Early Start Australia - Murarrie - Murarrie, Queensland

Jen H.

We have been accessing services through ESA Murrarie for multiple therapies (speech, OT) for over 4 years now. As my son transitioned from daycare to school, we were able to find session times that worked well for us. The allied health team have travelled to daycare and our home for our convenience and my son loves his therapists.
He has gone from being a timid 3yo with very little speech and other physical/social skills that needed improvement, to a confident 7yo who excels in a number of skill areas.
ESA's admin staff have also always tried to rebook lessons where possible when we couldn't make it on certain occasions. We are hoping to continue therapy, but we've done so well it may not be needed for much longer! Very happy to recommend 👌 😊

Tea P.

My son saw both Nicole and Siddhi during his first years at school several times over a period of time.
They taught him different "tools" to use to make it easier for him to go through his school day without his sensory processing disorder being too big an issue.
He loved coming there - he thought he was going on a play date 🙂
Can highly recommend Gateway Therapies - we all loved them and what they did for my son.

Mathew L.

My son had sessions with Madeline. Madeline is lovely and my wife and I were happy with her work. I do have a major problem with the operation from a financial perspective. Our invoices fell into arrears during COVID and we spoke with Madeline to let her know we would need some extra time to pay our invoice. We then paid in full (we do not have insurance to cover the sessions) and were sent a collections notice 2 days later for double the amount.

When I called to let the operators know, I was told that they sent alot of emails and hadn't had a response. No phone call to follow up the invoice though. However, my wife had spoken with Madeline at the sessions to discuss the delayed payment and there was not issue raised in any of the appointments. We get alot of emails and unfortunately we missed these ones. But the first step after not receiving an email response was to go to a collections agency.

The fees are very high, and I don't think you get any more here than you would elsewhere. Add to that, the lack of understanding for late payment, and reliance on sending automated emails out rather than talking either with the therapist or calling to follow up.

Will never deal with this group again. Would advise everyone else to avoid.

Michelle

My son only attended Gateway Therapies for a few months and saw the lovely Madeline for his speech and language therapy. So in posting this review which I never do, I have no issues with the therapist just the company management.
Firstly, his SLP attended his school and charged $100 in travel fee which they were allowed to charge as stipulated by the NDIS price guide. It is important to add these companies do not need to charge this stipulated amount especially when they are seeing other children in the very same area of town and collecting $100 per child from their funding!!!!!
Secondly, the prices are exorbitant as they "are allowed" to charge this hourly rate of $213.36 per hour. My son has attended with 3 other speech therapists over the years who have been amazing and never charged travel and only charged up to $170 per hourly session.
Thirdly, I was very amused to see they also charge for clinical notes written and every phone call they make that on a couple of occasions I never indicated for them to do so.
Lastly, the cancellation charges are quite unfair I believe, I gave 4 days notice to cancel his last appt as thankfully found a more ethical company, and they charged the full fee because I didn't give the 10 days notice as they said they are allowed to do because of COVID. This company is all about profits and not looking after these children's NDIS funding, an absolute rort of NDIS funding, very un-ethical. Some children's funding is very limited and they really don't care. The NDIA also have a lot to answer for because they have caused these inflated prices, but companies don't have to follow them!!Strongly recommend people to keep looking elsewhere.

Dana F.

Gateway Therapies has been a godsend for helping me with parenting issues. Our Occupational Therapist there (Nicole) has helped me to understand some undesirable behaviours and put simple solutions in place to improve them. My child was hitting kids at kindy, she suggested taking him to gymnastic classes - seemed like a "leap" to me but it worked a treat. I didn't really understand what Occupational Therapy was and how it could benefit my child UNTIL I met Nicole. So worth it, even for just getting through those challenging childhood phases!

Peter D.

Very poor administration and call back service. After 4 calls we got an appointment. Email confirming time and date had no location. Called again LMTC. Contacted via email. 1 week later told of address. Day before appointment email arrived as a reminder with another address. I called and was told that was an old address. I asked why not changed on email. "Oh we haven't got around to that yet"
1st appointment went well and a set of 8 fortnightly sessions emailed to us but no account for first session after asking for the invoice on leaving the first session. Then a reminder for not paying arrived but no invoice. Called again LMTC . email arrived with invoice which we paid.
Second appointment was changed in time and with a newly appointed OT. She spent the hour reviewing the originals OTs notes.
All sessions prebooked until 8th November. Then 2 days before our next session ( 2 weeks after the last one ) we got an email to say it would have to be postponed due to a "Team Meeting" Reply by us to say what comes first the prearranged appointment with the client or the team meeting.. Service agreement will be cancelled and complaint lodged wit NDIS. Proof held in emails and messages. NO response from OT.

Tracy Z.

Wasted $512 for the first session. Not helping at all. 2 young girls came to my home for a consultation and charged 512. Not even interacted with my son. They are very young and inexperienced

Chelsea P.

We had a great phone consultation with Nicole regarding some child development and concentration issues. Highly recommend.