Planning a dance movement therapy program for clients with intellectual disability: considering NDIS, host agency and DMT priorities.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia offers new opportunities for funding of dance movement therapy (DMT) programs for people with disability. The NDIS’ emphasis on participant choice and focus on outcomes propels new directions in service provision, with agencies impelled to consider individuals’ preferences and report on progress with more rigour than they may have brought before. This change provides a challenge for dance movement therapists, as many practitioners have limited experience of working in a specifically outcomes-focussed way. This article addresses these issues by documenting the process of planning, goal setting, assessment and reporting in a DMT program for clients with intellectual disability. This process considers three different sets of outcome considerations: NDIS funding requirements; outcomes currently identified in participants’ individualised program planning; and objectives of a DMT program. In so doing, the article articulates the relationship between NDIS funding requirements and the potential offering of DMT. It also provides DM therapists a model for how they might clarify the objectives of their own programs to make them NDIS-compatible and enable reporting of relevant outcomes to stakeholders