Case study: Functional Capacity Assessment for Acquired Brain Injury.

The presentation

An adult in their 40s, four years post moderate Acquired Brain Injury from a motor vehicle accident. Returned to part-time work in a structured environment, presents fluently in clinic, drives short distances. But executive dysfunction shows up in real-world tasks: forgets which day rubbish goes out, can't sustain attention through complex multi-step routines, emotional dysregulation around fatigue, occasional disinhibition. Previous funding requests declined because the participant 'didn't seem disabled' in clinic.

What the FCA documented

Mayo Portland Adaptability Inventory anchored cognitive, behavioural and physical sequelae. CANS captured the daily care and support requirements. Functional observation documented the gap between clinic presentation and home-environment capacity (e.g. the participant could follow a 4-step instruction in the assessment room but couldn't manage the equivalent at home where competing demands and fatigue degraded performance). Collateral input from family was triangulated against self-report.

What was recommended

Why the report was defensible

The report named the gap between clinic presentation and real-world capacity as the central evidence problem in ABI — and then closed it with documented observation across multiple contexts. Standardised scoring anchored every recommendation in published norms. NDIS Act mapping was explicit on every support.

Compliance note

All names, ages, locations and biographical details have been changed or removed. No real participant data is shown. Funding outcomes are illustrative — no NDIS outcome is guaranteed by FCA Reports Australia.