We are Australia's peak body for the profession of occupational therapy

Occupational therapists are a core part of the Australian mental health workforce. Occupational therapists work across the spectrum of mental illness, providing early intervention, prevention, and treatment services to people with mild, moderate and severe mental health conditions.

They deliver services to people with relatively common conditions such as anxiety disorders, as well as more severe conditions which require targeted interventions, such as psychosis and trauma-related disorders.

OTA’s Mental Health Strategy was launched on 25 November 2022 at the Mental Health Forum, and will see OTA deliver a range of actions over two stages.

A brutal bushfire season, ongoing drought, a pandemic that has so far lasted for more than two years, and once-in-100-year floods coming twice in a month: these are the challenging scenarios many Australians have lived through in recent years.

So what can we learn from our individual and collective responses to challenging times? How have everyday Australians adapted? What did they do that enabled them to not just cope, but in some cases thrive against the odds?

These are some of the questions explored in the stories of ‘Doing Our Best: Individual and Community Responses to Challenging Times’ - a new book from Occupational Therapy Australia.