3. What can a Government Subsidised Home Care Package pay for?

• bathing, showering including providing shower chairs if necessary, personal hygiene and grooming, dressing and undressing, and using dressing aids
• toileting
• mobility
• transfer (including in and out of bed/chair/wheelchair)

• communication including assistance to address difficulties arising from impaired hearing, sight or speech, or lack of common language, assistance with the fitting of sensory communication aids, checking hearing aid batteries, cleaning spectacles and assistance in using the telephone

• assistance with preparing meals
• assistance with special diet for health, religious, cultural or other reasons
• assistance with using eating utensils and eating aids and assistance with actual feeding as necessary
• providing enteral feeding formula and equipment

• providing bandages, dressings and skin emollients

• assessment for and, if required, providing disposable pads and absorbent aids, commode chairs, bedpans and urinals, catheter and urinary drainage appliances and enemas
• assistance in using continence aids and appliances and managing continence

• providing crutches, quadruped walkers, walking frames, walking sticks and wheelchairs
• providing mechanical devices for lifting, bed rails, slide sheets, sheetskins, tri-pillows, and pressure relieving mattresses
• assistance in using the above aids

• in home respite care (such as our Live in Care or Overnight Care services)
• medication management
• support for consumers with cognitive impairment, including individual therapy, activities and access to specific programmes designed to prevent or manage a particular condition or behaviour, enhance quality of life and provide ongoing support
• transport and personal assistance to help the consumer shop, visit health practitioners or attend social activities
• advising the consumer on areas of concern in their home that pose safety risks and ways to mitigate the risks
• arranging social activities and providing or coordinating transport to social functions, entertainment activities and other out-of-home services.
• cleaning
• personal laundry services, including laundering of the consumer’s clothing and bedding that can be machine-washed and ironing
• arranging for dry-cleaning of the consumer’s clothing and bedding that cannot be machine washed
• gardening to keep access to your home safe
• rehabilitative support, or helping to access rehabilitative support, to meet professionally determined therapeutic need
• emotional support including ongoing support in adjusting to a lifestyle involving increased dependency and assistance for the consumer and carer if appropriate
• providing 24-hour on-call access to emergency assistance including access to an emergency call system if the consumer is assessed as requiring it
• home maintenance, reasonably required to maintain the home and garden in a condition of functional safety and provide an adequate level of security^
• modifications to the home, such as easy access taps, shower hose or bath rails^
• assisting the consumer, and the homeowner if the home owner is not the consumer, to access technical advice on major home modifications^
• assistance to access support services to maintain personal affairs

(^ Please note a Home Care Package cannot pay for capital modifications to your home such as a NEW kitchen, bathroom or roof.)

• encouragement to take part in social and community activities that promote and protect the consumer’s lifestyle, interest and well-being

(A Home Care Package cannot pay for tickets to the Opera / Football / entertainment but it can pay for transport to and stand-by-assistance during an event.)

• reviewing the care recipient’s Home Care Agreement and care plan, co-ordinating and scheduling care and services, ensuring care and services are aligned with other supports, liaising with the care recipient and the care recipient’s representatives, ensuring that care and services are culturally appropriate, and identifying and addressing risks to the consumer’s safety.

• nursing, allied health and therapy services such as speech therapy, podiatry, occupational or physiotherapy services
• other clinical services such as hearing and vision services
  Note: The Government has confirmed that your HCP cannot pay for hearing aids or glasses

• referral to health practitioners or other related service providers

• use of the package funds as a source of general income for the consumer. Another way to think of this is that your HCP cannot pay for general living expenses that are unrelated to your assessed needs and goals in your Care Plan.
• 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 (Basic Daily Fee or Income Tested Care Fee)
• payment of fees or charges for other types of care funded or jointly funded. For example, your Home Care Package cannot pay for services or equipment when you are in hospital, transitional care or respite care.
• home modifications or capital items that are not related to the consumer’s care needs
• travel and accommodation for holidays
• cost of entertainment activities, such as club memberships and tickets to sporting events
• payment for services and items covered by the Medicare Benefits Schedule or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). For example your Home Care Package cannot pay for your “out of pocket expenses” on medications on the PBS.
• gambling activities
• illegal activities