After the Crisis: Supporting Women’s Long-Term Recovery from Domestic Violence in Everyday Occupational Therapy Practice - 15 OCT 26
The Women's Health Interest Group invites you to their October meeting.
Program Overview
This is a free, member only session. This meeting will not be recorded.
Please join the Women's Health Interest Group Community via OTA Connect here before registering.
MEETING DETAILS
TOPICS:
After the Crisis: Supporting Women’s Long-Term Recovery from Domestic Violence in Everyday Occupational Therapy Practice
A woman’s history of domestic violence rarely walks into an occupational therapy sessions labelled as such. She may be there for her child’s development, a hand injury, a mental health referral, or a return to work session, but the lasting impact of past violence sits quietly behind all of it, undisclosed and unaddressed, while the clinical attention goes entirely to the reason on the referral form. For many women it continues to shape occupational performance and participation for years after they are safe.
This session asks occupational therapists, wherever they practise, to treat long-term occupational recovery from domestic violence as a legitimate clinical goal and consider the trajectory that faces women, as more than just being safe. Drawing on current research, it explores why occupational injustice can persist long after safety is achieved, why goal setting so often defaults to children and short term needs at the expense of a woman’s own recovery, and why trauma-informed practice matters as a default way of working with every client. This session is for every occupational therapist who has ever wondered what is really sitting behind the referral in front of them, and what they can do in their everyday practice to support long term recovery.
SPEAKERS:
Dr Rebecca Waters
DATE:
Thursday 15 October 2026
TIME:
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | AEDT NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM | SA
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | QLD
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | NT
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM | WA
MEETING PLATFORM:
This session will be run on the Zoom Webinar Platform. Registrants will be sent separate login details one business day prior to the session. Please check all email folders for this information. This meeting will not be recorded.
If you have questions regarding the Zoom system requirements, please visit: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/categories/200101697-Getting-Started
REGISTRATION FEES & INFORMATION
OTA Member: Free
If you are a non member who wishes to attend please contact us to discuss your options.
Registrations close Tuesday 13 October 2026 11.59pm AEDT
MEETING DOCUMENTS & RESOURCES
Agendas, resources and meeting minutes are available for members to download on the IG page once we have received these from the convenors. This meeting will not be recorded.
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DISCLAIMER
Any material, content, advice or resources shared and discussed at interest groups is general in nature and is used to guide peer discussion and support only. Occupational Therapy Australia encourages all participants to think critically and appraise the content for individual circumstances. Occupational Therapy Australia does not necessarily endorse content delivered in these formats and accepts no liability for any consequences resulting from adhering to the content shared at interest groups. All opinions expressed by the convenor or other participants are the opinions of those individuals and do not represent or reflect the views of Occupational Therapy Australia, its affiliates or employees.
Interest Group Participants
By registering to attend, participants agree to actively contribute and show respect to all other participants. We ask you to take personal notes and monitor the Interest Group webpage for meeting resources. Occupational Therapy Australia reserves the right to remove members from an Interest Group at its discretion.
Presented By
Dr Rebecca Waters
Presenter
Dr Rebecca Waters is a Senior Teaching and Research Academic in the Curtin School of Allied Health, Curtin University, and a registered occupational therapist with a career spanning more than 35 years across disability, aged care, mental health, complex case management and academia. Her research focuses on the intersection of occupational therapy, disability, and family and domestic violence, including work on occupational justice and recovery after intimate partner violence, practitioner responses to disclosures of abuse, and trauma-informed service design. Her particular interest lies in understanding how occupational therapists can better support women leaving violence post-crisis and in the longer term.