Assistance with activities and participation

'Assistance' is an important subset of Environmental factors that may facilitate (or hinder) the activities or participation of people with disability. Assistance is a key policy and service component in the disability and aged care services field in Australia. Further, it is recognised in the ICF as a crucial factor whose presence (or absence) must be noted when recording measures of functioning and disability.

Recording measures of assistance needed or provided will provide further information about activity limitations.

World Health Organization (WHO) 2001. ICF: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Geneva: WHO

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2003. ICF Australian User Guide Version 1.0. Canberra: AIHW

The concept can be used to describe aspects of the environment. Depending on which environment is present or being considered, the measure of assistance indicates what assistance is currently received (in the current or usual environment) and what would be needed (in an optimum environment). 'Need' more generally relates to environmental factors (including personal assistance, equipment and environmental modifications) that are present in an optimum environment but not in the person's current environment. That is, changes may be needed to environmental factors in order to improve a person's functioning and reduce their disability. While these ideas apply generally to 'Environmental Factors' and the related metadata item, Extent of environmental factors influence code [X]N, the concept of 'Assistance' focuses solely on the factor of personal assistance.

Measures of assistance and need for assistance are under active development in a number of disciplines and service programs. Assistance may be measured in various ways, for instance in relation to duration, frequency and intensity of assistance. Related data elements are therefore likely to emerge in the future.

This glossary item is based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The ICF was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2001 as a reference member of the WHO Family of International Classifications and of the Australian Family of Health and Related Classifications (endorsed by the National Health Information Management Group in 2002).

The ICF provides a framework for the description of human functioning and disability. The components of ICF are defined in relation to a health condition. A health condition is an ‘umbrella term for disease (acute or chronic), disorder, injury or trauma’ (WHO 2001). A health condition may be recorded, for example, as Episode of care principal diagnosis, code (ICD-10-AM 3rd Ed) ANN{.N[N} and Episode of care additional diagnosis, code (ICD-10-AM 3rd Ed) ANN{.N[N}.