, so that may be grabbing the wheel, it may be using the pedals, and the occupational therapist sits in the back. And we sort of start the program from scratch. So, it’s quite an exciting time for everyone!
Sarah: It would be, I mean, driving just allows so much independence. You know, and I can say that for myself and for my daughter as well, when she got her licence—I’d never see her at home. She just goes wherever she wants to.
And you know, it’s great. You can do what you want. You can go wherever you want. And I guess, everyone is looking for that independence and, to be able to go through and be guided by someone who will hold your hand and take you through the steps at a difficult time because there is quite a lot to learn. It’s so wonderful. And then what happens at the driving test? Does the OT come along as well?
Rebecca Purvis: So, what we do, Sarah is, we start the program from obviously the Learner’s licence position, and there is obviously a number of lessons that they need to do. particularly if they’re under 21, they need to do 120 hours. If they’re over 21, which often they are in the NDIS space, we need to get them ready for their Ps.
Every now and again, the occupational therapist gets back in the vehicle, has a look at how they’re progressing with the driving instructor’s specialized driving instruction, and because we’ve got such great driving instructors we’ve been working with for years, normally the driving instructor will advise the OTs that they’re ready for their Ps.
Then we would do the final assessment, which will be on a VicRoads test route. And the therapist who is the assessor, and the driving instructor in the front always keep ensuring that the assessment is safe and comfortable for the participant.
Sarah: Rebecca, tell me, is the OT Group NDIS-registered as an organization?
Rebecca Purvis: Yes, we are registered.
Sarah: Super.
And as we know, there’s three types of funding that’s available for plans—it’s either self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed. So, depending on the type of plan that you’ve got and that specific category, you can either go directly through an NDIS service provider, like you contact an OT to get the work done, or you can come through a plan manager.
So, let’s say a participant has NDIS or NDIA-managed funding for that specific category. What would they do when they come and see you?
Rebecca Purvis: What happens is, when we have completed the baseline lesson with the participant, and they’re brand new to driving, we would then put forward a quote to the NDIA and that’s usually for a number of lessons, and it needs to be NDIA-approved before we can commence the program with the participant.
Sarah: So this process can, depending on how NDIS is going with their quotes, it can take a couple of weeks? What have you found, with that?
Rebecca Purvis: I think it’s been very difficult over COVID-19 times because I think there’s been quite a backlog. And we’ve also been on and off the road a lot. So, we’ve had lockdowns where we haven’t been able to be out on the road, and I think that’s had a bit of an impact on the other end of the quote approvals. I would say that we’ve experienced them probably taking a few months lately.
Sarah: Yeah, it does take a bit of time, but while that’s going on, you can already start preparing and learning about the road rules—there’s plenty to be done in that space.
So planning is important, right?
Rebecca Purvis: Yes. Good point. Yeah.
Sarah: I think we can wrap up driver training. We just wanted to give a little example of what could happen, but there’s plenty on your website. By the way, where are you based here in Melbourne?
Rebecca Purvis: Here in Melbourne. We are on Gordon Street in Maribyrnong. We’ve got a practice there. And we also have a practice in Bendigo.
Sarah: Oh, fantastic. And, do you have capacity to take on driver assessments and specialised driver training now?
Rebecca Purvis: We have a number of OT-trained drivers. So we are able to capacity check on new referrals.
Sarah: Fantastic. Thank you. And I’d love to ask you other things about OTs and what you guys do. But for now, thank you so much for coming today and see you next time?
Rebecca Purvis: That sounds great. Sarah. Appreciate your time.
Cheers bye.
But for now. Thank you so much for coming and see you next time.
Rebecca Purvis: That sounds great. Sarah. Appreciate your time.
Cheers bye.
