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If you have been approved for a Home Care Package, it is worth reading through this list of approved and not approved services that your home care provider can offer.
Home Care Packages: Approved Services
Personal Services
Personal assistance including individual attention, individual supervision and physical assistance with:
- Bathing, showering, providing shower chairs if necessary, personal hygiene and grooming, and using dressing aids
- Toileting
- Dressing and undressing
- Mobility
- Transfer (including in and out of bed)
Activities of Daily Living
- Personal assistance
- Assistance with communication including assistance to address difficulties arising from impaired hearing, sight or speech or lack of common language
- Assistance with fitting sensory communication aids and checking hearing aid batteries
- Cleaning glasses/spectacles
- Assistance using the telephone
Nutrition, Hydration, Meal Preparation and Diet
- Assistance with preparing meals
- Assistance with a special diet for health, religious or cultural reasons
- Assistance with using eating utensils and eating aids
- Assistance feeding
- Providing enteral feeding formula and equipment
Management of Skin Integrity
- Includes providing bandages, dressings and skin emollients
Continence Management
- Disposable pads and absorbent aids
- Commode chairs
- Bedpans and urinals
- Catheter and urinary drainage appliances
- Enemas
- Assistance in using the above aids
Mobility and Dexterity
- Crutches, quadruped walkers, walking frames, walking sticks and wheelchairs
- Mechanical devices for lifting
- Bed rails, slide sheets, sheepskins, tri-pillows and pressure relieving mattresses
- Assistance in using the above aids
Support Services
- Cleaning
- Personal laundry services including clothing and bedding that can be machine-washed
- Ironing
- Arranging for dry cleaning
- Gardening
- Medication management
- Rehabilitative support
- Emotional support
- Support for care recipients with cognitive impairment
- 24-hour on-call access to an emergency call system
- Transport and personal assistance to help the care recipient shop, visit health practitioners or attend social activities
- Respite care
- Home and garden maintenance
- Modifications to the home such as easy access taps, shower hose or bath rails
- Arranging social activities
Leisure, Interests and Activities
- Encouragement to take part in social and community activities that promote and protect the care recipient’s lifestyle, interests and wellbeing
Clinical Care
- Nursing care
- Allied health and therapy services (speech therapy, podiatry, occupational or physiotherapy services)
- Other clinical services such as hearing and vision services
Home Care Packages: Excluded Services
The following list specifies the items that must NOT be included in a Home Care Package
Excluded Items:
- General income
- Purchase of food
- Payment for permanent accommodation (home purchase, mortgage payments or rent)
- Payment of home care fees
- Payment for fees or charges for other types of care funded or jointly funded by the government
- Home modifications that are not related to the care recipient’s care needs
- Travel and accommodation for holidays
- Cost of entertainment activities (club memberships, tickets to events etc)
- Gambling activities
- Payment for services and items covered by the Medicare Benefits Schedule or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
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