NDIS Physiotherapy

The NDIS lists physiotherapy among its therapy supports. Physiotherapy can help you build or maintain your skills and independence, including your movement, and your physiotherapist must hold current AHPRA registration.¹ The NDIS describes two aims: capacity building, which has specific goals and timeframes and is expected to reduce as your abilities improve, and maintenance, which helps preserve what you can already do, such as a stretching program for someone with cerebral palsy.¹ Whether physiotherapy is funded depends on your plan, your goals and your needs, and the NDIA makes those decisions, not us.

The NDIS asks for evidence from your allied health professional that a therapy support is right for you.¹ For a plan reassessment, a report should set out the service, frequency and goals, show progress with outcome measures such as the Timed Up and Go test or Berg Balance Scale, describe barriers and risks, and give evidence-based recommendations. The report is shared with you before it is submitted.² A functional capacity assessment looks at what you can do in six areas, namely communication, learning, mobility, self-care, self-management and social interactions, and physiotherapists are among the professionals who can complete one.³ The treatments used in your sessions, such as exercise or falls prevention, are described on their own pages, and the NDIS does not fund massage therapy.¹

To use your plan, you can arrange services with providers of your choice through the myNDIS app or portal. Your funding may be self-managed, managed by a registered plan manager, or managed by the NDIA, and you can mix these across support categories.⁴ We start with your goals, agree on a program and measure progress so that your reports show what has changed.