What therapy supports are
Therapy supports can help improve your skills and independence with everyday activities. This can be in areas such as:
- language and communication, like conversation and social skills
- personal care, like getting washed and dressed
- mobility and movement, like walking and moving around your home
- interpersonal interactions, like social and relationship skills at school or work
- functioning (including psychosocial functioning), like problem-solving and decision-making
- community living, like using public transport.
What therapy supports are for
Building your skills and independence
Some therapy supports can help you build your skills and independence. We called these capacity building therapy supports.
They can help you do everyday activities at home, school, work or in the community.
These supports have goals and outcomes, and a timeframe for you to work towards. You may need them for a short or longer time, depending on your situation.
You’ll likely need less of these supports over time as your skills and independence grows. For example, when you’ve built your personal care skills to get ready for work.
Maintaining your skills and independence
Maintenance therapy supports can help you keep your ability to carry out everyday tasks. They can also help to prevent or delay your ability to do everyday tasks from getting worse. We sometimes call this your functional capacity.
For example, a stretching program for a person with cerebral palsy may help to maintain a range of movement.
A mixture of capacity building and maintenance therapy supports may be suitable for you.
Therapy supports for children and young people
The way we fund therapy supports changes when your child turns 9 and when their plan is reassessed.
It may mean your child’s plan includes individual therapy supports, rather than a team of professionals delivering early childhood supports.
Your child’s therapy support needs may also reduce or change as they become more independent. We’ll check-in with you regularly about any changes.
Supports for families and carers
You may also be getting informal supports. Informal supports are the help and support you get from your friends, family, carers and the community.
We can fund training for them so they can help you do everyday activities. This can also help with your maintenance supports and to build your independence.
For example, we may fund an occupational therapist to train your family members how to safely use your support equipment, such as a chair lift.
What therapy supports are like
Therapy supports must be evidence-based
We need to make sure therapy supports use current best-practice evidence or are from the highest quality research. We need to be sure:
- there’s enough evidence the type of therapy is effective and beneficial
- it will help to improve or maintain your skills and independence.
You’ll also need to give us evidence these therapy supports are right for you. This will be from your allied health professional.
Who can provide therapy supports
Only qualified and registered allied health professionals can deliver therapy supports. They must be either:
- registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
- accredited by a relevant peak body for self-regulated professions.
What we can fund
NDIS laws say what we can and can’t fund. We can only fund therapy supports that meet all the NDIS funding criteria.
Examples of the type of therapy supports we can fund include:
- art therapy
- audiology
- counselling
- developmental education
- dietary support
- exercise physiology
- music therapy
- occupational therapy
- orthoptics
- physiotherapy
- podiatry
- psychology
- rehabilitation and vocational counselling
- social work
- speech pathology or therapy.
When we fund therapy supports, they are stated supports. This means the funding is for a specific support or service. You can’t use or swap this funding for something else.
What we can’t fund
We can’t fund a therapy support if there isn’t enough evidence it will have good functional outcomes for your disability. This is the case, even if the provider is an allied health professional.
Supports we can’t fund as therapy include:
- alternative and complementary therapies
- animal therapy
- energy and health practices
- gymnasium or swimming pool memberships
- massage therapy
- personal training
- social group programs which include strategies described as ‘therapy’
- therapy in a box
- wellness and coaching therapies.
Our Guideline
- Download the Therapy supports guideline pdf file - PDF 278.24 KB
- Download the Therapy supports guideline docx file - DOCX 183.14 KB