ATL is an Australian health promotion charity that strives to advance health through promoting understanding, accessibility, and acceptance of Animal-Assisted (AA) services in Australia.

A 2019 Animal Therapies Ltd (ATL) Sector Needs Survey, community consultation and current literature revealed a prevailing gap in the understanding of the impact and effectiveness of animal-assisted (AA) services in Australian health outcomes.

Therefore, a project of Translating Research: Advancing the Australian Population's Understanding of the Evidential Impact of AA Services was conducted in partnership with ATL and two Monash University Students undergoing a masters degree in Occupational Therapy Practice.

This presentation will provide an overview of the project between ATL and Monash University in the undertaking of a global literature review of the benefits of animal-assisted services.

The presentation aims to educate stakeholders and the general population on the evidence-based benefits of AA services in relation to common health conditions and felt adversities. This project aspired to bring awareness to this particular health sector and its emerging evidential status.

The presentation will also provide an overview of the ATL Code of Conduct that has been developed as a result of the ATL’s National Scientific Research Group undertaking an annual review of all studies relating to global standards in the delivery of animal-assisted services.

The ATL Australian Code of Conduct for the Animal-Assisted Services Sector details best-practice requirements for all persons engaged in the sector. The conduct standards have been designed to promote safe and ethical practice, and to provide the foundation for optimal protection of participating professionals, handlers, volunteers, clients, and animals.

ATL believes in promoting optimal wellbeing for all animals, however, the current Code pertains predominantly to horses, cats, dogs, and other small species, for whom scientific literature is available. Future iterations may address other species-specific issues as additional evidence arises.

TFCO is an evidenced-based program, emphasises positive reinforcement, consistency, and predictability to create change cognisant of the impact of trauma on a child’s life.

Through collaboration and fostering partnerships, our goal is to enable children to return to home-based living arrangements, with either family, kinship care or a long-term foster care placement.

With these factors in mind TFCO serves to engage Aboriginal children in their education, immerse them in their culture and develop their connections. Predictability, consistency, and building relationships are KEY to our success. Educating the TFCO-C Team, and the TFCO-C Carers in being Trauma Aware and offering professional learning to our schools contributes to our successes.

While there has been some progress regarding the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, overall educational outcomes for Aboriginal students remain lower than those of non-Aboriginal students in Victoria -

For Aboriginal children and young people in care, trauma-informed approaches need to acknowledge the accumulation of intergenerational trauma while also celebrating the strength and resilience of Aboriginal people -

Within the TFCO-C Team, the role of the TFCO teacher is to identify challenges that occur within the education setting.

According to the CCYP-Education Inquiry Report 2023, Student retention for children in OoHC is a major challenge, with increases in chronic absenteeism, up from 31% in 2018 to 52% in 2022. In 2022 one third of Aboriginal children in OoHC did not have a Cultural Support Plan.

Key to our success is that the TFCO-C Team works tirelessly to connect Aboriginal children to their culture; sustaining an active and healthy relationship with culture strengthens identity, builds resilience, and provides opportunities to connect with the past, underpinning the young people’s ability to reach their full potential.

We ‘Champion’ this connection by flooding our Carers with training, guiding them toward opportunities to immerse the children in their care in their culture. By weekly visits to one our 4 Gathering Places to meet up with Elders, providing Aboriginal bedtime story books, growing native Australian plants in placement, cooking with Indigenous ingredients, visiting Indigenous restaurants, attending Aboriginal youth groups, being Deadly

OzChild’s Dhiyaan Mirri Unit have been able to access supports from our Aboriginal Practice Leader in Victoria who continues to oversee and guide us. In collaboration with schools, we embed trauma awareness in practice. By valuing KESOs and close collaborations with DFFH and other agencies, that we aim for best possible outcomes for these vulnerable children.

Support teachers are responsible for educating students with disabilities who have complex needs and require additional resources. Because of the highly stressful nature of the role, support teachers are at greater risk of professional burnout, higher attrition rates, and impacts on wellbeing. There is a distinct lack of Australian or state/territory empirical evidence on strategies to promote support teacher wellbeing. In this exploratory qualitative study, we applied thematic analysis to interviews of Tasmanian support teachers to find that their wellbeing relies on principals’ and leadership staff’s support and implementation of wellbeing and inclusive education practices. Support teachers are experiencing stress, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and depression caused by workload, accountability for funding, and poor leadership. School leaders who value wellbeing and inclusive practices foster a positive culture, demonstrating ecological theory. This study marks an initial step towards understanding how to nurture the support teachers of Tasmania.