Elsabé Du Preez

Focus on Potential is a nation-wide assessment, psychology, and rehabilitation provider.

• Reports Reviews: Assess and edit clinicians' reports under ACC Behavioural Support Services (BSS) and Training for Independence Advisory Service (TIAS) contracts, ensuring reports are free of spelling, grammar, and formatting errors, meet required writing standards, are coherent for readers, and comply with both funder requirements and company policies.
• Referral Processing and Allocation: Manage processing and allocation of BSS and TIAS referrals, ensuring timely and accurate assignment to appropriate professionals.
• Approval Processing: Handle incoming funding approvals for BSS and TIAS, ensuring all documentation meets necessary criteria and informing relevant clinicians accordingly.

• Assessment: Assessed clients who sustained serious physical injuries, evaluating their abilities, as well as their support needs related to their ACC-covered injury(s). Used tools such as Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and, when relevant, Overt Behaviour Scale (OBS).
• Report writing: Compiled detailed, comprehensive reports that provided evidence-based information to inform individualised rehabilitation plans for ACC clients with physical, sensory, and/or cognitive disabilities.

ACC is a New Zealand government organisation that provides accident insurance cover for accidental injuries to New Zealand (NZ) citizens, residents, and visitors to NZ.

• Partnering: Partnered with physical injury clients, coordinating support needed during critical stages of their rehabilitation.
• Collaboration: Collaborated with clients, families/whānau, providers, and other stakeholders to address intensive and extensive needs of these clients.

Hands Out West (HOW) is a Hand Therapy clinic specialising in the treatment of conditions affecting the hand, wrist, forearm, and elbow. It provides hand therapy services in West Auckland. Clients either self-refer, or are referred by General Practitioners (GPs), specialist consultants, or other health professionals.

• Assessment and Treatment: Assessed and treated clients with hand and/or upper limb conditions, including post-injury and post-surgical cases. Utilised both subjective and objective assessment techniques, such as joint range of motion, grip strength, weight bearing, manual palpation/testing of joints and soft tissue, along with other specific and targeted tests. Treatment included managing wounds, scars, swelling, pain, sensation, joint stability, movement, and strength. Additionally, fabricated custom orthoses to support healing tissues, and simple pressure garments to aid oedema management.
• Collaboration: Referred clients to consultant hand specialists for surgical opinions as needed, and worked closely with them to ensure a unified approach, achieving optimal outcomes for our clients. Additionally, collaborated with other stakeholders such as GPs, other rehabilitation professionals involved, and funding agencies like ACC.

Hands On Rehabilitation is a hand and upper limb rehabilitation clinic, helping clients who has hand and upper limb conditions or injuries achieve maximum function and optimal outcomes. Has eight clinics throughout Auckland, and one clinic in Whangarei.

Job description as above.

The Hand Institute is a hand and upper limb clinic located in Northcare Accident and Medical Centre in Rosedale, Auckland. A team of hand therapists and hand surgeon work together in this clinic, providing collaborative care for their clients.

Job description as above.

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board (HBDHB) is a public health organisation operating under the Ministry of Health. It offers a wide range of healthcare services and programmes to the Hawke's Bay region, aiming to improve the overall health and wellbeing of the local population.

• Treatment: Based at Hawke's Bay Hospital and Napier Health Centre – provided treatment for clients referred by local hand surgeons, GPs, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Managed a caseload of 40-50 patients – all relatively complex cases, usually with long-term and intensive treatment plans that needed regular review.
• Satellite Clinic: Established, and ran a satellite hand therapy clinic at Napier Health Centre twice a week.
• Collaboration: Established good relationships with onsite hand surgeons, and jointly reviewed challenging cases.
• Service Development: Contributed to development of hand therapy service at the hospital by giving presentations on clinical topics at both Hand Therapy and Occupational Therapy in-service meetings.

AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold mining company. It runs its own hospital and health clinics to treat and prevent occupational diseases and injuries.

• Rehabilitation Services: Provided inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation for AngloGold employees, primarily miners injured in the workplace. This included vocational, spinal, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation, as well as hand therapy. Provided rehabilitation services to clients who sustained spinal cord injuries on duty and resided in an onsite residential care facility. This included prescribing assistive devices, such as wheelchairs and wheelchair accessories as needed. Many clients experienced Stage III–IV HIV/AIDS, which added complexity to their management.
• Departmental Duties: Compiled and maintained Standard Operating Procedures and Treatment Guidelines, wrote patient reports, and conducted departmental Health & Safety audits.

The Limpopo Province Department of Health provides quality healthcare services that are accessible, comprehensive, integrated, sustainable, and affordable for the people of the region.

• Assessment & Treatment: Assessed and treated inpatients and outpatients – both individually and through group sessions, including the coordination of a cerebral palsy support group. Sessions took place either at the hospital, or at clients' homes.
• Outreach: Participated in health outreach programmes, both at satellite health clinics and at schools.
• Assistive Devices: Prescribed assistive devices such as wheelchairs and universal cuffs, and fabricated custom hand and upper limb orthoses and pressure garments.
• Departmental Duties: Developed annual departmental business plans, prepared reports, and managed administration functions including supplies and inventory.
• Leadership & Professional Supervision: Supervised Occupational Therapy students, and overseen Occupational Therapy Assistants.
• Networking & Leadership: Ran staff meetings, and participated in hospital, district, and provincial meetings, forums and workshops.