5 January 2020 posted by Recovery Partners

An Activities of Daily Living (ADL) assessment assesses an employee’s ability to perform daily functions in the areas of personal care, home maintenance, and recreational and social activities while taking into account their pre-injury status.

An occupational therapist (OT) is tasked with assessing the worker’s requirements as a result of their work-related injury and assisting workers to maximize their independence.

What are the Activities of Daily Living?

ADL’s are occupation-based tasks that people usually need to perform to live as independent people.

Benefits of an ADL assessment

These include, but are not limited to;

  • Maximising an individual’s ability to be independent
  • Reducing the reliance on other costlier home help services.
  • Minimising injury/aggravation in the home
  • Shortening the period of incapacity

The process is aimed at helping individuals relearn or regain the ability to carry out their ADL tasks. The program is best carried out within the employee home setting. It is also important to evaluate an individual’s work environment as part of the process. 

The assessment specialist provides a report singling out the difficulties with ADL’s from which recommendations can be drawn. This may range from home/workplace modification to the provision of assistive equipment where necessary.

When is an ADL assessment necessary?

Several scenarios can make an ADL assessment necessary. This includes the following;

  • When an individual has suffered a significant injury or illness.
  • When an individual’s independence is compromised
  • Medico-legal assessment
  • When there is a risk that an individual’s everyday activities may exacerbate their condition
  • To plan for an individual’s post-operative return to their residential environment

At Recovery Partners, our ADL Assessment program is designed to help reduce the impact of injury or illness to an individual while helping facilitate an early return to independence and pre-injury functions.

Our services are available in multiple locations nationwide. For more information on our services enquire here

Our consultants love to have a chat, so go ahead and give us a call on 1300 OHS RTW (647 789) or email enquiries@rrp.com

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Disclaimer – these articles are provided to supply general safety information to people responsible for OHS in their organisation. They are general in nature and do not substitute for legal and/or professional advice. We always suggest that organisations obtain information specific to their needs. Additional information can be found at https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/