The impact of a quality assessment is huge after sustaining a injury at work or in a car accident!

What are the implications if the assessment is not completed with evidence based practice, sound clinical reasoning, participant specific needs and goals, providing a detailed list of recommendations…..  

The goal of these assessments is to:

• Optimize participation at home, work and in the community.
• Achieve the best possible health outcomes for the injured person.  
• Identify barriers and explore options.  
• Paint the picture of the recovery progress, goals, injury related needs, home environment, supports available and other factors to the reader.  
• Provide a list of clear recommendations that will enhance recovery and participation

The framework used is a biopsychosocial approach, considering all areas of the person's life, including their social situation, relationships, goals, resources available, stages of life, physical, cognitive and psychological needs and other relevant factors.

Our team use a mixture of tools to ensure our Initial Needs or Activities of Daily (ADL) assessments are completed to a high standard, including:

• We feel it is best practice to do these assessments in the persons home, their usual environment where they are working towards recovery and participating is most of their roles.  
• With consent we are eager to know who else is involved in the treating team, informal and formal supports to ensure we are providing a comprehensive picture to the reader of our reports.  
• Some of the areas we are looking at include:

              Roles, responsibilities and interests before their injury.

              Supports that are in place or needed.  

              How the injury has impacted their life

              The goals for: Recovery, return to work, return to pre injury roles such as parenting, volunteering

             Review of home environment and how this could be enhanced to optimize participation and safety post injury.

              Agreed recommendations  

• The State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) clinical framework and ‘reasonable and necessary’ criteria is referred to

• A mixture of interview, observations and standardized assessments.

The timing of these assessments can vary from post injury or a few years down the track. It can vary pending on the persons recovery, comorbidities, informal supports, goals and many other factors.  

We understand that our comprehensive occupational therapy report is only one piece of the puzzle for the treating plan, but we aim to provide a high impact through a quality assessment and comprehensive report.  

We provide these services under workers compensation and CTP insurance.  

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