Scope of Practice (Inclusionary Criteria) – Who we can help

• Children and young adults with developmental disorders, delays or difficulties.  This may include toddlers as young as 15 months, but does not generally include support for infants (under 12 months).
  
• We do not have an age cap for clients wishing to start therapy.  We emphasise that we are a paediatric clinic, with paediatric focused assessments, resources & interventions available.   We do support neurodivergent adults who have developmental goals (e.g. adults with down syndrome, intellectual impairments, or autistic individuals for whom we expect can make progress with developmental interventions, and our clinic-based resources).

• We support clients who have developmental goals.  We do not provide therapy for skill ‘maintenance’, for rehabilitation, for vocational specific skills e.g. working or driving. 
  • We can support goals related to underlying developmental areas related to study or employment, e.g. self organisation, navigating new environments, social communication, or communication for self advocacy.

• As we are a clinic based service, we only provide services where there is reasonable expectation for therapy done in-clinic to make a difference.  E.g. if a client has community access based goals, or for home iADLs and the skill is best taught on-location, we may refer to a community based service, or address a different goal.
  
• We support clients to transition from Cooee if the following criteria is met.  When;
  •  Their goals are no longer developmentally focused 
  •  Their goals are outside of our scope of practice i.e. including:
    • Behaviour support – see Behaviours of Concern (BOC) point below
    • AAC device prescription (see below)
    • Complex feeding or dysphagia support (incl, PEG, NG Tubes, Swallow ax)
  • Their current presentation in the clinic setting doesn’t allow for meaningful engagement in therapy, or endangers themselves, other clients or the clinician physically, emotionally or psychologically.
  • The client or their family can no longer identify meaningful participation level goals (i.e. that ongoing therapy is expected to create a change in the client’s participation at the environment level)

Exclusionary criteria

• Clinical services outside of our clinical scope of practice (listed below)
  • acquired brain injuries (e.g. childhood stroke)
  • vocational or work-related goals
  • goals around community independence or skill maintenance – as these are best worked on in community settings.
  • clients needing complex AAC device prescription,
  • infant feeding support,
  • dysphagia (swallowing disorders) support,
  • home modifications
    
• Children/Young adults (17 years+) who are working on goals related to recruitment, employment, community access (e.g. volunteering, gaining a licence, etc) or maintenance of current life skills (i.e. no longer expected to improve/develop skill set).
• Clients/Young Adults (17 years+) who do not have any participation level goals (ICF), who have an ongoing disability/diagnosis.

In the case of regulation difficulties

For most children, especially those who are still young, having the parent in the session is sufficient to support regulation & manage behaviours when therapy is challenging.

Some children have difficulties with regulation, that can go beyond parent’s ability to support in therapy, including:

• Behaviours of concern that may cause harm to themselves, other children or the Cooee team
  • These behaviours may be physical, psychological or emotional in nature
• Safety concerns, e.g. absconding/running out of the clinic
• Documented Positive Behaviour Support Plans (BSP) that include restrictive practices

In these cases, during your Client Journey Planning session the clinician will conduct a risk assessment with you, and form a plan around how to keep your child & other people safe while they attend therapy.

Your therapist will also recommend the best service delivery model for your child, for example, having SP & OT joint sessions, or including an AHA in your session if that is clinically appropriate.

In rare cases where children’s behaviours present an unmanageable risk, you may be referred to another clinic (e.g. mobile therapist) to provide home based services if that is deemed to be the safest option.

If we agree that Cooee is not the right support for your child, we will not charge you for your Client Journey Planning Session.