Vocational assessments attempt to correlate a client's characteristics with characteristics of occupations. The difficulty when doing this with brain-injured clients is not being able to know the client's characteristics well enough. By assessing a client based on data collected through observations on one or more job sites over a four to six week period it is possible to get an accurate view of the client's characteristics, i.e., to determine whether and how neuropsychological deficits are manifested as impairments that interfere with a return to employment. The neuropsychological assessment will tell us a client's cognitive and emotional strengths and weakness. The situational assessment will tell us what the client actually can and cannot do based on direct observation used in combination with other relevant information including neuropsychological assessments.

Situational assessment is particularly important and useful in identifying impairments in the area that most often prevents return to work, and which is not adequately revealed through neuropsychological assessment or vocational assessment, i.e., social interaction and communication and in cases where there is frontal lobe impairment. Neuropsychological testing does not adequately reveal the extent of frontal lobe impairment and its implication on the work site.

Situational assessment will tell us whether a client is competitively employable and the general nature of the employment the client is capable of if they are employable. If it is necessary to do so for clients who are found to be employable through situational assessment then vocational assessment can be used to identify specific occupations with the benefit of more accurate information about the client's characteristics. The situational assessment can be used to inform the vocational assessment where a full vocational assessment is still required with the result being a more accurate vocational assessment.

Typical areas assessed through observations on work sites include:

Job Performance	Constructive Use of Time	Stamina / Fatigue
Communication Skills	Work Methods, Habits	Interactions with Co-Workers, Supervisors