Music therapy and the NDIS

On 3 October 2024, new laws for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) came into effect. This follows the passing of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No.1) Bill by the Australian Parliament in August 2024.

A key change to the laws is the new definition of NDIS supports. The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has published lists of supports which can and cannot be funded by the NDIS.

 

Music therapy is an evidence-based allied health profession that continues to be a NDIS-funded therapeutic support.

 

The NDIA specifies that for NDIS participants to use funding for music therapy, it must be provided by an active registered music therapist (RMT) with the Australian Music Therapy Association (AMTA).

Documentation provided by the NDIA lists music therapy:

• As a therapeutic support on page 17 of the NDIS Practice Standards Verification Module.
• As a Capacity Building Therapy Support with its own line item on page 89 of the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2024-25 Version 1.3 published on 1 October 2024.

 

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s recently published resource Quality Support for Children in the NDIS also highlights that a music therapist providing NDIS supports must be registered with AMTA.

 

About registered music therapists

Registered music therapists have completed AMTA-approved music therapy qualifications (usually, a masters-level tertiary degree in music therapy). They also undergo a provisional year that includes a program of supervision. All registered music therapists also undertake an annual program of continuing professional development to maintain their registration. 

Registered music therapists deliver therapeutic interventions that are not only supportive and safe but also at the forefront of contemporary, evidence-based clinical practice. Strict guidelines are in place to ensure registered music therapists meet regulatory requirements, such as scope of practice and competency standards, professional conduct, continuing professional development and more.  

This is part of what makes registered music therapists, as allied health professionals, different from music educators, community musicians and sound therapists.  

 

Music therapy: an evidence-based practice

Music therapy plays a vital role in supporting people with disability to improve their functional capacity in areas such as:

• movement and mobility
• language and communication
• social connection
• self-regulation and
• community participation.

 

AMTA has recently published Music therapy: Disability evidence summary 2024, a comprehensive report providing a clear and accessible overview of the benefits of music therapy for people with disability.

AMTA encourages NDIS participants and their families, care planners and coordinators, our colleagues in the allied health professions, and decision-makers in the disability sector to review the report to gain a deeper understanding of the evidence base and outcomes of music therapy.