MTARA is a national professional association and self-regulatory body establishing professional standards, registration requirements and scope of practice for practitioners working across Functional Capacity Practice and Clinical Rehabilitation.
MTARA recognises two distinct professional practice streams: Registered MDT Specialists and Registered Rehabilitation Consultants. Together, these professions support a continuum of practice from the assessment and determination of functional capacity through to direct clinical rehabilitation and functional outcomes.
Registered MDT Specialists practice within Functional Capacity Practice, specialising in the comprehensive assessment, analysis and formulation of human functioning. Their role is centered on determining how disability, health conditions, developmental differences, mental health conditions, environmental factors and support arrangements affect a person's ability to function in everyday life.
MDT Specialist practice incorporates Functional Capacity Assessment, Multidisciplinary Functional Capacity Assessment (MDTFCA), functional analysis, evidence integration and triangulation, multidisciplinary functional formulation, support-needs assessment, Home and Living assessment, functional risk and safeguarding assessment, functional recommendations and professional reporting.
Registered Rehabilitation Consultants (RRCMTARA) practice within Clinical Functional Rehabilitation and provide direct, intervention-focused rehabilitation across Disability, Ageing and Mental Health. Their role is to work clinically with people to develop, restore, maintain, optimise or compensate for functional capacity, increase independence and participation, and reduce avoidable functional deterioration.
Clinical Functional Rehabilitation may include Functional Capacity Intervention, functional skill rehabilitation, functional cognition rehabilitation, routine and activity rehabilitation, independence and capacity development, compensatory rehabilitation, adaptive functional strategies, participation rehabilitation, psychosocial functional rehabilitation, maintenance rehabilitation, functional deterioration prevention, transition and community reintegration, rehabilitation coaching and education, and functional outcome measurement.
RRC practice is concerned with the practical application of rehabilitation to everyday functioning. Intervention may address personal and domestic activities, routines, initiation and sequencing, organisation, functional cognition, self-management, independence, participation, environmental interaction and the development of sustainable strategies for everyday life. Where restoration of function is not fully achievable, rehabilitation may focus on maintaining existing capacity, compensating for functional loss, adapting the way activities are performed and reducing the likelihood of avoidable deterioration.
The two professional streams are distinct but connected. Registered MDT Specialists establish and explain functional capacity, functional incapacity, activity limitations, participation restrictions, support requirements and identified rehabilitation needs through multidisciplinary assessment and functional formulation. Registered Rehabilitation Consultants translate identified functional and rehabilitation needs into direct clinical intervention, working with the person toward measurable functional change and evaluating rehabilitation outcomes over time.
MTARA's professional practice framework is specifically established for Disability, Ageing and Mental Health across the lifespan. It recognises that human functioning is not determined by diagnosis alone, but by the interaction between a person's physical, neurological, developmental, cognitive, psychological and psychosocial functioning, their environment, everyday activities, participation, available supports and changing circumstances throughout life.
The framework supports practice with children, adolescents, adults and older people, recognising that functional needs and rehabilitation priorities change across different stages of life. Practice may involve developmental and lifelong disability, acquired disability, neurological and physical conditions, psychosocial disability and mental health, complex and co-occurring presentations, age-related functional change, acquired functional decline, deconditioning and changing support needs associated with ageing.
Across these areas, MTARA practice remains centred on human functioning in everyday life. This includes personal and domestic activities, functional cognition, communication and interaction, routines, self-management, mobility and physical function, participation, independence, environmental interaction, safety, support requirements and the person's ability to engage meaningfully within home, community, residential and other everyday environments.