An Important Distinction

Before progressing further, it is important to distinguish several concepts that are sometimes incorrectly treated as interchangeable.

Assistance animals, therapy animals, companion animals and animal-assisted occupational therapy may overlap in some settings, but they are not the same thing. They have different purposes, relationships to occupational therapy practice, training expectations, professional responsibilities and legal implications.

An assistance animal is primarily trained to assist a person with disability. Within occupational therapy practice, an OT may become involved in areas such as functional assessment, occupational performance, environmental considerations, task requirements, risk, recommendations, funding or interdisciplinary collaboration concerning an assistance animal.

A therapy animal, by contrast, is involved with a human professional or service in providing structured therapeutic, educational or wellbeing-related activities for other people. The animal is not simply an assistance animal being used in another setting, and the professional, ethical, welfare, training, risk-management and legal considerations may differ substantially.

A companion animal, commonly referred to as a pet, primarily lives with a person or family for companionship and as part of ordinary family and community life. Companion animals may have profound emotional, social and occupational significance to their humans, but companionship, emotional benefit or participation in family life does not by itself make an animal an assistance animal or therapy animal.

A companion animal may nevertheless be highly relevant to occupational therapy. Caring for an animal may form part of a person’s daily routines, roles, responsibilities, relationships and meaningful occupations. A person’s own companion animal may also, where clinically appropriate, be intentionally incorporated into occupational therapy intervention. In that circumstance, the animal does not automatically become a therapy animal or assistance animal merely because it is involved in therapy.

Animal-assisted occupational therapy describes occupational therapy in which an appropriately selected and prepared animal is intentionally incorporated into the occupational therapy process or intervention. Depending upon the circumstances and the model of practice, this may involve an animal working with the practitioner or the intentional therapeutic involvement of a client’s own companion animal. The occupational therapist remains responsible for ensuring that the intervention is within occupational therapy scope, clinically justified, appropriately documented and consistent with relevant professional, ethical, safety and animal-welfare requirements.

An occupational therapist may therefore work with animals in quite different professional contexts. For example, an OT might:

• assess how an assistance animal could support a client’s occupational performance;
• work with an existing assistance-animal team;
• collaborate with an assistance-animal trainer or organisation;
• incorporate an appropriate therapy animal into occupational therapy intervention;
• intentionally incorporate a client’s own companion animal or pet into occupational therapy intervention where clinically appropriate;
• consider a client’s companion animal as part of their routines, roles, relationships, environment and occupational participation without using the animal as an intervention; or
• provide occupational therapy to a person who happens to own or work with an animal without the animal itself forming part of the intervention.

These situations should not automatically be treated as equivalent.

The AAOT Credential is specifically focused on occupational therapy practice relating to assistance animals. It does not, by itself, constitute a credential in animal-assisted occupational therapy, therapy-animal practice or the therapeutic use of clients’ companion animals.

WAFA is separately developing a professional credential for occupational therapists who wish to intentionally incorporate animals into occupational therapy practice. This pathway is intended to address practice involving therapy animals, as well as circumstances in which an occupational therapist intentionally works with a client’s own companion animal as part of occupational therapy intervention.

This is being developed separately because using an animal within therapy raises different professional questions from assessing, recommending or supporting an assistance animal. These may include the therapist’s competence in animal-assisted practice, suitability and preparation of the animal, consent, therapeutic rationale, intervention planning, documentation, risk management, infection control, animal welfare, client–animal relationships, professional boundaries and the circumstances in which a client’s own animal may appropriately form part of intervention.

Holding the AAOT Credential should therefore not be interpreted as automatically establishing competence to provide animal-assisted occupational therapy. Equally, competence in animal-assisted occupational therapy does not automatically establish competence in assistance-animal assessment and recommendation.

The two areas may share important knowledge and skills, and a companion animal may sometimes be relevant to either area, but they remain distinct areas of professional practice.

The Breadth of Assistance-Animal Practice

Assistance-animal practice does not sit neatly within a single profession, discipline, funding system or area of law.

There is also no single pathway through which a person obtains, trains, funds, uses or maintains an assistance animal.

Depending upon the individual circumstances, a person may:

• train their own animal;
• work with an independent trainer;
• obtain an animal through an assistance-animal organisation;
• use a combination of self-training and professional training;
• already have a companion animal that is subsequently considered for training as an assistance animal;
• already have a trained or partially trained animal before an occupational therapist becomes involved;
• seek disability-related funding for assessment, training, equipment, maintenance or other aspects of the assistance-animal arrangement;
• privately fund some or all costs;
• access charitable, community or other funding;
• receive assistance through more than one funding source; or
• move between different funding arrangements over the working life of the assistance animal.

The relevant legal, regulatory, funding and administrative pathways may also differ according to jurisdiction, setting, purpose, funding source and individual circumstances.

An occupational therapist may therefore encounter assistance-animal teams at very different stages and through very different pathways.

There is no single assistance-animal pathway that an AAOT can learn and then apply identically to every person.

For this reason, the AAOT Credential aims to cover as much of the assistance-animal practice landscape as reasonably possible, while also teaching learners to recognise when a situation falls outside their knowledge, professional scope or individual competence and further information, evidence or specialist input is required.

The credential consequently draws together knowledge from areas that are often taught or practised separately, including:

• occupational therapy;
• disability and occupational performance;
• assistance-animal practice;
• human rights;
• Australian disability law and other relevant legal frameworks;
• funding systems and administrative processes;
• mental health and psychosocial disability;
• physical, sensory, intellectual and neurological disability;
• neurodivergence;
• trauma and safeguarding;
• animal behaviour and learning;
• animal welfare and husbandry;
• animal health and veterinary care;
• assistance-animal selection and training;
• workplace health and safety;
• infection prevention and biosecurity;
• environmental sustainability;
• ethics and professional governance;
• risk assessment and management;
• interdisciplinary collaboration; and
• evidence-informed professional reasoning.

This breadth reflects the reality of assistance-animal practice.

An AAOT may need to understand the interaction between a person’s disability, occupational performance, home and community environments, the proposed animal, animal behaviour and welfare, task training, available supports, funding pathway, applicable law, professional evidence and the roles of other practitioners.

No single one of these areas can be considered entirely in isolation.

At the same time, breadth of knowledge should not be confused with unlimited professional scope.

The aim is not for an AAOT to become a lawyer, psychologist, veterinarian, animal behaviourist, assistance-animal trainer, funding specialist or another professional outside occupational therapy.

Rather, the aim is to develop an occupational therapist who understands the assistance-animal sector broadly enough to recognise the issues that may affect an assistance-animal team, ask appropriate questions, locate and critically evaluate relevant information, collaborate effectively with other professionals, remain within scope and individual competence, and bring that information together through occupational therapy professional reasoning.

Professional Scope and Individual Competence

Throughout AAOT, it is important to distinguish professional scope from individual competence.

Professional scope concerns whether an activity appropriately falls within occupational therapy practice.

Individual competence concerns whether you personally have the knowledge, skills, education, experience and professional capability required to undertake that activity safely and appropriately in the particular circumstances.

An activity may therefore fall within the broad professional scope of occupational therapy without necessarily falling within the current competence of every occupational therapist.

For example, an area of assessment may appropriately form part of occupational therapy practice, but an individual OT may require additional education, experience, supervision, consultation or interdisciplinary support before undertaking that work with a particular client, animal, disability, environment or presentation.

The reverse is also important. Having extensive knowledge or experience in an area does not automatically bring an activity that belongs to another profession within occupational therapy scope.

The breadth of AAOT is intended to enable occupational therapists to recognise and understand the many issues that may arise in assistance-animal practice. It does not expand occupational therapy scope into veterinary medicine, psychology, law, animal behaviour practice, animal training or other professions.

Similarly, completion of the AAOT Credential does not mean that a graduate is automatically competent to manage every:

• disability or health condition;
• animal species;
• behavioural presentation;
• assistance-animal task;
• training methodology;
• funding pathway;
• legal or regulatory issue;
• environmental circumstance;
• safeguarding concern; or
• complex clinical presentation

that they may encounter.

Competence is contextual and may develop over time through education, professional experience, supervision, continuing professional development, interdisciplinary collaboration and reflective practice.

Throughout your practice, ask both:

“Is this within occupational therapy scope?”

and

“Is this within my individual competence?”

Where the answer to the second question is uncertain, appropriate responses may include seeking further evidence, undertaking additional education, obtaining supervision or consultation, collaborating with another appropriately qualified professional, referring part of the matter to another practitioner, or declining to undertake work that is presently outside your competence.

Recognising when another professional’s expertise is required is itself an important component of competent AAOT practice.

Breadth of knowledge does not create unlimited scope, and professional scope does not automatically establish individual competence.

This principle is applied repeatedly throughout AAOT. In later topics, you will encounter circumstances in which an occupational therapist may appropriately recognise or consider an issue without being the professional responsible for diagnosing, treating or determining it.

Foundation Knowledge and Later Specialist Learning

The Foundation therefore introduces a broad range of concepts relevant to assistance-animal occupational therapy, including human rights, disability, safeguarding, trauma, mental health, addiction, environmental risk, professional boundaries, animal welfare, animal behaviour, law, ethics, healthcare, occupational performance and interdisciplinary practice.

This breadth is intentional.

The purpose of the Foundation is to establish the principles, awareness and professional reasoning that underpin later AAOT practice. It is not intended to provide the complete specialist teaching for every topic introduced.

Where a Foundation topic touches upon matters such as:

• workplace health and safety;
• infection prevention and biosecurity;
• animal behaviour and learning;
• animal welfare and husbandry;
• animal health and veterinary care;
• assistance-animal selection and training;
• legal and governance requirements;
• funding and administrative pathways; or
• occupational therapy assessment,

the Foundation will generally introduce the issue to the extent necessary to understand its relevance to assistance-animal practice.

Detailed technical, clinical and professional application is developed within the relevant later units of the credential.

For example, a Foundation discussion about addiction may identify that substance use can create environmental risks for an assistance animal. The purpose at Foundation level is to understand why this may be relevant to an individualised occupational therapy assessment. Detailed consideration of animal toxicology, husbandry, environmental safety and veterinary response belongs within the later animal-health, welfare, infection-control and assessment units.

Similarly, Foundation learning may introduce questions about assistance-animal tasks, animal suitability, risk, funding, legal status or welfare without attempting to teach the complete assessment, training, legal or behavioural framework at that point.

This distinction is intentional.

Foundation asks you to recognise the issue, understand why it matters and begin thinking about how different areas of knowledge interact. Later units develop the depth required to assess, analyse and respond to those issues within the relevant area of AAOT practice.

This structure also helps prevent isolated examples within Foundation from being interpreted as complete professional guidance. Learners should integrate Foundation principles with the more detailed material, evidence, assessment frameworks and professional expectations developed throughout the remainder of the credential.

Questions to Keep Asking Throughout AAOT

Throughout AAOT, you will therefore be expected to ask:

What role is this animal actually performing?

Who is the animal intended to benefit?

Is the animal an assistance animal, therapy animal or companion animal?

Is the animal itself intentionally being used as part of occupational therapy intervention, or is the OT assessing the person’s use of an assistance animal?

If this is the client’s own companion animal, is the animal simply relevant to the person’s occupations and environment, or is the animal being intentionally incorporated into intervention?

What training, preparation or suitability assessment does the animal require for the role being proposed?

What disability-related functional or occupational need is being addressed?

What legal framework applies?

What funding or administrative framework applies, if any?

What evidence is required?

Is this within occupational therapy scope?

Is this within my individual competence?

What professional competencies are required of the occupational therapist?

What knowledge belongs to another professional or discipline?

When is interdisciplinary collaboration required?

What welfare, safety and ethical responsibilities arise for the animal?

Is this issue being introduced as a Foundation principle, or is it addressed in greater technical depth within a later AAOT unit?

Understanding these distinctions helps prevent inappropriate terminology, incorrect legal assumptions, role confusion, overinterpretation of introductory material and practice outside professional competence.

It also reflects an important reality of assistance-animal practice: the person, animal, occupation, environment, training, law, funding, health, welfare and professional systems surrounding an assistance-animal team interact with one another.

The distinctions and principles introduced here will therefore be revisited in greater depth throughout the credential as you examine assistance-animal terminology, law, professional scope, animal behaviour and training, welfare, health, environmental safety, funding, interdisciplinary practice and occupational therapy assessment.

Assistance-animal practice is inherently interdisciplinary. The breadth of AAOT reflects that reality.