Season 6 Episode 7: Beyond the Waitlist: Building a Service That Supports Your Community

In this episode of OT Coaching Confidential, I’m joined by Luana, a paediatric occupational therapist who stepped into private practice 12 months ago after almost a decade working across clinical practice, leadership and education.

Now running a mobile paediatric practice in a regional community, Luana has gone from wondering where her referrals would come from to managing a full caseload and a growing waitlist.

Together, we explore what happens when the challenge is no longer finding enough work, but deciding how you want your service to show up for your community. We unpack different ways of supporting families beyond ongoing one-to-one therapy, creating clearer referral and intake pathways, and valuing your expertise when opportunities arise outside traditional clinical work.

We explore:

Moving from managing a waitlist to thinking about how you want to service your community

Creating referral pathways that gather the right information before families reach your waitlist

Rethinking weekly and fortnightly therapy as funding models change

Assessment pathways, one-off consultations and other alternatives to ongoing therapy

Designing a caseload around the way you actually want to practise

Using parent education, workshops and school consultation to support your broader community

Deciding when offering your expertise for free is worthwhile and when it needs to be paid

Moving beyond the NDIS hourly rate when pricing consultation and professional learning