National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 85

Submission on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

I am an NDIS provider of counselling and equine-assisted therapy. I want to respond to the proposed changes to the NDIS Bill. I am concerned with the proposed changes about removing equine-assisted therapy from the list of services that NDIS participants can claim for. Equine-assisted therapy is a relatively new form of therapy delivery and is particularly useful for those who cannot attend room-based therapy due to boredom or overwhelm. As scientist/practitioners, psychologists must work within evidence-based parameters. My current research study is investigating the lived experience of equine-assisted psychotherapy clients. Preliminary results indicate beneficial outcomes in the vast majority of participants, which supports existing nascent research positing similar findings. Many equine-assisted therapists are women running small businesses. They do excellent work and have a lot of training before they open their businesses. Your decision to remove their work from NDIS supported services would have a huge negative impact upon their lives and many of their NDIS (mostly female) participant clients. They are doing what they do because they can see the positive impact their work has on the lives of others. They are not “rorting the system†.

I hope the Committee will take all submissions seriously in preparing its report.

Yours sincerely,