Professional practice in Aged Care and Disability

National Disability Insurance Scheme

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a scheme whose main aim is the provision

of support to the people with disability, including their carers and families. The organization is

jointly funded and governed by the Australian territory and states government. It is a legislation

that seeks to create the National Disability Insurance Agency. The National Disability Insurance

Scheme plays several roles, such as determining:

 How an individual can take part in the scheme

 The principles and objects of operation of the scheme

 How a major provider can be registered.

 The process of both external and internal review of particular decisions made according

to the Act of NDIS.

 The arrangements of governance of NDIA.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme works well with the fundamental values and

principles of therapeutic recreation because of a number of reasons. One major reason is because

it seeks to fund people with therapy, and this enables them to select the significant providers of

their services. Using the scheme, the major participants usually use the NDIS planner that gives

them advice concerning the use of therapeutic services they have access to in various healthcare

units. Additionally, the National Disability Insurance Scheme offers therapeutic support that

involves the behavior support to the individuals under therapy (Thill, 2015). One of the

significant values of therapeutic recreation is behavioral support to the people placed under

therapy.
 Consequently, such behavioral support is a significant role of the National Disability

Insurance Scheme, the two can, therefore, work together. The NDIS also enables people in the

society to easily access healthcare services in the hospitals through transportation that allows

them to take part in the social, economic, community as well as daily activities (Cameron, 2017).

A key principle of therapeutic reaction is on social therapy that allows people to interact with

others to fully satisfy their social needs, and this is a major role of the NDIS. Therefore, the

NDIS works well with the values and principles of therapeutic recreation.

The aged who form the client of the group are appropriate for therapeutic recreation

because of a variety of reasons. One primary reason is that it enables them to interact with others

socially. They have the opportunity to engage and even meet new individuals. Through social

interaction, the aged are prevented from the feelings of isolation as they converse with others just

like everyone else in society (Reddihough et al., 2016). The therapeutic reaction is also

appropriate for the aged as a way of caring for them because, through such recreations, their

quality of life is improved. Thus, some of them end up living for a long time than if they had not

been exposed to recreational activities. Lastly, therapeutic recreation is important to the aged

because it helps in the reduction of feelings of anxiety and depression that comes with isolation

from others. Their self-esteem becomes boosted because of the interaction with both new and old

individuals in society.

Despite the support offered by the National Disability Insurance Scheme to therapy that

is the behavioral therapy, the therapeutic recreation has not been included in it for a number of

reasons. A critical reason for the exclusion of the element is it would be expensive to implement

such a program. The number of the aged individuals in Australia is estimated to be higher than

the younger generation that is rarely placed in therapy (Collings et al., 2016). The government,
through such an insurance scheme, would not be in a position to fund most of such programs due

to the huge capital that would be involved to implement the scheme entirely. Additionally, the

National Disability Insurance Scheme mainly deals with people with disability and not any other

group of persons. It is because of the fact that it is concerned with the issues to do with disability

that the therapeutic recreation is not included in NDIS. Therapeutic recreation is mainly aimed at

helping people gain confidence as well as self-esteem through social interactions with new and

old people within their reach thus, it would not be included in the National Disability Insurance

Scheme.

Impact of Inclusion of Therapeutic Recreation

There are several implications on the community if the therapeutic recreation has been

included in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. One key implication that is likely to

happen in the current lives of the people is that it will boost their confidence as well as the

physical skills that are required in many recreational and sport activities. Additionally, it will

result in numerous positive health outcomes that result from the participation in the recreational

activities (Thompson et al., 2017) Some of the positive health outcomes include, an enhanced

capacity to deal with community activities, life as well as recreational activities. Others are

improvements in cognitive status, physical health status, and psychosocial status, among others.

The other effect of the inclusion of the therapeutic recreation to the current lives of the members

of the community would be the reduction in depressions, anxiety, pain, sleep disturbances as

well as tension that may come due to various reasons such as disabilities and even work-related

among others (Fisher et al., 2017).

However, for their future lives, the therapeutic recreation may enable them to discover a

particular new recreational activity that one could enjoy and eventually make it part of their life.
Another implication for their future lives is it will help in creating and developing new friends

through social interactions and engagements (Parsons, 2016). Finally, the impact of the inclusion

of the therapeutic recreation in NDIS in the future lives of the members of the community is that

it will help to discover how much they could attain through much emphasis on their ability

instead of their disability (Fenton et al., 2017).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the National Disability Insurance Scheme is beneficial to people with

disability. It funds various programs and activities that are essential to the people living with a

disability. For instance, it offers behavioral support to people. Therapeutic recreation is also

important to the members of the community. It helps in reducing isolation as well as increasing

the level of confidence, thus it should be included in NDIS.

 References

Cameron, H. J. (2017). Long term music therapy for people with intellectual disabilities and the

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Australian Journal of Music Therapy, 28, 1.

Collings, S., Dew, A., & Dowse, L. (2016). Support planning with people with intellectual

disability and complex support needs in the Australian National Disability Insurance

Scheme. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 41(3), 272-276.

Fenton, L., White, C., Gallant, K. A., Gilbert, R., Hutchinson, S., Hamilton-Hinch, B., &

Lauckner, H. (2017). The benefits of recreation for the recovery and social inclusion of

individuals with mental illness: An integrative review. Leisure Sciences, 39(1), 1-19.

Fisher, E. E., Sharp, R. L., & Bradley, M. J. (2017). Perceived benefits of service learning: A

comparison of collegiate recreation concentrations. Journal of Experiential Education, 40(2),

187-201.

Parsons, M. D. (2016). Perceived Benefits of Therapeutic Recreation Camps for Young Adults

with Disabilities.

Reddihough, D. S., Meehan, E., Stott, N. S., Delacy, M. J., & Australian Cerebral Palsy Register

Group. (2016). The National Disability Insurance Scheme: a time for real change in

Australia. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 58, 66-70.

Thill, C. (2015). Listening for policy change: how the voices of disabled people shaped

Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme. Disability & Society, 30(1), 15-28.

Thompson, A. R., Wozencroft, A. J., & Parsons, M. D. (2017). The impact of therapeutic

recreation camps on adults with disabilities. American Journal of Recreation Therapy, 16(2),

21-28.