Andrea Mosley

For the past 30 years Andrea Mosley has been involved in clinical Physiotherapy and the education of undergraduate Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and Nurses. Education programmes have focussed on: the use of validated functional outcome measures to assess and monitor the progress of people with neurological and orthopaedic disability, manual handling for health professionals and injury prevention and rehabilitation in the home and work place. Andrea is a member of the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapy.

Mark Shirley

Mark Shirley graduated from Otago University as a Physiotherapist. He has since worked in various community and hospital based rehabilitation teams. Mark travelled to the UK in 2003 to study and work providing the assessment and rehabilitation of people with serious injuries including physical and behavioural challenges. He returned to New Zealand in 2005 to establish the RATA Team with Andrea Mosley. Mark is currently completing a post graduate diploma in Rehabilitation at the Auckland University of Technology.

Susan Jackson

Susan Jackson is an Occupational Therapist. She graduated from the Central Institute of Technology in Wellington. A community occupational therapy position bought her to Dunedin, and following this she has worked in general hospital wards, geriatric assessment and rehabilitation, and in multi disciplinary rehabilitation teams. Susan is a member of the New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists and secretary of the Brain Injury Association(Otago) Susan co-established the Dunedin Stroke Club and the weekly recreational brain injury group. She counts her working highlight as "working with individuals' who have sustained varying injuries, in particular spinal and brain injuries, and facilitating them in their everyday activities to achieve meaningful lives".

Erin Davis

Graduated from the Otago School of Occupational Therapy in 1998. Initially she work in Christchurch Hospital until travelling to the UK in 2002. On returning to New Zealand she worked in the Spinal Unit at Burwood Hospital for over 3 1/2 years before returning to her home town and joining the RATA team. Erin maintains a strong interest in wheelchair and ergonomic seating prescription and is looking to develop her interest in assisting people with brain injury in the community.

Diane Rutter

Initially graduating as an Enrolled Nurse in Dunedin she then travelled overseas before returning to Dunedin to work as a Physiotherapy Assistant for the Otago District Health Board. Diane joined RATA as a Administrator/Rehabilitation Assistant in June 2006.

Anna Baker

Anna Baker is a graduate of the Otago School of Occupational Therapy and a member of the New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists. She has previously worked with local not-for-profit agencies in the community, assisting a range of client groups including youth and adults with physical and intellectual disability.

Barbara Steptoe

Barbara is an Occupational Therapist with over 30 years experience in physical rehabilitation and community occupational therapy. Since 1988 her primary focus has been in the area of transport rehabilitation. She enjoys working with people of all ages, with a wide range of conditions, helping to determine ability to drive and travel in private vehicles, drive commercial vehicles, recommending vehicle selection and modification, and managing modification projects and driver rehabilitation. She has her own practice, OTDAS Ltd, and joined the RATA team in 2009. Barbara is a member of the New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists and is an active participant of the Driving Special Interest Group..

   

Meryl Jones

Meryl is RATA's speech language therapist. She qualified at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK in 1991. She has worked in a range of health and education settings in the UK and has worked in the health system in New Zealand after she emigrated here in 1998. Since 1994 she has specialized in adult work primarily treating clients with communication and swallowing difficulties following neurological impairment. She has held leadership roles as a professional advisor and clinical supervisor and has held a temporary lecturing role at Auckland University. After spending 5 years in Auckland she moved to Dunedin in 2004. Meryl is a member of both the New Zealand Speech Therapy Association and Speech Pathology Australia.

Brian Dixon

Brian has worked as a Clinical Psychologist since 1981. Initially working in Hamilton for the Department of Justice he moved to Dunedin to take up a post as the senior teaching fellow in the Otago University's Psychology Departments postgraduate Clinical Psychology programme. Brian joined the RATA team in 2005 and also maintains an independent practice with Delta Psychology.

Lynda Belcher

Lynda is a Registered Nurse and a Physiotherapist. Lynda has a background in Mental Health nursing and continues to provide services to Emergency Psychiatric Services. As a Physiotherapist Lynda has worked in the community providing community based assessment and rehabilitation services including working on falls prevention programmes. Lynda joined the RATA team in 2005.

Lyneta Russell

Lyneta has 30 years experience as a registered nurse. The first twelve years were spent at Dunedin Hospital as a night supervisor. This time provided experience in a broad range of acute nursing situations including emergency nursing. Following this she spent almost ten years in senior nursing management at a district health level in both management and professional advisory positions. During these years she studied to obtain her Masters in Nursing through Massey University. Following this Lyneta established her own nursing agency business while working part time in a number of nursing positions around Dunedin, including consultancy work, and caring for severely injured clients in their own home. A short period of employment with ACC as a serious injury case manager followed and it was during this time that she developed a lasting interest in injury and rehabilitation. The past ten years have been spent working full time as a manager in residential care, predominately elderly care but also working with young persons with disability requiring residential care. The interest in injury and rehabilitation has remained and she has worked as a nurse assessor for RATA and similar agencies since 2002.

Merrolee Penman

While Merrolee's primary position at the School of Occupational Therapy, Otago Polytechnic, she is contracted in to RATA to provide services for children and young people. Merrolee has worked in services (mainstream school or child development service) for children and young people in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, having a special interest in the learning needs of children and young people. Merrolee is an active member of the New Zealand Association of Occupational Therapists, and a member of both the Neurology and Child and Young Person's Occupational Therapy special interest groups hosted by NZAOT. Currently she is involved with ACC as part of the consultation process for the development of a Model for TBI Rehabilitation for Children. Merrolee has a Masters (Educ), Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences (OT), and is currently enrolling in a PhD in education.

Jill Maslin

Jill joined the RATA team as a Physiotherapist in 2005. She has extensive experience working with children and is currently working at the Vera Haywood Centre at Dunedin Public Hospital. This is a unit involved in the assessment and rehabilitation for children with various diagnosis, including orthopaedic, developmental delay, traumatic brain injury and other accident related injury. Jills post graduate training includes; Bobath courses, Gait Analysis Courses, and BOTOX rehab courses.

Fiona Simpson

Fiona works as a consultant Dietitian with the RATA team. Fiona also provides  dietetic services to Mercy Hospital as needed in the areas of Menu Planning, Assessment and Audit, and acute dietary advice to those rehabilitating following surgery. Since 2000 she has also worked as a Sports Dietitian providing nutrition information and education to novice and elite athletes, both individuals and teams, to optimise performance and minimise the effects of any dietetic complications.

Shirley Hunter

Shirley Hunter is a registered social worker and a member of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers.  She initially worked as a fulltime Alcohol and Drug counsellor for the Salvation Army.  She now works part time and has opened a private practice offering counselling and social work services.  On going training includes Transactional Analysis psychotherapy training.  Shirley is a mother, grandmother, and Aunty to many whom she enjoys spoiling whenever possible.

   

Silke Hellwig

Silke joined the RATA team in 2008 as a consultant Dietitian. She immigrated to NZ in 1996 working as a mental health support worker. In Germany she worked as a practice Nurse in Pediatrics and Cardiology. Silke studied nutrition at Otago University and then graduated as a registered Dietitian in 2003. Since then she has build up her private practice in three medical Centers in Dunedin and works as a consultant Dietitian for Mercy Hospital, community and non profit organistations. Silke is employed part time as the clinical Tutor for Dietetic Students at Otago University and by the Ashburn Clinic working mostly with clients diagnosed with an eating disorder. As a hobby she teaches Nordic Walking, a style of X-country walking with the aid of two specially designed poles.