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ADL/IADL & Personal Care Assessments

Assessing functional independence in everyday activities

Occupational therapy assessment can help determine how an injury, illness, or disability affects an individual’s ability to manage everyday activities safely and independently.

Benchmark Occupational Therapy provides detailed assessment of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) within the environments where these activities normally occur.

What Are ADLs and IADLs?

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) are fundamental personal care activities required for day-to-day functioning. These may include:

  • Dressing and undressing

  • Bathing and showering

  • Grooming and personal hygiene

  • Toileting

  • Eating

  • Bed mobility and transfers

  • Functional mobility within the home

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) are more complex activities required to manage a household and participate independently in the community. These may include:

  • Meal preparation

  • Housekeeping

  • Laundry

  • Shopping

  • Community access

  • Transportation and vehicle transfers

  • Household management

  • Other activities relevant to the individual’s usual roles and responsibilities

A Function-Focused Assessment

The assessment considers more than whether an individual reports being able or unable to perform an activity.

Where appropriate, the occupational therapist considers:

  • Direct observation of functional performance

  • Demonstration of relevant activities

  • Physical and cognitive abilities

  • Mobility and transfer ability

  • Pain or other symptom response during activity

  • Safety and efficiency

  • Task tolerance

  • Compensatory techniques

  • Use of adaptive equipment

  • Environmental barriers

  • Consistency between reported limitations and observed function

Equipment and Environmental Recommendations

Where functional barriers are identified, recommendations may be made to improve safety, accessibility, or independence.

Recommendations may include:

  • Bathing and toileting equipment

  • Grab bars and bathroom modifications

  • Transfer aids

  • Mobility equipment

  • Adaptive kitchen equipment

  • Dressing or grooming aids

  • Reachers and long-handled equipment

  • Changes to task setup

  • Environmental modifications

  • Alternative methods of completing an activity

Personal Care Assessments for Manitoba Public Insurance

A Personal Care Assessment (PCA) is a specific functional assessment completed for Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI).

Using MPI’s Personal Care Assessment reporting framework, the occupational therapist evaluates the claimant’s ability to perform relevant ADLs and IADLs and identifies areas in which assistance may be required as a result of accident-related functional limitations.

The assessment may consider:

  • Tasks the claimant can complete independently

  • Activities requiring modified methods or adaptive equipment

  • Tasks requiring supervision, setup, or physical assistance

  • The specific components of an activity that create difficulty

  • Whether alternative techniques may improve independence

  • Equipment or environmental modification