A group of prominent musicians has thrown its support behind a campaign by music therapists to stop changes to the way their services are funded by the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The shake-up was announced last month and has received significant backlash from the arts sector.
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00:00The change was announced last month by the National Disability Insurance Agency which
00:06runs the NDIS.
00:08Now the change is basically that music and art therapists will only be able to continue
00:14charging the NDIS $190 per session for their services if they can prove that the therapy
00:22is improving or maintaining the functional capacity of a participant.
00:27Otherwise they will then have to charge the lower fee of $68.
00:32Now this change is due to come into effect in February next year and there was some pretty
00:39swift reaction to this move.
00:42The Australian Music Therapy Association came out and said that it was done without consultation.
00:49Now the National Disability Insurance Agency says that music and art therapy while still
00:54permissible does not meet the evidentiary standards of which to categorise what constitutes
01:01now an NDIS support.
01:03Now the Music Therapy Association is saying there is a stack of evidence for their work
01:08and for obviously how successful it is for people.
01:13I guess the latest thing though is that their campaign has been bolstered by almost 12 different
01:18prominent musicians across Australia, people like Bernard Fanning, Paul Dempsey, Josh Pike,
01:23Alex the Astronaut.
01:25They've created little videos now and they are basically throwing their support behind
01:30the campaign.
01:31Let's have a little listen to what one of the musicians in this campaign is saying.
01:35The reason why music therapy is so important is it helps people with language and communication,
01:42it helps interpersonal relationships and skills, it helps personal care, mental health, mobility
01:50and movement.
01:51One of the arguments that the Music Therapy Association has said is that there was a lack
01:56of consultation around these changes to their services.
02:01The NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said last month that they did have the opportunity to actually
02:08put forward their submissions and they did to a wide-ranging NDIS review which was done
02:12and the report was handed down last year, as well as feedback that they gave on the
02:18actual NDIS Bill that sort of guided or allowed for these changes to happen.
02:23So the Minister has said there has been consultation, that the Music Therapy Association has put
02:28in its submissions to these particular reviews and he's also said that music therapists will
02:35be able to charge higher fees if they are having groups of up to four and that obviously
02:42there is the caveat that if you can prove that it's maintaining or improving the functional
02:46capacity of a participant, you will be able to charge the $194 an hour.