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Putting the fun in functional capacity assessments

Putting the fun in functional capacity assessments

Functional capacity assessments seem to be a bit of a buzz word at the moment in the NDIS space, and often there is a bit of confusion about when and where these are required.

A functional capacity assessment (FCA) is essentially a comprehensive OT assessment, which comments on or assesses all the things we as humans do during the day including caring for ourself, working, playing, getting around, our thinking and learning and the the things we might need support for. An FCA typically requires around 10-15 hours worth of funding and takes a lot of time for both the client and the therapist. An FCA can be over 20 pages long!

An FCA is often required if a person hasn’t had therapies or a proper plan review for a few years, and needs a good overview of what their current and future care needs might be. An FCA is a great way to capture this to submit to the NDIS, and is well worth the funding that is required to do so. Also if a clients function or social circumstances have drastically changed an FCA can be helpful. 

 

However often we are getting asked to do FCA’s when a client only recently had an FCA completed, or has been seeing a full therapy team and receiving lots of supports, and HASNT had a change in circumstances. In these situations often a brief 1-2 page review report is sufficient, and will only need around 2-3 hours of funding to complete. In this brief report we can outline what therapies the client has been recieving, what has been working well, what hasn’t, what goals have been achieved or not, and what therapies are needed for the future. Often this is adequate enough for a planner to make an informed decision on a clients funding needs. 

In summary its always best to clarify WHY an FCA is being requested so your OT can make an informed decision on if a full FCA is required, or if a simpler (and cheaper) summary report might contain enough information. Feel free to contact us on our contact page if you have any questions. Of course this isn’t an exhaustive guide and it’s always best to ask!

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