Home Care Packages are for those with greater or more complex care needs. If you need many care and support services on an ongoing basis, you could be eligible for a Home Care Package. Home Care Packages provide a number of services to meet your needs. Depending on the level of Home Care Package you receive, you can get assistance with a range of different services:

Blokes group having a coffee

Social outings, groups and visitors

  • Arranging for a visitor to make in-home or telephone-based social calls
  • Providing a companion to assist with shopping or getting you to an appointment
  • Arranging social activities and providing or coordinating transport to social events
  • Assistance setting up phone and internet communication services to keep in touch with loved ones
  • A care worker visiting you in your home for a short period of time (for example, when your carer is away or unavailable)
A worker assisting a client to get dressed

Bathing, Hygiene and Grooming

  • Help with bathing, showering, toileting
  • Help with dressing/undressing
  • Assistance with getting in and out of bed
  • Help with washing and drying hair, shaving
  • Reminders to take your medication
A worker assisting with meals

Meals and food preparation

  • Help with meal preparation (including special diets for health, religious, cultural or other reasons)
  • Meal delivery services (excluding the cost of food)
A client hanging out washing

Cleaning, laundry, and other chores

  • Help with making beds
  • Help with ironing and laundry
  • Help with cleaning like dusting, vacuuming, and mopping
  • Help with unaccompanied shopping
A garden maintenance worker

Home or garden maintenance

  • To maintain the home and garden in a condition of functional safety and provide an adequate level of security.

Changes to my home/ modifications

  • Access to professional recommendations from a qualified occupational therapist
  • Minor home modifications
  • Assisting the care recipient, and the homeowner if the home owner is not the care recipient, to access technical advice on major home modifications,
A worker with a wheelchair accessible vehicle

Transport

  • Scheduling transport service
  • Providing access to external transport services
  • Assistance with shopping, visiting health practitioners, and attending social activities.

Aids to stay independent

  • Walking aids like crutches, quadruped walkers, walking frames, walking sticks
  • Mechanical devices for lifting you in and out of bed
  • Bed rails
  • Aids like slide sheets, sheepskins, tri-pillows
  • Pressure-relieving mattresses
  • Access to professional recommendations from a qualified occupational therapist.
Some ladies at the day club

Podiatry, physiotherapy, and other therapies

  • Speech therapy
  • Podiatry
  • Occupational therapy or physiotherapy services
  • Other clinical services such as hearing and vision services

Help with impairments or continence

  • Continence advisory services
  • Dementia advisory services
  • Vision and hearing services
A nurse standing in front of a fleet car

Nursing

  • Wound care and management
  • Someone to help you take your medication
  • General health and other assessments
  • General health and treatment education to improve self-management

To start the process of receiving care in your home, contact My Aged Care and they will organise to get an assessment of your level of care.

When you receive your letter contact St Carthage’s Community Care to let them know:

  • The assessment decision
  • The level of package you have been approved for
  • The reasons and evidence supporting the decision

Call St Carthage’s Community Care on 02 6620 0000 if you need any assistance.

Home Care Package Fees

Click here to view our My Aged Care Provider page which provides details on fees and charges.

FAQ’s – Home Care Package Services

With your Support Planner, you will develop a personally tailored Care Plan that will outline the services and support you require to remain independent in your home.

Services can include but are not limited to cleaning, laundry service, gardening, medication assistance, transport, personal care, meal preparation, well-being visits, shopping, and medical appointment services.

Your Home Care Package funds can be used for*:

  • Services to assist you in the home
  • Activities of daily living, this may include aids to assist you to remain independent
  • Meal services such as Lite n Easy (minus the cost of the ingredients)
  • Management of skin integrity – including providing bandages, dressings and skin emollients
  • Continence Management – providing disposable pads and absorbent aids, commode chairs, bedpans, and urinals. You can also be supported by having assistance using continence aids and appliances and managing continence.
  • Mobility and dexterity – Providing crutches, quadruped walkers, walking frames, walking sticks and wheelchairs, Providing mechanical devices for lifting, bed rails, slide sheets, sheepskins, tri-pillows, and pressure relieving mattresses. Professional assistance and training in using the above aids.
  • Leisure, interests and activities – to take part in social and community activities that promote and protect the care recipient’s lifestyle, interests and wellbeing.
  • Clinical care – Nursing, allied health and therapy services such as speech therapy, podiatry, occupational or physiotherapy services and Other clinical services such as hearing and vision services.

*Please note that these are subject to change.

The following items must not be included in the package of care and services under the Home Care Packages program*:

  • Use of the package funds as a source of general income for the care recipient
  • Purchase of food, except as part of enteral feeding requirements
  • Payment for permanent accommodation, including assistance with home purchase, mortgage payments or rent
  • Payment of home care fees
  • Payment of fees or charges for other types of care funded or jointly funded by the Australian Government
  • Home modifications or capital items that are not related to the care recipient’s care needs
  • Travel and accommodation for holidays
  • Cost of entertainment activities, such as club memberships and tickets to sporting events
  • Gambling activities
  • Payment for services and items covered by the Medicare Benefits Schedule or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

*Please note that these are subject to change.

It depends – and you are not locked in to purchasing hours of care. Your package gives you a specific amount of funding. Some of this money will go towards your Provider’s administrative and case management charges. The rest of your funding can be spent on services that support your independence, health and wellbeing. This can be hours of care or something else, depending on your care needs.

If you do decide to buy hours of care, you can expect to receive approximately the following range of hours of care from your package. Remember, this is not precise, and you can discuss your needs with the provider.

LEVEL 1:  approx. 2 hours per week (on average)
LEVEL 2: approx. 3-4 hours per week (on average)
LEVEL 3: approx. 7-9 hours per week (on average)
LEVEL 4: approx. 10-13 hours per week (on average)

A case manager is a professional adviser who works with you (and your carers or representatives) to link you to the services and other resources that you want. Your case manager advises and supports you to

  • Navigate the system and get the services you need to stay at home
  • Plan for the future
  • Make adjustments if your circumstances and needs change, such as after an acute episode, or when a friend or family member is no longer able to help you.

Case management includes things like assessment, care planning, and service coordination, managing budgets and reviewing how everything is going.

Case managers sometimes have another title such as care manager, adviser, care facilitator, care coordinator or support planner.

When you start a Home Care Package, you and your provider make an agreement that outlines the services you will receive. The agreement describes your rights and the provider’s rights. It will also refer to other documents like your budget and agreed care plan. Home Care Agreements are legally binding.

Only an approved Home Care Package provider can host a Home Care Package. Approved providers have satisfied the Department of Health’s legal and social requirements to administer packages on behalf of consumers.

A service provider is any company that delivers the actual service or hours of care, such as direct care services, gardening, podiatry, home cleaning, personal care etc.
Some Home Care Package providers are also service providers as they employ their own direct care staff. It is expected that all providers are able to buy direct care and other services from external service providers as well.

From February 2017, people with Home Care Packages will be able to change providers, taking their package funding with them to the new provider. If you’re happy with the services you’re getting, you don’t need to do anything, but if you want to change, you can. Changing providers will be easiest if you are moving to another area or looking for a better fit.

Before you decide to change, check your Home Care Agreement for any fees or special conditions. Providers are allowed to charge an exit fee, which must be mentioned in your Home Care Agreement.

Client Testimonial

“Anna called to tell us her father, Walter, will be transferred to permanent care. She said Walter is fading and not mobile and its sad that he has to go into a nursing home but he can’t go home. Anna thanked St Carthage’s for everything we have done for Walter saying ” you have been his life and all so wonderful”. Anne said he was very hesitant at the beginning to have assistance but it ended up being all he talked about and was company for him every morning.

Anna said it has been a pleasure dealing with St Carthage’s. I asked her to pass on our best wishes to Walter, saying we will miss his lovely gentle nature.”

ANNA – CLIENT’S DAUGHTER