The Occupational Therapists at Greenhouse Health Hub complete high quality functional capacity assessments in your home.
What is an Occupation Therapy (OT) assessment?
Greenhouse has an exceptional reputation for producing easily understood reports and providing realistic recommendations. Functional capacity assessments are important to determine someone’s strengths, and any dysfunction in day to day living. They provide recommendations for individuals to grow toward their independence, and can specifically outline what support is required through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Our mobile OTs can also provide more focused cognitive or sensory assessments, to see what impact these have on day to day functioning and to assist with diagnostic clarification. Whether it be for an NDIS Access Request Form, an overdue increase in NDIS funding, or needing to learn where a task is breaking down, Greenhouse has you covered.
Some of the assessments we do:
- Functional capacity assessments for NDIS
- Telehealth
- Living skills assessments
- Sensory processing assessments
- Cognitive assessments
- Mental health assessments
- Suicide risk and other risk assessments
What to expect
A functional capacity assessment involves completing a battery of assessment tools to determine an individual’s level of functioning in day to day living. This includes basic and instrumental activities of daily living. At Greenhouse we respect that every individual is different and so too are the assessments we do. However, most assessments will include a detailed interview and observation of daily living tasks completed in the home, work or other suitable environment. There will be a mix of standardised, semi structured and non-standardised assessments based on the presenting issues. Timing can range, though they usually take a minimum of 3 hours.
A functional capacity assessment uses a battery of tools to determine global functioning. A Living Skills assessment targets only one or two activities of daily living. Money management, behaviour management or cooking would be examples of a targeted assessment. These assessments are useful to assist in recovery planning and to identify the barriers in place preventing people from thriving in these areas. It allows for targeted and tailored intervention to ensure that people either develop independence or have the necessary supports put in place.
A sensory processing issue is when there is a mismatch between incoming stimuli and the resulting behavioural response. People may appear to over react to certain stimuli and may appear not to even register other stimuli. Sensory processing issues can effect our mobility, communication, socialising, learning, as well as engagement in self-care and self-maintenance tasks. A sensory processing assessment helps determine whether sensory processing issues are having an impact on daily functioning. This then assists in tailoring interventions to improve daily functioning.
A mental health assessment is a broad reaching assessment investigating all areas of mental health and its impact on functioning. These assessments include a formulation which are hypotheses that need testing but often help explain why things are how they are, and therefore, how we can start to make desired changes.
Hear what the community has to say
As a supervisor, Jerem utilises his encyclopaedia type knowledge to guide you in identifying your own areas for improvement, and develop strategies for upskilling. He provides a safe and non-judgemental space to debrief, problem solve and critically reflect on practise. Jerem has been key in my professional development as a social worker over the last 3 years.
He’s a fully sick goofball, book in with him now.
You won’t regret it.
Danielle Price
Social Worker
Jerem was incredible at explaining all the content, providing adequate examples that were relatable and easy to understand. He also had an element of humour that was appropriate but kept the engagement high within the large group and heavy content. He had great energy and an endearing demeanour. He made the course enjoyable and was clearly very passionate about the mission.
Gold Coast Teacher, YMHFA participant
Jerem is a wealth of knowledge and it is clear to see he is passionate about his work. He was easy to understand, entertaining and made sure we all understood what we needed to know. The course was so very informative. Jerem had no hesitation in going off script if we had questions and covered a vast amount of information.
Gold Coast Based Support Worker
Jerem has been an enormous support in my development as a clinician and without him I wouldn’t be in the senior position that I hold today. In the supervisory space, he skilfully provides a balance between support and challenge to help you meet your professional development goals. I highly recommend his training, supervision and clinical services to anyone that is looking for a brilliant occupational therapist on the Gold Coast.
Jenna Morgan
Occupational Therapist
Jerem has a really great down to earth vibe and an open book. He gave us real life examples and gave extra support and information on specific areas in which we were interested in or needed extra guidance. He pushed us to think deeper and gave simple but effective strategies to implement into out lives and workplace. Would definitely recommend and use him again for more training and education.
Gold Coast Support Worker, YMHFA participant
Here are the most common questions about assessments we get asked
There are many different types of assessment an Occupational Therapist might do depending on your specific presentation and needs. Usually though, the overall goal is to determine how an individual is functioning in the activities that are meaningful to them in the environments that they do them in. At Greenhouse we will always complete a comprehensive interview finding out more about you and what you need/want to do. We will want to observe you completing some every day tasks like making a snack or cleaning your room, to get a feel for what is going right, or what could be improved. Sometimes we will do specific assessments around your cognition, sensory processing, behaviours or other specific areas of functioning to better inform our recommendations. The whole process can take between 3-5 hours and then the report usually takes between 3-4 hours to write.
Assessments and their accompanying reports are billed at an hourly rate. The assessment and report can take between 2-8 hours to complete depending on the complexity of the case, and the type of assessment. Because every person is unique, so too is their assessment and report.
At Greenhouse we pride ourselves on being client-centred practitioners. That is why, at every step along your recovery journey, you’ll be in charge. Recommendations are empty if you do not understand or agree with them. Therapy can be challenging, but we’ll ensure that it is the “just right” challenge for you and where you are at.
What's coming up
Nov 16 - 17, 2023 Youth Mental Health First Aid Training
Registration Closed
March 14 - 15, 2024 Youth Mental Health First Aid Training
Registration Open
