Mental health endorsement applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Hold registration to practice as an occupational therapist with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia.
• Hold current membership with Occupational Therapy Australia.
• Have at least two years of full-time equivalent supervised mental health experience as a qualified occupational therapist. Example: A practitioner working 2.5 days per week exclusively focused on mental health (0.5 FTE) would need to work for four years to gain the necessary mental health experience. Note: your supervisor does not need to be OTA mental health endorsed, however, needs to be experienced in the relevant area of mental health practice.
• Have a minimum of six months of full-time supervised mental health experience in the last five years.
• Have had training and clinical experience in the use of mental health risk assessments (including mental state assessments) and safety planning with a mental health lens.
• Ability to demonstrate the mental health capabilities outlined in the Mental Health Endorsement Application Form. We strongly encourage you to read OTA's Mental Health Capability Framework before embarking on the endorsement application process.

OTA has developed a series of resources to support you with the application process.

Maintaining Endorsement
In order to maintain mental health endorsement, endorsed occupational therapists must meet the following criteria:

• Continue to be registered to practice with Ahpra and meet the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia registration and competency standards.
• Occupational Therapy Australia general membership must be maintained.
• Complete 10 hours of mental health specific continuing professional development (CPD) each year. If practising under Medicare, all ten hours of CPD must be associated with the Focussed Psychological Strategies (FPS) outlined by Medicare and should be relevant to mental health diagnoses covered under Medicare.
• Maintain active engagement in professional supervision. Supervision should generally occur every four to six weeks, though practitioners may benefit from more frequent supervision at early career stages or when developing capability with new client cohorts, mental disorders, or therapeutic interventions. Supervision may include peer supervision.

It is the practitioner’s responsibility to notify OTA when there are any changes to practice which may impact practicing status and eligibility for this scheme.

OTA randomly audits a percentage of endorsed mental health practitioners to ensure they are meeting the CPD and supervision requirements and endorsed practitioners may be asked to provide evidence of having undertaken appropriate CPD and supervision activities.