About Claudia Marshall
Claudia is an Occupational Therapist who is based in Boorloo (Perth), with professional interests in traumatic brain injury, justice health, Indigenous health and psychosocial disability. She holds a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy and a Master of Indigenous Health, and has clinical and service leadership experience across correctional, rehabilitation and community settings in Western Australia and New South Wales.
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Claudia was born and raised on Gadigal Country of the Eora Nation (Sydney). Her early career was in inpatient rehabilitation within the New South Wales Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service. During this time, she contributed to and chaired Agency for Clinical Innovation initiatives focused on strengthening culturally responsive rehabilitation pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, and their families.
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She then moved to Western Australia to work in the state's dedicated mental health unit in the women's prison estate. Claudia went on to lead the establishment of an occupational therapy service within an Aboriginal owned community allied health practice, providing services in prisons across Boorloo and to Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley. She has also worked in hospital and community medical and rehabilitation services.
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Claudia's research focuses on improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with traumatic brain injury. She was Chief Investigator of a Community led scoping review of the enablers and barriers to rehabilitation, undertaken under the leadership of senior Aboriginal scholars at the Ngarruwan Ngadju First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Wollongong.
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Claudia's practice is guided by her vision and values. These underpin her clinical services and her consultancy work, with the aim of enhancing community resilience and improving outcomes for people across Australia.
Qualifications & Memberships
Professional Qualifications
Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (BOccThy)
Master of Indigenous Health (MIndigHlth)
Registered Occupational Therapist, Occupational Therapy Board of Australia (Ahpra). Registration number: OCC0002490421
Accredited to administer the Westerman Aboriginal Symptom Checklist – Adults (WASC-A) and Youth (WASC-Y), culturally validated psychological screening tools developed by Dr Tracy Westerman AM
Functional Independence Measure (FIM) Accredited Clinician
Memberships
Member of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment
Member of Occupational Therapy Australia
Areas of Clinical Interest
Traumatic and Acquired Brain Injury
Damage to the brain occurring after birth, from external force (traumatic brain injury, including concussion, repeated head injury linked to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE) or other causes such as stroke, hypoxia or infection.
Mental Health and Psychiatric Conditions
Conditions that affect mood, thinking, perception and behaviour. Psychosocial disability describes the impact these conditions can have on daily functioning and participation in life.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
A lifelong condition caused by alcohol exposure before birth, affecting the brain and body. It can impact learning, memory, attention, behavioural regulation and adaptive functioning, as well as physical health and development.
Support for women is guided by self-determination, focusing on the occupations each woman identifies as important to her. This includes family, cultural and community roles, work, study and independent living, in the community, in custody and after release.
Women's Health and Justice
Trauma
Psychological and physiological responses to harmful or distressing experiences. Includes complex trauma, resulting from repeated or prolonged exposure, and intergenerational trauma, where the effects continue across generations.
Social and Emotional Wellbeing
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander understanding of health and wellbeing that recognises the interconnectedness of body, mind, emotions, family, kinship, community, culture, Country, spirituality and Ancestors.
(Gee et al., 2014)
Substance Use
The use of alcohol or other drugs, which can affect physical health, cognition, emotions, relationships and participation in daily life. Substance use may also be associated with dependence or used to cope with distress, pain or trauma.
Difficulties in cognitive functioning, such as memory, attention, planning and problem solving, arising from neurological conditions, injury, illness or other causes. These can affect a person’s occupational performance.
Neurocognitive Disability
Intellectual Disability
Differences in intellectual functioning, such as reasoning, learning and problem solving, and in the conceptual, social and practical skills used in everyday life, with onset during the developmental period.