How to Prepare for an NDIS Functional Capacity Assessment

Reading time: 9 minutes  |  Updated: April 2026  |  Written by: TEAH Allied Health Team

A Functional Capacity Assessment (FCA) is one of the most important appointments in your NDIS journey. Get it right and the resulting report can unlock funding for personal care, assistive technology, home modifications, and therapy. Get it wrong — or go in underprepared — and your plan may not reflect your actual needs at all.

The good news is that preparation makes an enormous difference. This guide walks you through exactly how to get ready for your NDIS FCA: what to bring, how to think about your answers, who to involve, and what to do when you receive your draft report.

If you haven’t already read our overview of what a Functional Capacity Assessment is and what it includes, that’s a good starting point before diving into this guide.

Why Preparation Matters So Much

Many people arrive at their FCA hoping the occupational therapist will “just see” how much support they need. But an FCA is a structured clinical assessment — not a medical examination where a health professional reaches an independent diagnosis. The OT can only report on what they observe and what you (and those around you) tell them.

Two things consistently cause FCAs to underestimate a participant’s real needs:

1. Performing better on the day than on a typical day. The presence of a clinician, the focus of a structured appointment, and the motivation to demonstrate competence all cause many people to perform tasks more capably during an assessment than they would on an average day — especially with conditions involving fatigue, pain, anxiety, or fluctuating capacity.
2. Not mentioning difficulties that feel minor, embarrassing, or irrelevant. Participants regularly omit problems with continence, mental health, night-time routines, sexual wellbeing, or social isolation — often because they feel these are private, or they assume the OT isn’t interested. Every area of daily life that affects your functioning is relevant.

Thorough preparation solves both of these problems. It helps you walk in with the right mindset, the right documents, and the right words to describe your situation accurately.

What to Do Before the Appointment

1. Spend a week observing your own functioning

In the week before your FCA, pay deliberate attention to what is and isn’t difficult for you across daily life. Keep a simple diary or use your phone’s notes app to track:

• Tasks you needed help with — and how much help
• Tasks you avoided or didn’t attempt because they were too difficult
• Tasks that took significantly longer than they would for a person without your condition
• Times when pain, fatigue, or anxiety made a task harder than usual
• Any falls, near-misses, or safety incidents
• How you felt across the day — including energy levels, pain levels, and emotional state

This diary becomes invaluable during the assessment. Instead of trying to recall how you felt on a random Tuesday, you have a concrete record. You can share it directly with your OT or use it to prompt your answers during the interview.

2. Think through each area of daily life

Work through the following domains and note where you experience difficulty, need assistance, take longer than expected, or have given up trying:

• Personal care — showering, dressing, toileting, grooming, shaving, oral hygiene
• Eating and drinking — preparing meals, cooking safely, eating independently
• Mobility — walking distances, climbing stairs, getting in and out of chairs, cars, beds
• Household tasks — cleaning, laundry, shopping, managing bills, taking bins out
• Medication management — remembering to take medication, managing complex schedules
• Sleep — how well you sleep, whether you need repositioning at night, whether you need support during the night
• Community access — using public transport, attending appointments, going out alone
• Social participation — maintaining relationships, engaging in activities, going out socially
• Work and education — any goals around employment, study, or volunteering
• Emotional wellbeing — anxiety, depression, motivation, managing stress
• Safety — falls risk, wandering, leaving appliances on, getting lost

3. Write down your NDIS goals — in your own words

Your FCA report should connect your support needs directly to your NDIS goals. Before your appointment, write a few sentences for each of your current goals that explains: what you want to achieve, why it matters to you, and what’s currently getting in the way. Your OT will use this framing to make sure the report is aligned with your plan.

Documents to Gather Before Your FCA

Bring as much of the following as you can. You do not need everything on this list — bring what you have and let your OT determine what is most useful.

What to Do on the Day of Your FCA

Don’t over-prepare your performance

This sounds counterintuitive, but do not clean the house, organise your kitchen, or set up your home to look more functional than it typically is. If your bathroom is usually hard to navigate, your OT needs to see that. If your kitchen benches are normally cluttered and difficult to work in, that’s relevant clinical information. Present your home and yourself as you would on a typical day.

Take your regular medications

Do not skip or adjust your medications before the assessment. The OT needs to see your functioning with your normal medications in place. If your medication schedule means you are significantly more or less capable at different times of the day, let your OT know — and if possible, schedule the assessment for a time when your symptoms are most representative.

Have water and any comfort items nearby

An FCA appointment is often longer and more draining than people expect — particularly if you experience fatigue, anxiety, or difficulty concentrating. It is fine to take breaks, ask the OT to repeat questions, or request a few minutes before attempting a task. This is not a test of how well you can cope with the assessment — it is an assessment of how you cope with daily life.

Let the OT observe the real picture

If you need to rest halfway through getting dressed, rest. If you need to hold the grab rail every time you use the bathroom, use it. If you can’t carry your groceries from the car, say so. The OT is not judging you — they are documenting your real functional capacity so that the NDIS funds the right supports.

How to Answer the OT’s Questions Accurately

The interview portion of your FCA involves detailed questions about how you function across all areas of daily life. Here is how to approach your answers in a way that gives the OT the most clinically useful information:

Describe your worst days, not your best

When asked how long it takes you to shower, or how far you can walk, describe what that looks like on a difficult day — not the day you felt great. Many conditions involve significant day-to-day variability. Your OT should understand both ends of your spectrum, and your NDIS plan should reflect the support you need when things are hard, not when they are easy.

Be specific about the assistance you receive

Instead of “my wife helps me sometimes,” try: “My wife helps me shower every morning because I can’t safely step over the bath edge by myself. It takes about 25 minutes with her assistance.” Specificity gives the OT exactly what they need to justify funding in the report.

Mention everything — even if it feels minor

Participants frequently underreport difficulties with:

• Continence — bladder or bowel management, accidents, needing prompts
• Night-time routines — getting up to use the bathroom, repositioning in bed, difficulty sleeping due to pain
• Emotional and mental health — anxiety about leaving the house, low motivation, difficulty maintaining routines
• Social isolation — things you’ve stopped doing because they’re too difficult or exhausting
• Sexual health and intimate relationships — relevant when a disability affects this area
• Fatigue — the “invisible” impact of doing tasks that leaves you unable to function for hours afterward

Talk about what you have stopped doing

Many participants adapt to their disability by quietly giving up activities — they stop cooking, stop going out, stop seeing friends. These omissions are just as important as the tasks you still attempt. If you have stopped doing something because it is too painful, too exhausting, too risky, or too difficult, tell your OT.

Who Should Be Present at Your FCA

You are entitled to have a support person present at your FCA. In many cases, having someone who knows you well actively participate in the interview can significantly improve the quality of the assessment.

Who is most useful to bring

• A family member or primary carer — particularly for participants who have difficulty self-reporting, or whose capacity varies significantly day to day. A carer can provide the “third-party view” of your daily functioning that is often more accurate than self-report alone.
• Your support coordinator — if they know you well and can speak to your history, goals, and previous assessments. They can also take notes and flag anything that’s been missed.
• An advocate — if you feel uncertain about advocating for yourself or worry you might downplay your difficulties in a clinical setting.

Who is less useful to bring

Avoid bringing someone who might unintentionally minimise your difficulties — for example, a family member who tends to step in and do things for you before you have a chance to demonstrate the difficulty yourself, or who reassures the OT that “she manages fine really.” Well-meaning support people can inadvertently undermine an accurate assessment.

What to Do After the Assessment

Once your FCA appointment is complete, your OT will write the clinical report. This typically takes 10 to 14 business days. In the meantime:

• Note anything you forgot to mention. It’s common to think of important details after the appointment. Send a follow-up email to your OT with anything significant you didn’t raise during the session — they can incorporate it into the report if it’s clinically relevant.
• Keep your diary going. If you have been keeping a functioning diary, continue it. If your circumstances change significantly before the report is finalised, let your OT know.
• Follow up if you haven’t heard anything. If 14 business days have passed and you haven’t received your draft report, contact your OT or their practice to check on progress.

How to Review Your FCA Report

When your draft report arrives, read it carefully — or ask someone you trust to read it with you. This is your opportunity to make sure the document accurately reflects your situation before it goes to the NDIA.

What to check

• Factual accuracy — Are your diagnosis, medications, living situation, and support network described correctly?
• Functional descriptions — Does the report describe your functioning on a typical day? Or does it reflect the better-than-usual performance you may have shown during the assessment?
• Completeness — Are all the areas of difficulty you discussed captured in the report? Is anything missing?
• Support hours — If the report includes recommended hours of support, do they feel accurate given what you need across a typical week?
• Recommendations — Are the recommended supports, AT, or home modifications consistent with what you discussed with your OT?
• Goal alignment — Are the recommendations clearly connected to your NDIS goals?

What not to worry about

FCA reports use clinical language and can be confronting to read — particularly the sections describing your limitations and what you cannot do independently. This is normal and necessary. The OT is not being unkind; they are documenting your support needs in the terms the NDIA requires to fund those supports. A thorough description of your difficulties is a feature of a good FCA, not a problem with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

Preparing well for your Functional Capacity Assessment is one of the most effective things you can do to ensure your NDIS plan reflects your real support needs. The key principles are simple: document your typical functioning before the appointment, bring everything relevant on the day, be honest about your worst days and your hardest tasks, have a trusted person with you if possible, and review your draft report carefully before it’s submitted.

At TEAH, our occupational therapists guide you through the process — from your first referral to your completed report. We conduct in-home assessments across Darwin (NT), Perth (WA), Brisbane (QLD), and Victoria, and our reports meet NDIA quality standards.