Animal-Assisted Services may help with the prevention and management of mental illness, disease, disability and suffering for people of all ages, and in many settings.
The animal-assisted services sector is made up of a range of fully insured professionals who work within the scope of their practice alongside animals. There are people in a variety of roles that have undertaken the relevant training to work alongside selected animals as part of their service delivery.
Providers of animal-assisted services can include occupational therapists, teachers, developmental educators, speech therapists, psychotherapists, physiotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, support workers, social workers, early childhood teachers, learning and development facilitators, paramedics, mental health first aiders, nurses, therapy assistants, assistance animal trainers and other professionals.
These types of services are usually goal-directed programs designed to support people with intellectual, physical, sensory, cognitive and psychosocial conditions in which a specially trained animal-handler team is an integral part. Services are directed and/or delivered by a practitioner with specialized expertise within the scope of practice of their profession.
Animal-assisted services can take several forms and may be group or individual in nature.
Animal-assisted therapy must only be delivered by fully insured health professionals registered with their peak body eg: ACA, PACFA, OTA etc. They should also have evidence to show that they have undertaken training to work alongside animals and assessed their animals as suitable.
Hippotherapy is the use of horse riding as a therapeutic or rehabilitative treatment, especially as a means of improving coordination, balance, and strength. eg: “during hippotherapy a person with cerebral palsy can benefit from trying to maintain balance in response to a horse’s motion”
Animal-assisted education is delivered by registered teachers and other specialist educators within a school, institution or other teaching environment to improve educational outcomes.
Animal-assisted learning involves the facilitation of skills development by people with specialised expertise, training and private certification / licensing. This involves structured, goal directed skills development programs that relate to the goals of the participant often outside of a formal educational setting.
Animal-assisted activities are interactions with animals where the handler holds no formal qualifications outside of their animal being assessed as safe and suitable to interact with the cohort of people they will be visiting. In this case, recipients may experience an increase in oxytocin, reduction in cortisol and a welcome distraction from chronic illness or stressful situations.
Animal-assisted supports may include canine-assisted crisis interventions facilitated by first reponders, animal-assisted mental health first-aiders, animal-assisted support workers and other facilitated programs of support.
Assistance animal trainers and assessors are animal trainers who have up-skilled to work alongside people with both visible and invisible disabilities. Assistance animal trainers train individuals in assistance animal care and handling, along with how to engage with their assistance animal to reduce the impacts of their disability. Assistance animal assessors determine if the animal meets the legal definition of an assistance animal.
Assistance Animals (often dogs “AD”) are defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (DDA) in Section 9, sets out the legal definition of an assistance animal as a dog or other animal that:
(a) is accredited under a State or Territory law to assist a person with a disability to alleviate the effects of disability; or
(b) is accredited by an animal training organisation prescribed in the regulations; or
(c) is trained to assist a person with a disability to alleviate the effect of the disability and meets standards of hygiene and behaviour that are appropriate for an animal in a public place.
Assistance animals have a legal right to access public places and are not to be patted or distracted as they are working animals. They support people in accessing various aspects of personal and public life. They can be trained in tasks to alert their handler of an oncoming medical episode or to assist with everyday tasks. An assistance animal must meet standards of hygiene and behaviour that are appropriate for an animal in a public place. Please do not ask the handler of an assistance animal about their condition.
Service Providers registered in the National Directory are expected to abide by the ATL Code of Ethics.
The ATL Code of Conduct provides practitioners with best practice guidelines.
If you have any questions concerning ATL’s Code of Ethics or Code of Conduct, OR if you would like to provide your thoughts and feedback concerning the Codes, please contact ATL through the email: aasadvisorygroup@gmail.com
If you would like to report a listed service that you believe is not complying with the Codes, please contact ATL by phone 0437 89 40 61 or through the email: info@animaltherapies.org.au
However, if you have serious concerns for the welfare or wellbeing of any animal, please contact the RSPCA immediately via the website: https://www.rspca.org.au/report-cruelty
