about us

Animal Therapies Ltd (ATL) is a registered health promotion charity that connects those in need with animal assisted services that may prevent or help manage disability, illness and suffering. This includes people at risk of, or who are, experiencing mental illness, eye disease, hearing impairment, seizures, asthma, life threatening allergies, diabetes, fluctuating blood pressure, cerebral palsy, autism, post traumatic stress, episodic or serious medical crises, disability, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis, stroke, spinal cord injury and other physical, neurological or psychological conditions.

ATL is Australia’s leading institution for promoting the prevention and management of mental illness, disability, disease and human suffering using animal-assisted services.

Assistance animals can provide a variety of support to alleviate the barriers people with disability experience in daily activities. In addition to animals that assist people who are blind or have low vision, assistance animals can also provide support to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing; for people who require physical support for mobility or other functional tasks; people who are experience episodic and serious medical crisis (e.g. epilepsy, changes in blood pressure or blood sugar); and people who experience psychiatric disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, hallucinations, panic attacks or suicidal ideation.

about the role

Unfortunately public access refusals for assistance animal handlers are common and ATL seeks to appoint a Project Manager who will be responsible for the development and implementation of a National training program to be delivered to all customer facing employees in Australia.

Managing the project from conception through to successful implementation including the production of training material, the roll out of marketing and securing corporate partnerships to fund the project.

This would include the development of the business / project plan including costings and obtaining corporate sponsorship and partners, so the project costs are fully self-funded.

We are seeking fully costed proposals for this project management role. The proposal should outline any upfront costs. Any initial fee and subsequent appointment of the project management role would need to have a deliverable attached to it. Maybe a percentage up front and a percentage once corporate sponsorship has been obtained to fully fund all the costs associated with the project right through to successful implementation and delivery of the training.

Ideally, you would have reviewed a study undertaken by Dr Tiffani Howell to better understand the frequency and the impact of assistance dog refusals. The aim of this study was to characterise the frequency and contexts, and emotional impacts, of AD access denials among handlers in Australia, as well as the outcomes of interactions with others. Handlers (N = 77) throughout Australia completed an online survey.

Commercial passenger vehicles (CPVs; e.g., Uber/taxi) were the most commonly reported context for access denials, reportedly occurring about half the time, followed by hotels, restaurants, and cafés. Bystander support was rare in any setting. Some participants reported avoiding CPVs (52%), restaurants (13%), and medical/dental centers (13%) due to prior access denials. The emotional impacts were negative (e.g., annoyed, excluded, anxious, hurt). Unexpected interactions with people and other dogs were common. Unfortunately, 8 participants have had to retire a dog as an outcome of a negative interaction.