Functional Capacity Assessments in Wollongong
Mobile, evidence-based functional capacity assessments across Wollongong and the Illawarra. We are based in Western Sydney, about an hour away, and take Illawarra bookings by arrangement, which matters when local books are closed and a plan review will not wait.
Do you need a functional capacity assessment in Wollongong?
A functional capacity assessment (FCA) is an occupational therapy assessment of how you manage everyday activities, and what supports would help you live more independently. In the Illawarra the hard part is often not deciding you need one, it is finding somebody with capacity to do it.
- ✓ An NDIS application or plan review is coming up
- ✓ Local occupational therapy books are closed and your deadline is not moving
- ✓ A support coordinator, planner, GP or hospital team has asked for one
- ✓ Falls, stairs or a multi-level home are making staying put harder
- ✓ A decision is going to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) and needs independent evidence
What an FCA covers, including the stairs
We assess the areas of daily life that decide how independently you can live, and along this coast that very often includes how you manage a house built across several levels.
Personal care upstairs and down
Showering, dressing, grooming and toileting, and whether the bathroom is on the level you sleep on.
Stairs and getting about
Moving between levels, handrails, tread depth and lighting, plus transfers and how much of it changes late in the day.
Running the house
Cooking, cleaning, laundry and shopping, including whether the laundry is down a flight of stairs.
Leaving the house
The walk from the car, the slope of the drive, transport, appointments and staying connected to the community.
Memory and planning
Attention, memory, planning and decision-making, and how they hold up when fatigue sets in.
Being understood, and being safe
Making yourself understood, and what would happen after a fall on the stairs with nobody home.
How a visiting assessment is planned
A visiting assessor has to be thorough in one trip rather than dropping back in. We plan for that: the documentary work and the conversations happen around the visit, so the time in your home is spent on what only being there can show.
What you want to hold onto
Usually it is staying in the house. We start there, because it changes what the assessment is looking for.
A single thorough visit
We complete the in-person work in one trip where we can, planned to cover the tasks that genuinely matter rather than a quick tour.
Assessed at the harder time of day
Where falls or fatigue are involved we assess late in the day, because that is when the risk actually sits and a morning appointment will miss it.
The people who see the rest of the week
With your consent we speak with family, carers and your treating team, often by phone after the visit so those conversations are not rushed.
The written record
Hospital notes, specialist letters and earlier allied health reports are read before we travel, so the visit is not spent establishing history.
Recognised measures
Where appropriate we use validated tools such as the WHODAS 2.0, the COPM and the Lawton IADL Scale, alongside falls-risk screening where that is the question.
One report, written to the deadline
Everything is compiled into a single report, with the reasoning behind each recommendation on the page, delivered inside the timeframe you gave us.
Read our full assessment methodology, including the evidence standard every recommendation is written to.
Why Illawarra families and coordinators call us
There are fewer OT options along this coast than there were two years ago. These are the things worth asking whoever you call.
Evidence from more than one visit’s worth
We combine what we observe, what the people around you describe and what the clinical record already says, and we assess at the time of day the difficulty actually occurs.
We travel to the Illawarra
We are a Western Sydney service, roughly an hour from Wollongong, taking bookings across Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama and the northern suburbs by arrangement. We are not local and will not pretend to be.
Reports built to a deadline
Written against the reasonable and necessary criteria, usually delivered within 2 to 3 weeks, and planned around your review date when you tell us what it is.
Capacity when local books are closed
Illawarra OT capacity has been under real pressure. We are not on the local waitlist, because we are not part of the local market.
Older adults as well as participants
Much of our work along this coast is with older adults funded through a Home Care Package or CHSP, not only NDIS participants.
Straight answers about travel
We tell you before booking how travel is arranged and what it means for your funding, rather than after the invoice.
What lands in your inbox
Where the house is built across levels, the report separates what is the person, what is the condition and what is the staircase, because those have completely different answers.
Where things stand
A clear account of your circumstances, written for a reader who has never been to your house.
Measured results
Scores from the tools used, plus the actual measurements of the parts of the home that matter.
Scored by area
Each part of daily life rated on its own, so the pattern of difficulty is visible at a glance.
Risks, including the stairs
What is creating risk, separated into the person, the condition and the building.
Recommendations, and what each changes
Therapy, equipment, modifications or support hours, with the reason for each and what it is expected to change.
NDIS-ready findings
Written against the reasonable and necessary criteria, ready for planning or review.
Where the report carries weight
For Illawarra participants an FCA is usually the document holding up a plan review. Here is where it does the work.
- ✓ Access requests: sets out how your disability affects everyday functioning, with observed detail
- ✓ Plan reviews: evidences what has changed, which matters most where things are progressing
- ✓ External review (ART): hands the Administrative Review Tribunal evidence gathered independently of the decision under review
- ✓ Staying in your home: separates risk that therapy can reduce from risk the building creates
- ✓ Equipment and modifications: sets out what the house needs, and why a simpler option would not do
What to do when Illawarra OT books are closed
This is the single most common reason people call us from the Illawarra, so it is worth being direct about it.
Occupational therapy capacity along this coast has been genuinely difficult. Practices have reduced or ended their NDIS work, and waitlists have stretched at exactly the time plan reviews and hospital discharges create deadlines that will not move. Our own guide to why Illawarra OT capacity is under pressure goes through what has driven it.
The practical point is this: a mobile occupational therapist does not need to be based in Wollongong to assess you in Wollongong. For assessment-based work, a functional capacity assessment, a home modification report, an equipment prescription, the whole thing can usually be completed in one or two home visits. That is different from ongoing weekly therapy, where a local provider will always serve you better.
So the honest test is what you actually need. If it is a report against a deadline, a visiting assessor is often the fastest route to a finished document. If it is regular therapy over months, hold out for somebody local, and we will say so if you ask us.
A Wollongong assessment, start to finish
A worked example of the approach on an Illawarra job.
Staying in a multi-level home while ageing, Wollongong
This is a worked example, written to show how we would approach an assessment of this kind. It does not describe a real person or a real assessment. Funding outcomes depend on individual circumstances and are decided by the funder.
The situation
Consider a support coordinator contacting us about an older participant living in a split-level home in the northern suburbs, the kind built into the escarpment with the entry on one level and the bedrooms on another. There have been two falls in four months, the family are pushing for a move, and the participant does not want to leave a house they have lived in for thirty years.
What we would do
We would assess across a full afternoon and into the evening, because falls of this kind frequently happen late in the day. We would watch the stairs used properly, not demonstrated: where the handrail stops short, where the tread depth changes, and how much slower the climb becomes after an hour on their feet. We would look at the bathroom on the upper level, the laundry on the lower one, and the walk from the car to the door.
With consent we would speak with a family member who visits regularly and has quietly taken over anything involving the stairs, and with a physiotherapist who has been working on balance. We would review the hospital notes from the most recent fall and use the WHODAS 2.0, the Lawton IADL Scale and a falls-risk screen so the picture sits against recognised measures rather than family concern.
What the report would set out
The three things that tend to be argued about as one, separated. Some of the risk is the person, and would respond to therapy. Some is the condition, and will progress. A significant share is usually the house, and is addressable with a continuous handrail, better lighting at the landing and relocating one daily activity to the entry level. It gives a family and a planner a basis for deciding about the move rather than a disagreement about it.
Cost, funding and travel
A functional capacity assessment in Wollongong is charged by the hour, at the NDIS occupational therapy price of $193.99 per hour in 2026-27, based on the time the assessment and report take. See how OT is priced for a full breakdown.
| Funding type | What it means |
|---|---|
| NDIS – plan-managed | Your plan manager pays our invoices from your plan. The most common option. |
| NDIS – self-managed | You manage and pay invoices directly from your plan funding. |
| Home Care Package (Levels 1–4) | Occupational therapy for older adults, funded through your package provider. |
| CHSP | Entry-level aged care support, subject to eligibility. |
| Medicare | Up to five allied health sessions a year with a GP care plan (a gap may apply). |
| Private | Pay directly, no referral required. |
For NDIS participants, an FCA is generally funded from the Capacity Building – Improved Daily Living budget, depending on your plan. Funding is not guaranteed, so check with your support coordinator or planner.
Functional capacity assessments across Wollongong and the Illawarra
We take bookings by arrangement across Wollongong (2500) and the wider Illawarra, including Thirroul, Bulli, Corrimal, Figtree, Fairy Meadow, Port Kembla, Warrawong, Dapto, Shellharbour and Kiama.
Functional capacity assessments in Wollongong: your questions
Do you actually travel to Wollongong?
Are you a local Wollongong provider?
Why would I use a visiting OT instead of a local one?
Which Illawarra suburbs do you cover?
Can you assess a house built across several levels?
How quickly can you get here, and when is the report ready?
Is the assessment funded, and what about the travel?
Do you see older adults as well as NDIS participants?
Request a functional capacity assessment in Wollongong
Send a referral or an enquiry below, or call 1300 316 664. Tell us your suburb and your deadline and we will confirm whether we can get to you.
Assessments that come to the Illawarra
Talk to our mobile OT team about a functional capacity assessment in Wollongong, Shellharbour or Kiama. No obligation, and a straight answer either way.
Make a referral or call 1300 316 664