Occupational therapy and intellectual disability

For people with an intellectual disability, occupational therapy is usually asked to answer how much support is needed, for which tasks, and where that support could reduce over time. Both halves matter: a report that only describes what someone cannot do makes independence harder to fund.

What gets assessed

• Daily living skills: cooking, cleaning, personal care, managing money.
• Safety awareness at home and in the community.
• Prompting: how much, how often, and of what kind. This is usually the finding a funder relies on most.
• Communication in services, appointments and daily situations.
• Where independence is realistic with the right setup or teaching.

Assessing with the person, not around them

Support workers and family often know the most useful detail, and their input is part of the assessment. It does not replace the participant’s own account of their day. Assessment happens in the person’s environment and at their pace, and the goals in the report should be recognisably theirs.

The output is usually a functional capacity assessment, with manual handling training for the support team where transfers or handling are involved.