What Are Activities of Daily Living and How Does Occupational Therapy Help?

There’s a particular kind of loss that happens quietly.

Not all at once. Gradually, in small increments that are easy to explain away. You start showering less often because getting in and out has become harder than it used to be. You stop cooking meals from scratch because standing at the bench for forty minutes is exhausting in a way it never was before. You let the bills pile up because managing them online requires a level of concentration your brain no longer produces reliably on the first attempt.

You don’t say any of this out loud because you’re not sure whether you’re entitled to help, or whether it’s something you should be able to manage on your own.

I’ve sat with people in this exact situation more times than I can count. And what strikes me every time is how much has been lost, and how much longer it has been lost for, before anyone thought to ask an occupational therapist to help.

Activities of daily living, or ADLs, are the everyday tasks that underpin independent life. When disability, illness, injury, or ageing makes these tasks difficult, the impact isn’t just physical. It affects confidence, safety, relationships, and quality of life in ways that are often invisible to the people around you. According to Healthdirect Australia, occupational therapists help people take part in the activities they find meaningful, support wellbeing through strategies and environmental modification, and help people manage fatigue and long-term health conditions.

This article explains what ADLs are, what an OT assessment involves, how occupational therapy supports people to regain or maintain independence, and how to access this support through the NDIS, the Support at Home program, and other pathways in Australia.

Activities of Daily Living: OT Support at a Glance

What ADLs are	The everyday tasks that underpin independent life: self-care, household management, and community participation
Two categories	Basic ADLs (personal self-care) and Instrumental ADLs or IADLs (more complex household and community tasks)
Who assesses them	Occupational therapists assess both ADLs and IADLs to understand function and identify what support is needed
Key OT role	Task retraining, compensatory strategies, assistive equipment prescription, and home environment modification
NDIS funding	OT funded under Capacity Building: Improved Daily Living (item code 15_617_0128_1_3 for occupational therapists)
Aged care	OT ADL assessment available under the Support at Home program (commenced 1 November 2025)
Home visits	Available across Sydney through Fleet Healthcare for private, NDIS, and aged care clients

Key Takeaways

ADLs are the everyday self-care and household tasks that underpin independent life, including bathing, dressing, eating, cooking, managing medications, and using transport.
There are two categories: basic ADLs covering personal self-care, and instrumental ADLs (IADLs) covering the more complex tasks needed to manage a household and community life.
Occupational therapists assess both ADLs and IADLs to identify which tasks are difficult, how they’re affecting daily life, and what strategies or modifications would help.
OT support includes task retraining, compensatory strategies, assistive technology prescription, and home environment modification, all targeted at actual tasks in the actual environment where they happen.
ADL assessment is the foundation of Functional Capacity Assessments (FCAs), which inform NDIS plan funding decisions and are one of the most important documents in the NDIS planning process.
Home-based OT assessment is more accurate and more clinically useful than clinic-based assessment for ADLs, because the OT can observe what actually happens in the environment where daily life takes place.

What Are Activities of Daily Living? A Plain English Definition
Basic ADLs Explained
Instrumental ADLs Explained
What Causes Difficulty with Daily Living Activities?
What Does an OT ADL Assessment Involve?
How Occupational Therapy Helps Retrain Daily Living Skills
ADLs and the NDIS: Funding, Assessments, and Support Categories
ADLs and Aged Care: Support at Home
Why Home-Based OT Assessment Gives a More Accurate Picture
How to Access an OT Assessment in Australia
Common Misunderstandings
FAQs

What Are Activities of Daily Living? A Plain English Definition

Activities of daily living is the clinical term used by occupational therapists, health professionals, aged care assessors, and NDIS planners to describe the everyday tasks people need to perform to live independently and take care of themselves.

When you hear this term in a planning meeting or a health report, it’s referring to the things you do every day without necessarily thinking about them, until they become difficult.

The term covers two distinct categories: basic ADLs and instrumental ADLs (IADLs). Basic ADLs are the most fundamental self-care tasks. IADLs are more complex tasks that require a higher level of cognitive, physical, or social functioning. Both matter for independent living, and both are assessed by occupational therapists.

Understanding this distinction is useful when you’re reading an OT report, attending an NDIS planning meeting, or navigating an aged care assessment. Knowing what’s being described helps you engage with the assessment more effectively and advocate for the support that’s actually needed.

Basic ADLs Explained

Basic ADLs are the most fundamental self-care tasks. They need to happen every day for a person to stay healthy, safe, and clean. Loss of independence in basic ADLs is usually the most visible and most immediate concern when someone’s function changes.

Bathing and personal hygiene

This covers showering, bathing, washing hair, and maintaining personal cleanliness. Difficulty can arise from reduced balance, limited shoulder or hip range of motion, fear of falls, fatigue, or cognitive changes that affect the ability to plan and sequence the steps involved. For older Australians, the bathroom is one of the most common settings for falls and injuries.

Dressing

Getting dressed requires a sequence of fine and gross motor tasks: choosing appropriate clothing, managing fastenings, putting items on in the right order, and managing footwear. After a stroke, with one-sided weakness or limited hand function, dressing can become one of the most challenging morning tasks. For people with severe fatigue, the energy cost of getting dressed can consume a significant portion of the day’s available energy.

Grooming

Grooming includes oral hygiene, hair care, shaving, and nail care. These tasks often involve sustained postures, fine motor control, and the ability to stand at a basin. They’re frequently the first things to become abbreviated or skipped when someone is managing a new health challenge, sometimes without the person noticing how much has changed.

Toileting

Toileting covers getting to and from the toilet safely, managing clothing, and maintaining hygiene. Incontinence, reduced mobility, urgency, and the physical demands of transferring on and off a toilet can all make this a complex and sometimes unsafe ADL. Many people are reluctant to raise toileting difficulties with health professionals. That’s one of the key reasons OT assessment at home, in the actual bathroom, is so clinically valuable.

Eating

Eating includes the ability to feed oneself, use cutlery and crockery appropriately, and manage food and fluid safely. For people with swallowing difficulties, upper limb weakness, tremor, or cognitive changes, mealtimes can become a source of significant difficulty. Speech pathologists and occupational therapists often work together on mealtime management.

Transferring and mobility

Transfers refer to moving from one surface to another: getting in and out of bed, on and off a chair, in and out of a car, on and off the toilet. Safe transfers require leg strength, balance, the ability to plan the movement, and sufficient upper limb function to assist with push-off. Falls most commonly occur during transfers, making this one of the highest-priority areas in OT assessment.

Instrumental ADLs Explained

Instrumental ADLs are the more complex tasks needed to manage a household, participate in the community, and maintain a life beyond basic self-care. Loss of independence in IADLs is often the first sign that someone’s functioning has changed, even before basic ADLs are affected.

Cooking and meal preparation

This includes planning meals, safely using the stove and oven, managing hot items, and producing nutritious food consistently. Cognitive changes such as forgetting the stove is on, physical changes such as difficulty standing for sustained periods, or fatigue that makes meal preparation feel overwhelming are all common IADL difficulties that OTs assess and address.

Cleaning and household management

Maintaining a clean, safe home requires sustained physical effort, the ability to plan and organise tasks, and the energy to complete them regularly. Many people begin to let housework slide not out of choice but because the physical or cognitive demands have exceeded their current capacity.

Managing medications

Medication management involves knowing what to take, when to take it, and in the correct dose. For people managing multiple conditions with complex medication regimens, this is a significant cognitive task. Errors in medication management have direct health consequences, making this an important area of OT assessment particularly for older Australians and people with cognitive changes.

Using transport

Community access depends on the ability to use transport independently, whether that’s driving, using public transport, or organising alternative arrangements. The loss of the ability to drive can dramatically reduce a person’s social participation, access to services, and sense of independence.

Managing finances

Financial management includes paying bills, understanding bank statements, managing cash, and avoiding financial exploitation. Cognitive changes can affect all of these, and financial mismanagement is sometimes the first concrete sign that something has changed in a person’s cognitive functioning.

Using technology and communication

In contemporary daily life, using a telephone, accessing the internet, and using devices for communication and information are essential IADLs. For older Australians and people with cognitive or motor difficulties, technology can be both a resource and a barrier. OTs address both dimensions.

What Causes Difficulty with Daily Living Activities?

Difficulty with ADLs arises across a very wide range of conditions and circumstances. The common thread is that something has changed in the person’s physical, cognitive, or psychological functioning that has altered the relationship between them and the tasks they need to perform.

Acquired disability and neurological conditions

Stroke, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease all affect the motor, cognitive, and sensory systems involved in daily living tasks. Changes can be sudden, as in stroke, or progressive, as in Parkinson’s disease. In either case, the pattern of difficulty across ADLs and IADLs is often characteristic of the underlying condition and shapes the OT approach.

Ageing

The cumulative effects of ageing on strength, balance, vision, cognitive speed, and energy all affect ADL performance over time. Most people don’t notice these changes until a threshold is crossed, often following an illness, hospitalisation, or a fall. At that point the change in function can seem sudden even though it’s been gradual.

Chronic illness

Conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, cancer, diabetes, chronic pain, and autoimmune conditions all produce fatigue, reduced physical capacity, and sometimes cognitive changes that affect ADL performance. The relationship between disease management and daily function is a central focus of OT practice in these populations.

Mental health conditions

Depression, anxiety, psychosocial disability, and trauma can all significantly affect a person’s ability to initiate and complete daily living tasks. The impact is often invisible from the outside but can be profound in terms of daily function. Our article on occupational therapy and mental health covers how OT addresses daily function in mental health contexts in detail.

Disability from birth or childhood

People with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and other lifelong conditions may have always required support with some ADLs, or may face new challenges as they transition to adult life or as their support network changes. OT assessment at different life stages ensures support matches current needs.

What Does an OT ADL Assessment Involve?

An OT ADL assessment is the starting point for any occupational therapy intervention. It’s also one of the most important clinical tools in the NDIS and aged care systems, because the assessment findings directly inform what support is funded and at what level.

The assessment isn’t a test. It’s a clinical conversation and observation exercise, focused on building an accurate picture of how someone is managing their daily life and what’s contributing to any difficulties.

History taking

The OT begins with a detailed history: what’s changed, when it changed, what the person and their family have noticed, and what the person’s priorities and goals are. This context shapes everything that follows.

Structured observation

For an ADL assessment to be accurate, the OT needs to observe the person actually doing the tasks, not just asking them about it. This might involve watching the person prepare a meal, move around their home, get in and out of a chair, or manage their morning routine. This is one of the key reasons a home-based OT assessment is clinically superior to a clinic visit for ADL assessment. What the OT observes in the home is what actually happens, not what the person describes or demonstrates under artificial conditions.

Standardised assessment tools

OTs use validated, standardised tools to document functional level consistently and compare it over time. Common tools used in Australia include the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), the Katz Index of Independence in ADLs, and the Lawton IADL Scale.

Environmental assessment

The OT assesses the home environment: layout, access, furniture, bathroom setup, kitchen configuration, and any hazards that are contributing to difficulty or risk. This forms the basis for home modification and equipment recommendations.

Goal setting

Following the assessment, the OT works with the person and their family to identify priorities and set goals. These should be the person’s goals, not the OT’s. What matters most to this person? What would make the biggest difference to their daily life? Those answers shape the intervention plan.

How Occupational Therapy Helps Retrain Daily Living Skills

After the assessment, the OT develops an intervention plan. The specific combination of approaches depends on the person’s condition, goals, and environment.

Task retraining

Task retraining involves structured, repeated practice of the specific daily living tasks that have become difficult. It’s not generic exercise. It’s practising the actual task, in the actual environment, with the specific adaptations or techniques that make it achievable. For someone relearning to dress after a stroke with one-sided weakness, task retraining involves practising dressing with the affected limb first, using specific sequences and techniques. For someone with cognitive changes affecting meal preparation, it involves practising the actual routine in the actual kitchen.

Compensatory strategies

Compensatory strategies allow the same outcome through a different method. Rather than restoring the original skill exactly, the OT identifies a modified approach that achieves the same result safely and independently. Sitting to shower rather than standing. Using a long-handled shoe horn to put on footwear without bending. Using an electric toothbrush to manage fine motor difficulties with brushing. These are compensatory strategies: different methods, same functional outcome.

Assistive technology and equipment

OTs prescribe assistive equipment to reduce the difficulty and safety risk of ADLs. This might include a shower chair or bath board, grab rails, a toilet frame, a perching stool for kitchen tasks, long-handled equipment to avoid bending, or adapted cutlery. Our article on how occupational therapy and home modifications enhance independence covers the full scope of OT equipment and home modification recommendations in more detail.

Home environment modification

Environmental modifications reduce the physical demands and hazards of the home. Grab rails in the bathroom. A ramp to replace an external step. Repositioned storage so frequently used items are at a safe height. Improved lighting in high-risk areas. These changes often produce some of the most immediate and durable improvements in ADL independence.

Carer and family education

Where carers and family members are supporting someone with ADL difficulties, the OT provides education and training on safe assist techniques, how to encourage independence rather than inadvertently creating dependence, and how to adjust the support as the person’s capacity changes.

ADLs and the NDIS: Funding, Assessments, and Support Categories

ADL assessment and support sits at the heart of NDIS occupational therapy funding. Understanding how it’s categorised helps participants and their support coordinators ensure the right funding is in place.

How OT is funded under the NDIS

Occupational therapy is funded under Capacity Building: Improved Daily Living (item code 15_617_0128_1_3 for occupational therapists). According to the NDIS therapy supports page, the NDIS funds therapy that helps build or maintain skills and independence and is directly related to the participant’s disability. OT ADL assessment and retraining clearly qualifies where the difficulty with daily living is a consequence of the participant’s disability.

Functional Capacity Assessments

A Functional Capacity Assessment (FCA) is a formal, documented OT assessment that evaluates a participant’s functional abilities across multiple domains including ADLs, IADLs, communication, mobility, and social participation. ADL assessment is a core component of an FCA. The FCA provides the evidence base for NDIS plan funding decisions and is one of the most important documents in the planning process. If you don’t have an up-to-date FCA, requesting one before your next plan review is one of the most useful things you can do. Our article on what Capacity Building NDIS funding can be used for explains how Capacity Building works and how OT fits within it.

Assistive technology and home modification funding

Assistive technology is funded separately from therapy, under either Consumables (low-cost items) or Capital Supports. Home modifications are funded under Capital Supports. The OT assessment and report is the required step before AT or home modification funding can be approved. The assessment justifies the need, specifies the recommendation, and provides the evidence the NDIS requires.

The three NDIS funding management types

NDIA managed: the NDIA pays registered OT providers directly using the correct support item codes.

Plan managed: a plan manager pays providers on your behalf. Both registered and some unregistered providers can be used.

Self managed: you pay the provider directly and claim reimbursement. This offers the most flexibility in provider choice.

ADLs and Aged Care: Support at Home

For older Australians, OT ADL assessment and support is available under the Support at Home program, which replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025. OT can be included in a person’s care plan as a clinical care service where it’s clinically appropriate.

The assessment and intervention focus is broadly similar to the NDIS context, but with additional consideration of the specific challenges of ageing: falls risk, polypharmacy, cognitive change, social isolation, and the goal of remaining at home rather than entering residential care.

Why OT ADL assessment matters in aged care

Falls prevention: ADL assessment identifies specific tasks and environments where falls risk is highest. Modifications and equipment reduce that risk before a fall occurs, rather than after.
Hospital discharge planning: after hospitalisation, OT ADL assessment identifies whether the person is safe to return home and what support or modifications are needed to make that return possible.
Carer sustainability: when a carer is supporting someone with significant ADL difficulties, OT assessment and equipment prescription can reduce the physical demand on the carer and allow them to sustain their role for longer.
Delaying residential care entry: appropriate OT ADL support, including equipment, modifications, and skill maintenance, is one of the most effective interventions for supporting older Australians to remain at home.

Our article on what is the Support at Home program explains how the program works, who’s eligible, and how to include OT in your care plan. Registration starts at My Aged Care.

Why Home-Based OT Assessment Gives a More Accurate Picture

A clinic-based OT can ask about your home. A home-visiting OT can see it. That’s a significant clinical difference.

For ADL assessment specifically, the gap between what someone describes in a clinic and what actually happens in their home is often substantial. People tend to overestimate their capacity in a clinical setting. The clinic environment doesn’t contain the hazards, the distances, the familiar furniture, or the routines of real daily life.

What the OT observes at home that they can’t observe in a clinic

Whether the bathroom is actually accessible: the layout, the grab rail positions, the shower height, the floor surface.
Whether the kitchen allows safe meal preparation: bench height, storage arrangement, distance between work zones, whether the person can reach what they need without risk.
Whether the bedroom is set up safely: bed height, access to clothing, pathway to the door in the dark.
How the person actually transfers in their own furniture: their own chair, their own toilet, their own bed, which may be higher, lower, or differently positioned than anything in a clinic.
What falls hazards are present that the person has normalised: the rug they’ve always had, the step they’ve learned to negotiate, the cord across the hallway.
How fatigue presents across the actual tasks of the day, in sequence, rather than in isolated clinical tasks.

This is why Fleet Healthcare’s OT assessments are delivered at home. We see what’s actually happening in the environment where independence actually matters. Visit our occupational therapy service page to learn more about our assessment and support model.

How to Access an OT Assessment in Australia

There are several clear pathways to accessing an OT ADL assessment in Australia. The right one depends on your situation.

NDIS

If you’re an NDIS participant, OT assessment and therapy is funded under Capacity Building: Improved Daily Living. You can arrange this through your support coordinator, by contacting a registered OT provider directly, or by requesting it be included in your next plan review if it’s not currently funded. For participants approaching plan review, an up-to-date OT ADL assessment is one of the most useful pieces of evidence to have.

Support at Home

If you’re an older Australian registered with My Aged Care and receiving Support at Home services, OT can be included in your care plan as a clinical care service. Speak to your care manager about including occupational therapy in your plan. If you’re not yet registered, contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or visit their website.

Medicare

If you have a chronic condition, your GP can create a Chronic Disease Management plan that provides access to up to five rebated allied health sessions per calendar year, which can include occupational therapy. This is a useful pathway for people who aren’t NDIS participants and aren’t yet in the aged care system.

Private and self-funded

You don’t need a referral, a funded plan, or a chronic condition to access OT privately. Fleet Healthcare accepts self-referrals and provides transparent pricing upfront. Self-funded OT ADL assessments are available to anyone who wants a clear clinical picture of how they’re managing daily life and what could be improved.

Finding a qualified OT

All occupational therapists in Australia must be registered with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia. Occupational Therapy Australia, the peak professional body, maintains a Find an OT directory that allows you to search for registered practitioners by location and area of practice.

Common Misunderstandings

Myth	Reality
OT is only for people with serious disabilities	OT ADL assessment is relevant for anyone whose daily life has become harder than it used to be, or harder than it should be. That includes people managing early signs of ageing, recovering from surgery, managing a chronic condition, or adjusting to a new health challenge.
A clinic assessment tells you everything you need to know	For ADL assessment specifically, home observation consistently provides clinical information that clinic assessment misses. The home environment, actual furniture, and real daily routines cannot be replicated in a clinical setting.
Equipment and modifications are a last resort	They’re often a first-line intervention. The right piece of equipment at the right time can immediately restore independence, reduce carer burden, and prevent injuries that would otherwise require much more extensive intervention.
OT means the person will lose independence	OT is specifically designed to maintain and restore independence, not replace it. The goal is always to support the person to do as much as possible for themselves, in the safest way possible.
You need a GP referral to see an OT	You don’t. You can self-refer to an occupational therapist privately. Referrals are required for some funded pathways such as Medicare CDM plans, but not for private or self-funded appointments.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are activities of daily living (ADLs)?

Activities of daily living are the everyday tasks that people perform to take care of themselves and manage their lives. They’re divided into basic ADLs, which include personal self-care tasks such as bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, eating, and transferring, and instrumental ADLs (IADLs), which include more complex tasks such as cooking, cleaning, managing medications, using transport, handling finances, and using technology. Occupational therapists assess both categories to understand how a person is managing their daily life and what support they need.

What is the difference between ADLs and IADLs?

Basic ADLs are fundamental self-care tasks required for personal survival and hygiene, such as bathing, dressing, and eating. IADLs are higher-order tasks needed to live independently in a community, such as managing finances, preparing meals, using public transport, and organising medications. IADLs are typically more cognitively demanding and are often the first area where changes in function become visible. Basic ADLs are usually the area of most urgent concern when function has significantly declined.

What does an occupational therapist look for in an ADL assessment?

An OT ADL assessment involves directly observing a person performing relevant daily tasks, assessing the home environment, taking a detailed history of what has changed and when, and using standardised assessment tools to document functional level. The OT identifies what the person can do safely and independently, what they can do with modification or assistance, what they can’t currently do safely, what the contributing factors are, and what interventions would be most useful.

How does an OT help someone who is struggling with daily living tasks?

After the assessment, the OT develops an intervention plan that may include task retraining through structured practice, compensatory strategies that allow the same outcome through a different method, prescription of assistive technology such as shower chairs or long-handled equipment, home environment modification such as grab rails or ramps, and education for the person and their carers about safe techniques and routines.

Can the NDIS fund occupational therapy for daily living support?

Yes. OT for ADL assessment and support is funded under Capacity Building: Improved Daily Living (item code 15_617_0128_1_3) for NDIS participants. Functional Capacity Assessments, assistive technology assessments, and home modification assessments are also fundable within relevant budget lines. For participants who need ongoing hands-on daily living assistance rather than therapy, this is funded through Core Supports: Assistance with Daily Life. Refer to the NDIS therapy supports page for further information.

What is a Functional Capacity Assessment and how does it relate to ADLs?

A Functional Capacity Assessment (FCA) is a formal, documented OT assessment that evaluates a participant’s functional abilities across multiple domains including ADLs, IADLs, communication, mobility, and social participation. ADL assessment is a core component of an FCA. The FCA provides the evidence base for NDIS plan funding decisions and is one of the most important documents in the NDIS planning process. OTs are the primary profession conducting FCAs in Australia.

Can an OT come to my home to assess my daily living needs?

Yes. Fleet Healthcare provides home-based OT ADL assessments across Sydney. Home visits are available for private clients, NDIS participants, and aged care recipients under the Support at Home program. A home-based assessment is clinically preferable for ADL assessment because it allows the OT to observe what actually happens in the environment where daily life takes place, identify real hazards, and make recommendations that are immediately relevant to the person’s actual home. Visit our occupational therapy service page to learn more or book an assessment.

What conditions or situations benefit most from OT daily living support?

OT ADL assessment and support is relevant across a very wide range of conditions and situations, including stroke and acquired brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions, hip and knee surgery recovery, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, dementia and cognitive change, mental health conditions affecting daily function, age-related decline in strength and balance, and disability from birth. If daily life is harder than it used to be or harder than it should be, an OT assessment is a useful starting point.

How does daily living OT support differ from home modifications?

OT daily living support focuses on the person: retraining skills, teaching compensatory strategies, prescribing equipment, and providing education. Home modifications focus on the environment: changing the physical structure or layout of the home to reduce demands and hazards. Both are within OT scope and are often combined in the same assessment and intervention plan. The OT determines which combination of person-centred and environment-centred interventions will be most effective.

Can aged care recipients access OT daily living support through Support at Home?

Yes. Occupational therapy is a fundable clinical care service under the Support at Home program for older Australians. OT ADL assessment and support can be included in a person’s care plan where clinically appropriate. To begin the process, register with My Aged Care online or by calling 1800 200 422.

Can I access an OT assessment without an NDIS plan or aged care funding?

Yes. Fleet Healthcare accepts self-referrals and private bookings for OT ADL assessments. You don’t need a funded plan, a GP referral, or a formal diagnosis to book a private assessment. If you’re finding daily life harder than it used to be and want a clear clinical picture and a practical plan, a self-funded assessment is a straightforward starting point.

The tasks covered in this article, bathing, dressing, cooking a meal, managing your medications, getting to an appointment, aren’t remarkable. Nobody thinks about them until they become difficult. And when they do become difficult, the response is often to quietly adapt, to do less, to accept a smaller and smaller life rather than to seek help.

What I’ve seen repeatedly is that the moment someone says to an occupational therapist, here is what I’m struggling with, here is what I’ve stopped doing, is usually the moment things start to change.

Not because the OT has a magic solution. But because having a clinical assessment that names the difficulties, explains the contributing factors, and offers a structured plan to address them gives people a way forward that they didn’t have before.

That plan might be a grab rail and a shower chair that make the morning routine safe again. It might be a restructured daily schedule that protects the person’s most important activities within their available energy. It might be a report that provides the evidence needed to get the right level of NDIS funding. Or it might be a combination of all of these, delivered at home by a clinician who can see exactly what’s happening in the environment where it matters.

Care that works in the real world means assessment and intervention that happen in the real world, with the actual tasks, in the actual home, with the actual routines. That’s what occupational therapy at its best looks like, and it’s what Fleet Healthcare’s team provides every day.

Fleet Healthcare occupational therapists provide home-based ADL assessments and daily living support across Sydney. We work with NDIS participants, aged care recipients under the Support at Home program, and private clients. Visit our occupational therapy service page to learn more, or book an OT assessment today. A home visit means we assess and work with you in the environment where independence actually matters.

Author Bio

Alexander Hunt is the Founder and Managing Director of Fleet Healthcare. As a practising physiotherapist, he brings over a decade of experience across NDIS, aged care, and mobile allied health. Alex is passionate about delivering care that meets people where they are and helps them thrive in their everyday environment.

Professional Disclaimer

The information provided in this article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. While we aim to ensure accuracy at the time of publication, professional standards, funding arrangements, eligibility criteria, and regulatory frameworks may change and may vary between providers and governing bodies. Any references to funding or service access are general in nature and should be confirmed directly with the relevant provider or authority. Fleet Healthcare Services Pty Ltd accepts no liability for actions taken based on the information provided in this article.