Occupational Therapy regulation at work: Protecting the public in 2017/18

14 Feb 2019

A profession-specific annual report summary that looks into the work of the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia over the year to 30 June 2018 has now been published.

The report draws on data from the 2017/18 annual report by AHPRA and the National Boards. This information provides a snapshot of the profession as at 30 June 2018, and includes the number of applications for registration, outcomes of criminal history checks and segmentation of the registrant base by gender, age and principal place of practice.

Notifications information includes the number of complaints or concerns received, matters opened and closed during the year, types of complaint, monitoring and compliance and matters involving immediate action.

Insights into the profession between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018 include:

• 20,975 occupational therapists were registered.
• 2,471 new applications for registration were received.
• Occupational therapists made up 3.0% of all registered health practitioners in Australia.
• The number of occupational therapists increased by 7.5% from 2016/17 and occupational therapy was the fastest growing profession in the National Scheme.
• 91.0% occupational therapists were women and 9.0% were men.
• New South Wales (NSW) was the principal place of practice for most occupational therapists (5,881) and Northern Territory (NT) was home to the smallest number (182).
• The age bracket with the largest number of occupational therapists was 25–29 (4,630).
• 1,587 occupational therapists were under 25 years of age and 6 were aged 80 or over.
• 34 notifications (complaints or concerns) were lodged with AHPRA about occupational therapists and 34 notifications were closed.
• 57 cases were being monitored by AHPRA at 30 June 2018 for compliance with restrictions been placed on their registration.
• Immediate action was considered 4 times and taken 3 times.
• 14 complaints were made about possible statutory offences by occupational therapists during the year; 16 matters were closed. All of the new matters related to title protection.

To download this report or to view the main 2017/18 annual report, visit the AHPRA website.

For more information

• Visit the AHPRA website
• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers)
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200