Form 1 Attendant Care Needs: An OT’s Guide to Getting the Hours Right
The Form 1 (Assessment of Attendant Care Needs) converts a person’s care needs into a monthly attendant care benefit using the maximum hourly rates set in Superintendent’s Guideline No. 01/18: $14.90 for Level 1 routine personal care, $14.00 for Level 2 basic supervisory functions and $21.11 for Level 3 complex health care and hygiene functions. Those rates apply to accidents on or after 14 April 2018, they include the attendant’s administration and overhead, and an insurer may agree to pay above them.
It is completed by an occupational therapist or a registered nurse under Ontario’s auto insurance system (the SABS), and it is a deceptively technical document: small differences in minutes and frequency add up to large differences in the monthly amount, and insurers read it closely.
This guide explains the three parts of the Form 1, how the numbers turn into a monthly benefit, and how to make each entry defensible. It is written for OTs and RNs completing assessments in Ontario.
Contents
First, check which version of the form you need (July 2026 change)
Ontario reformed its auto insurance system for policies entered into or renewed on or after 1 July 2026, and FSRA reissued the claim forms under new AF numbers as part of it. The Assessment of Attendant Care Needs is now AF-164E (2026), replacing the old 1223E version. The other forms moved too: the OCF-18 treatment plan is AF-119E, the OCF-1 is AF-145E, the OCF-3 is AF-125E and the OCF-19 is AF-144E. The full set is on the FSRA auto insurance forms page.
The trigger is the policy date, not the accident date. A claim under a policy issued or renewed before 1 July 2026 stays on the old forms and the old rules, so both versions will be in circulation well into 2027. Before you start, confirm which regime the claim sits under, because the reform also changed which benefits are mandatory: medical, rehabilitation and attendant care remain mandatory, while caregiver and housekeeping benefits became optional purchases.
What the Form 1 is for
The Form 1 identifies the attendant care a person needs as a result of an automobile accident and expresses it as a monthly dollar amount. It is completed by a regulated health professional (in practice usually an occupational therapist or a registered nurse), and it is one of the most scrutinised documents in an accident benefits file.
You are not describing everything the person cannot do. You are quantifying the attendant care they require: the hands-on and supervisory help another person must provide, task by task.
The three parts
The Form 1 groups care into three parts, and each has its own hourly rate:
- Part 1, Routine personal care: dressing, grooming, feeding, mobility, toileting, hygiene and similar hands-on care.
- Part 2, Basic supervisory care: supervision and cueing to keep the person safe, including prompting and monitoring, often expressed as a portion of the day.
- Part 3, Complex health care and hygiene functions: skilled tasks such as bowel and bladder routines, wound or skin care, and other functions requiring a higher level of skill.
| Level | What it covers | Maximum hourly rate |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 (Part 1) | Routine personal care | $14.90 |
| Level 2 (Part 2) | Basic supervisory functions | $14.00 |
| Level 3 (Part 3) | Complex health care and hygiene functions | $21.11 |
How minutes and frequency become dollars
Each task is assessed the same way: how many minutes of another person’s time it takes, and how often it happens. Minutes multiplied by frequency give a daily or weekly time, which is converted to a monthly number of hours, and the hours are multiplied by the hourly rate set for that part.
Because the calculation compounds, precision matters. A task recorded as 10 minutes twice a day is over 10 hours a month; recorded as 15 minutes it is over 15. Time what you can, base frequencies on how the person actually lives, and do not round up “to be safe”. A Form 1 that inflates time is the one that gets disputed.
Evidence every entry
The strongest Form 1 is one where an assessor reading it can see why each minute is there. For each task, your supporting narrative (usually your in-home assessment report) should show the impairment behind the need, what you observed, and why the time and frequency are what they are.
Note who provides the care now and whether that is sustainable, record the person’s own account alongside your observation, and flag where a task sits on the boundary between routine and complex care, because the part it lands in changes the rate.
Watch the monthly maximums
Attendant care benefits are capped, and the cap depends on whether the injury has been determined to be catastrophic. The monthly maximum for non-catastrophic injuries is far lower than for catastrophic ones, and the hourly rates the calculation uses are set by the regulator and change over time. Always work from the current guideline rates and confirm the applicable maximum for the file rather than a figure you remember from a previous case.
Pair the Form 1 with a clear in-home assessment
The Form 1 is a grid of numbers; on its own it does not explain itself. The report that carries it, your in-home assessment, is where the reasoning lives. Keep the two consistent: every task with time on the Form 1 should be described in the report, and nothing in the report should imply a need that the Form 1 silently omits.
Where Carearoo fits
Carearoo drafts in-home assessments, functional abilities evaluations and progress reports from your notes, onto your own template, so the narrative that supports your Form 1 is structured and consistent and you spend your time on clinical judgement. It produces a draft you review, edit and sign. You keep full clinical responsibility. Carearoo is coming to Canada; you can join the early access list and your first report is free.
How this guide was written
Carearoo researches and drafts its guides with AI assistance, working from the primary sources linked in the text, and a person checks every fact against those sources before it is published. Last checked 9 September 2026.
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