Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee

PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Australia

deeply concerned about this issue. Dear Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee,

I am writing to share my concerns about the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. I am a practitioner of an animal assisted therapy in Qld. The NDIS is very important to me as I am able to support people with a disability to be the best possible person they can be, I am able to assist in the process of building their ability, support with strategies to build and develop their social skills, support them to understand some of the symptoms that maybe as a result of their disability, support them to learn new skills and develop resilience, stretch there window of tolerance, work through emotional stress, trauma and develop new coping strategies so they can be apart of the community.

I am worried about the following parts of the Bill:

Reasonable and Necessary Budgets Changing from ‘reasonable and necessary supports’ to ‘reasonable and necessary budgets’ will limit the supports people can get. People need support to live an ordinary life.
Narrower Definition of Supports The new definition of supports are too narrow. It will exclude

important supports that people need to be part of the community

and achieve their goals.

3. Increased Powers for the NDIA

The NDIA would have more power to make people undergo assessments or provide information. If people do not comply, their plans could be suspended or revoked. This could be very hard for people with disability, especially during a crisis or if we have complex needs.

4. Restrictions on Self-Managing Funding

The NDIA could stop people from self-managing their funding if they have made mistakes before. This goes against the principle of choice and control.

I also have other concerns about the Bill: That will stop funding to key supports such as Animal Assisted Therapies, as a Equine Assisted Mental Health practitioner with more than 30 years experience in the human services field, I run a small practise in Qld where I support participants from many walks of life that range from 8 year old to nearly 70 years of age. I have clients whom all have life long disabilities and many with psychosocial disabilities, dissociative disorders, significant ongoing mental health, anxiety, depression and complex post traumatic stress disorders.

Many of these clients attend our service where we partner with horses, we also have an array of other support animals such as dogs who are with our clients every step of the way, they sit with them through anxiety, tears, support when they are unable to express or process emotions, they are able to ground and hear nature in our (office) paddocks. Where we are able to bring awareness to there hear and now, and assist them

To stop the wandering of the mind and listen to the sounds of nature, a

ekookaburra in the background, the sounds of hundreds of different birds

the sounds crickets, frogs or what ever is munching on the grass. We

have chickens whom are exceptional with clients who are on the Autism Spectrum they are known to support and bring calmness to a client assist in the coming and going of the session. We have a mini pig who creates sounds in the environment and assists in supporting clients to understand some of the sensory processing issues they may have from the feel of the spikey fur, the imminent smell of pig and or the feel of the snout on there hands. A significant amount of our clients may have difficulty trying new things and animals have a way of supporting them to decrease there boundaries and support them to feel new things.

This brings us to the power of the horse which we have evidence of the affects of horses, clients are able to emotionally regulate whilst around horses. I have had clients with significantly complex needs come to our service where they are able to begin to engage with animals and our therapists to work through behavioural issues, decrease levels of aggression and work through significant traumas. Our clients come from all walks of life they may have a forensic history, have a multi disciplinary teams, such as youth justice, child safety, psychiatrist, other psychologists and we all work collaboratively to create innovative strategies so they are able to process, gain strategies, be able to part ake in school environments, support to gain the courage and resilience to work. Our horses mirror and support clients to learn non verbal body language skills. A horse can feel your heart beat from 4 metres and has the sensitivity of being able to feel a fly on its back. So when a client arrives who is unable to express their emotions the horse is able to feel this and has a way of being able to assist the client to begin to regulate

their nervous system. We are not just patting a horse and getting a few happy snaps, as a therapist it is our role to support the client as any other therapist would through trauma informed practices, that are evidence based, such as solution focussed therapies, DBT, CBT or gestalt practices. Our goals are set by clients and our role is to support that client to cement these goals, there disabilities are lifelong and the process to build skills take more than a few sessions. In our service we have ongoing outcomes for our clients such as decrease in toxic relationships, stabilisation of mental health, decrease in medication, increase in socialisation, ability to go out in the community, undertake daily tasks independently, clients may finish with the service and return when they have new concerns and are excited to re-engage with the services alongside the animals and our therapist to build new life skills moving forward to the future. I believe that our therapeutic services are incredibly necessary. So I ask that you reconsider your view on Animal Assisted Therapies remain as an integral part of therapeutic practises alongside other alternative therapies such as art therapy, music therapy. So our clients can have choice and control around the therapeutic services that best suit their needs even if it is not in a office. Overall, I am worried that this Bill moves away from the original vision of the NDIS. The NDIS is meant to give people with disability choice and control over their supports. I think the Bill should be paused or stopped. There should be real co- design with people with disability. We need changes that truly meet the needs of people with disability.

The NDIS is too important to get wrong.

We must get this right, with

people with disability at the centre of the process.

Thank you for considering my submission. I would be happy to provide

more information if needed.

Yours sincerely,

Rachel Farr

Equine Mental Health Practitioner

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy QLD