Julia Dayhew
Occupational Therapist
BAppSc(Occupational Therapy)
Julia Dayhew completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy) in 1992 at Sydney University. She moved to the Northern Rivers in 2001and has loved raising a family and living in our special regional area.
Julia is passionate about prevention and assisting children and adults to maximise their wellbeing and independence. She has 30 years of experience working as an Occupational Therapist with a background in physical health, mental health, health promotion, vocational rehabilitation, healthy ageing and falls prevention. Julia is founder of Rock Steady For Life and Monkey For Kids.com, reflecting her interest in helping all ages.
Julia has had a longstanding relationship with key balance and fall prevention researchers at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). Current collaboration with Dr Daina Sturnieks, and Professor Stephen Lord has enabled Julia to offer cognitive-motor training sessions using the NeuRA designed activity, Smartstep. This is a fun activity which can be successfully used to improve; balance, coordination, motor planning, reaction time, cognitive processing, body awareness, concentration, and confidence in movement.
Julia worked as a Research Assistant in the 1990's with renowned falls researcher, Professor Stephen Lord and her work contributed to findings related to physical and lifestyle risk factors for falls amongst community-dwelling older people. In 2019-21 Julia was an Associate Investigator for the NH&MRC Partnership Grant with NeuRA, regarding a home-based exercise balance program utilising tablet technology, due for availability in 2024.
Julia is also a singer, songwriter and author of the beloved Monkey audio stories and songs. She came 4th in the 2020 Australian Songwriting Awards for her "Funky Monkey" dance action song, and has great plans in 2024 for her recently written stories. Watch this space!