WA Divisional Council

Chris is a passionate occupational therapist with a wide range of experience, both in acute hospital and community settings. Chris has a keen interest in the areas of neurological assessment and rehabilitation, disability services & driver assessment and rehabilitation. Over the past 18 years, Chris has established a successful private practice providing a range of community services for different funding schemes including NDIS & DVA.

Chris currently represents WA on the OT Australia National Driving Taskforce & NDIS National Reference Group, with a long-standing history of representing occupational therapy at a state level. Chris also co-convenes the Driving Interest Group in WA. Chris enjoys having input into a range of policy and environmental factors shaping our profession and is passionate about unifying the profession in this ever-changing environment.

Chris continues to work as a clinician & maintain current knowledge within his areas of practice through ongoing professional development and mentorship, & volunteering time to provide professional development opportunities for Occupational Therapists across Western Australia. Chris also has a passion for and has been involved in research and service development, with experience presenting at many state and national conferences.

Felicity Beaulieu has worked in health as a clinician, manager and leader for 30 years. After graduating as an Occupational Therapist from Curtin University and spending the majority of her career in acute care environments in Australia, the UK and Canada, she moved into the aged care arena 11 years ago.

Her focus is building sustainable organisations and improving services available for aged care clients in both community and residential aged care, integrating meaningful ageing into every aspect of service delivery.

Most recently, as the Chief Operating Officer (Residential) at The Bethanie Group, Felicity has been responsible for navigating the aged care industry changes across a portfolio of 1200 aged care residential places. Her passion for authentic care and active engagement has seen the nature of what is offered to aged care clients develop to begin to better meet the needs of future generations.

Felicity also maintains an active role as a mentor to support the development of future leaders, sits on the advisory committees for Edith Cowan University and Curtin University Schools of Occupational Therapy, and represents OT Australia and AHPA in state and national industry forums. Felicity regularly presents in state and national forums, on topics both clinical and leadership related.

Adele has worked for over 30 years as an occupational therapist in a variety of health settings in Western Australia, the UK, and the USA.

She has had extensive clinical experience in occupational therapy practice across all age groups and settings, specifically in the area of mental health. Adele is passionate about the unique contribution that mental health occupational therapy makes through sensory interventions, trauma-informed client-centred care, and occupational and psychosocial rehabilitation, to assist individuals and communities to achieve maximum health and wellbeing. Her considerable experience covers supervision and management of services and staff, change management process, new program and service development, research, risk management and quality practices.

As an occupational therapy manager, Adele promotes and fosters evidence-based practice, research, education, and OTA involvement to profile and promote occupational therapy as an essential service for the future.

Cindy has been an Occupational Therapist for more than 20 years, graduating in 1999 from Curtin University. Cindy has spent the entirety of her career in the area of disability, working with individuals with disability assisting them to engage in occupation, build skills and improve quality of life.

During her time as an OT Cindy has gained experience in complex seating and positioning, equipment prescription, lifeskills development and functional assessment. Over the past 10 years, Cindy moved into the area of positive behaviour support, utilising her Occupational Therapy background to perform functional behavioural assessments and prepare individualised support plans to improve the quality of life of individuals and build the capacity of their supporters to meet their needs.

Cindy has been in private practice since 2013, and has been engaged in the NDIS trial site and later full rollout since that time. She has expanded her skills further by taking on Specialist Support Coordination and becoming well versed in the many processes and policies of the NDIS.

Cindy is very active in the disability sector, she is a Committee member of the Community of Practice for PBS practitioners and is co-convener of the Support Coordination Consortium. She is excited to be extending her volunteer role to one centred on the promotion and support of Occupational Therapy in the community and to give back to the profession which has given her so much.

Alison Kelly is as an occupational therapist with over 30 years of involvement with the health, disability and community sector in local, national and international settings. This has occurred in a variety of contexts, including clinical care, management, service provision, leadership, research and education, which has fostered an enhanced understanding of translating policy and contextual factors into meaningful care and practice.

Alison’s current role is Chief Executive Officer for Therapy Focus – an organisation that employs allied health professionals from many disciplines to work together to provide seamless and effective multidisciplinary therapy. A key responsibility is to advocate on behalf of occupational therapy and allied health professions, whilst also promoting the needs of needs of individuals, families and the wider community. Alison joined the Divisional Council as an opportunity to contribute to work that enhances the OT profession, which in turn benefits the people we support.