The Importance of Maintaining Professional Boundaries: Consequences of Breach Made Clear in Recent Decision

The Importance of Maintaining Professional Boundaries: Consequences of Breach Made Clear in Recent Decision

On 7 August 2025, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) handed down a decision concerning a breach of professional boundaries by an occupational therapist, Naomi Oeldrich (Ms Oeldrich). The full decision can be found at this link (Decision). This Decision sends a clear message to organisations that they must have systems in place to ensure professional boundaries are maintained.

The Decision

The Occupational Therapy Board of Australia referred the matter to VCAT after receiving multiple confidential notifications and conducting an internal investigation. The allegation was that Ms Oeldrich had entered into an intimate and sexual relationship with one of her clients, who was a vulnerable man with an acquired brain injury, over the course of 16 months. This relationship began while she was treating the client and continued after she ceased treatment.

Ms Oeldrich did not attend the hearing, but the Tribunal considered evidence from the client, the client’s psychologist, and personal communications between them. The tribunal found that Ms Oeldrich had engaged in sexual encounters during and after therapy sessions and that there had been frequent exchanging of personal and sexual messages via WhatsApp, among other things

The Tribunal found that Ms. Oeldrich had failed to maintain clear professional boundaries and had engaged in professional misconduct under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Victoria) Act 2009. Her conduct was found to exploit a clear power imbalance and fell “substantially below” the standard expected of a registered health practitioner. The Tribunal reprimanded Ms Oeldrich, cancelled her registration, and disqualified her from applying for registration for 12 months.

Why Professional Boundaries Matter

Every health practitioner owes their clients a duty of care, which means putting the client’s safety and wellbeing first. One of the key ways in which that duty is upheld is through maintaining professional boundaries. These boundaries serve to:

• Keep the therapeutic relationship safe,
• Prevent exploitation of vulnerable clients, and
• Maintain community trust in the profession

In this case, boundaries were breached when the practitioner transitioned from a professional relationship to an intimate one with her client, while she was still engaged as his occupational therapist. The Tribunal made it clear that practitioners have a duty to practice safely and effectively, and that they must be ethical and trustworthy.  

What This Decision Means for Organisations

While this case focused on one practitioner’s misconduct, it sends a clear message to organisations in the health, disability, and care sectors. That is, safeguarding professional boundaries is not just about individual conduct, but also requires clear organisational systems. Failure to do so exposes organisations to legal, reputational, and regulatory risks. Thus, organisations must:

• Have robust codes of conduct that set out expectations for maintaining professional boundaries.
• Ensure staff are trained on what boundary breaches look like and why they are harmful.
• Implement reporting guidelines so that staff, clients, and families feel safe to raise concerns.
• Regularly review and update policies to align with best practice and regulatory expectations.

For organisations, the lesson is clear. It is not enough to rely on good intentions or assume staff instinctively know where the line is. Strong policies, practical training, and a culture of accountability must be embedded across the organisation. Getting this right is complex, but essential, and it can make the difference between preventing harm early or facing the kind of consequences highlighted in this case.

How Can Safe Space Legal Help?

This Decision is a reminder that professional boundaries are not optional, but are the foundation of safe, ethical practice. When those boundaries are ignored, the consequences are serious; harm to clients, loss of public trust, and lasting damage to professional careers.

At Safe Space Legal, we help organisations reduce these risks and build safer, more accountable workplaces. 

Our services include:

• Conducting independent investigations into allegations of misconduct which are compliant with sector-specific obligations and are conducted in a trauma-informed manner.
• Providing expert legal advice on risk mitigation.
• Providing policy audits and developing safeguarding policies, procedures, and complaint handling processes.
• Providing root cause analysis to identify gaps in policy and/or practice which put organisations at risk of non-compliance with their sector-specific obligations.
• Delivering safeguarding training to ensure organisations are aware of their sector-specific requirements and obligations.

If you would like support to strengthen your organisation’s safeguards and give your team confidence in their practice,  contact office@safespacelegal.com.au or call (03) 9124 7321 to organise a complementary discussion.