Senior Occupational Therapist - Older Persons Community Mental Health

Job no: 946581
Work type: Full time
Location: Adelaide Metro Northern
Categories: Allied and Scientific Health
  • Northern Adelaide Local Health Network – Modbury Hospital – MODBURY SA 5092
  • Salary: $112,139 - $120,284 p.a. plus Superannuation and Salary Sacrifice benefits – AHP3
  • Ongoing Full-Time

About the Role:

This is an exciting opportunity to work within the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network as a Senior Occupational Therapist within our Older Persons Mental Health Service.

As the Senior Occupational Therapist, you will be responsible for the development, implementation, coordination and evaluation of quality Occupational Therapy services for clients within the Older Persons Mental Health Service of NALHN, including the supervision and mentoring of junior staff.

What You'll Be Doing
  • Delivering specialist occupational therapy assessment and intervention for older people experiencing mental health conditions within a community setting and inpatient setting across the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network catchment
  • Contributing to multidisciplinary care planning, risk assessment, and recovery-focused goal setting alongside psychiatrists, nurses, and allied health colleagues
  • Providing clinical leadership and supervision to junior staff and students, supporting a culture of reflective practice
  • Engaging with consumers, carers, and community supports to promote functional independence and meaningful occupation
What You Bring
  • Current registration as an Occupational Therapist with AHPRA
  • Demonstrated experience in mental health occupational therapy, with exposure to older persons or aged care settings highly regarded
  • Confidence conducting comprehensive functional and cognitive assessments in community environments
  • Applied knowledge of the South Australian Mental Health Act and relevant legislative frameworks
  • Experience contributing to or leading clinical supervision within an allied health context
  • A current driver's licence and willingness to travel across the northern Adelaide metro area

To be eligible for this position, you must an Appropriate Degree or equivalent qualification which entitles registration as an Occupational Therapist with the Occupational Therapy 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 and make a lasting impact on the lives of our elderly community.

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 Hospitalthe major hospital in northern Adelaide for emergency care, complex and multi-day surgery, medicine, obstetric, paediatrics and outpatient services.

Modbury Hospitala general hospital with emergency care, elective surgery, medicine, outpatient and sub-acute services, rehabilitation, geriatric and palliative care.

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

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

Primary Health Care Servicesincluding 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):

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

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

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants are encouraged to apply. Job Ref: 946581

Enquiries:

Suzzanne Porcaro

Principal Occupational Therapist

Phone: 0410 049 288

E-mail: suzzanne.porcaro@sa.gov.au

Application Closing Date:

21 August 2026  11.55PM

Role Description and Further Information:

Download File 946581 - Senior Occupational Therapist - AHP3 -Mental Health - Role Description.pdf

* Refer to the SA Health Career Website How to apply for further information.

 

Advertised: Cen. Australia Standard Time
Applications close: Cen. Australia Standard Time

Back Apply now Refer a friend

Categories

SA Health

Locations

Metropolitan South Australia

Work type

Local Health Network / Business