HorseAccord

03/02/2025

As we journey down the road into our 9th year of providing Equine Assisted services, we thought it timely to reach out with all the confusion around NDIS funded supports since the changes in Oct 2024. Yes we are still here providing Equine Assisted Psychotherapy as usual 🎠

Equine Assisted Therapy has always been and still is an NDIS ‘Therapeutic Support’ when provided by a “qualified allied health professional” i.e. psychotherapist, counsellor, psychologist, OT. It’s important to understand the terminology NDIS is now using to clearly define this therapeutic approach - in particular the word “Assisted”. Equine Assisted Therapy comes under the banner of Animal Assisted Therapy. This is important for participants to know when interacting with NDIS, particularly during Plan Reviews and the like. Unfortunately, people have been providing “Equine Therapy” and charging for “therapeutic services” when they are not qualified to do so, which can be detrimental to participants. The years of training and ongoing professional development and supervision it takes to be a registered Psychotherapist and Counsellor is for a reason - no different to a doctor or other health professional. To provide evidence-based effective services.

The below excerpt was copied from the Frequently Asked Questions on the NDIS website today:

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Animal-assisted therapy can be an NDIS support - therapeutic support

Animal-assisted therapy is not the same as ‘animal therapy’. Animal-assisted therapists may use an animal to play a role in a goal-directed, structured intervention which will assist the therapist and the participant to engage in therapy.

Animals can be used as therapy tools, just like a board game, Lego, or a swing could also be used as a tool in a therapy session.

For example, a psychologist or counsellor may use an animal in therapy sessions to assist a participant to calm, focus or regulate whilst the counselling/psychology session is undertaken.

An occupational therapist may use an animal in therapy sessions to assist a participant to participate in an activity such as walking, standing, balancing etc. In these interventions, the animal may be used by the therapist to help the client meet specific goals but the therapy is delivered to the participant by the allied health professional, with the animal used to support participation.

Animal therapy is not an NDIS support.

Activities which are provided for people to have a positive experience with an animal such as engaging with puppies or riding a horse might be called ‘animal therapy’ by the provider of the service.

Recreational, sporting or social activities involving animals could also be called animal therapy.

These activities are not animal-assisted therapeutic interventions and are not NDIS Supports, even if the provider of the service is an allied health professional.

What about supports to participate in social and recreational opportunities that include animals?

The NDIA and NDIS acknowledges that NDIS participants may engage in programs that include animals to provide sporting, social and recreational opportunities for people with disabilities, and capacity building support.

This may include for example, participation in horse riding.

If NDIS participants need extra help to participate in horse riding activities because of their disability, the extra help can be funded in their plan.

This extra help could be a support worker or assistive products that help the participant engage in the activity when it is happening.

Participants might also use their therapy supports budget to work with a therapist to build their skills to do the sporting, social or recreational activity more independently in the future.

NDIS participants will still need to pay for the general costs of their sporting, social or recreational activities as these are costs that everyone must pay for these kinds of activities.

For example, everyone who wants an activity delivered to them has to pay for that activity themselves whether or not they have a disability.

This is the same whether the activity includes an animal or not. Participants cannot use their NDIS funding to pay for the costs of other sporting, recreational or social activities like surfing lessons, basketball, art classes or gaming.

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We hope this is helpful information and look forward to another year of providing a quality service to our valued clients, with the support of these truly amazing sentient beings called horses 🎠