What is Support at Home (SAH)?
Support at Home (SAH) is an Australian Government initiative under the Aged Care Act 2024, providing in-home aged care, assistive technology, and home modifications to help older people live independently. It replaces Home Care Packages (HCP) and Short-Term Restorative Care from 1 November 2025, with the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) transitioning no earlier than 1 July 2027. SAH emphasises person-centered care, focusing on maintaining independence, wellbeing, and choice. It includes ongoing support (classification levels 1-8), short-term restorative care, end-of-life pathways, and the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) Scheme. Funding is provided quarterly for greater flexibility.
Eligibility
To be eligible for Support at Home, you must be assessed and approved by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT). You need to be 65+ (or 50+ for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people). Start with My Aged Care's eligibility checker online or call 1800 200 422. If eligible, you're referred to ACAT for a holistic needs assessment. In Queensland, this is coordinated by Queensland Health (e.g., via QEII Hospital teams in Brisbane), usually at home. ACAT assigns your classification level (1–8 ongoing or short-term like Restorative Care/End-of-Life).
Transitional Classifications
If you were receiving services under a Home Care Package (HCP) before 1 November 2025, your care has been automatically incorporated into the Support at Home program without needing to reapply. However, you are not yet classified under the new levels 1-8; instead, you remain on one of four transitional classifications that match your previous HCP level:
- Transitioned HCP Level 1
- Transitioned HCP Level 2
- Transitioned HCP Level 3
- Transitioned HCP Level 4
This maintains equivalent funding and support, ensuring you're "no worse off," until a reassessment is conducted. Upon reassessment through My Aged Care, you'll be assigned to one of the new ongoing classifications (1-8) based on your current needs. Reassessments can be requested via My Aged Care if your needs change, they are not automatic but recommended for potential access to higher/lower levels.
Levels of support in Support at Home (SAH)
- Level 1: Basic entry-level support for those who are largely independent, providing occasional assistance with light domestic tasks like cleaning, meal preparation, or transport to maintain wellbeing and prevent further decline.
- Level 2: Low support for emerging needs, including regular help with personal care such as showering, dressing, medication reminders, and social outings to foster independence and connections.
- Level 3: Moderate assistance tailored to daily living challenges, offering structured help several times a week for hygiene, mobility, meals, household chores, and community engagement.
- Level 4: Higher-frequency care for increasing requirements, delivering consistent support in self-care, non-clinical continence management, allied health services, and social activities to promote safe home living.
- Level 5: Intensive services for complex conditions, incorporating frequent nursing, therapeutic interventions, care coordination, and daily activity aids to manage significant functional or cognitive issues.
- Level 6: Substantial high-needs support, featuring regular clinical care, personal assistance, restorative management, and multi-service coordination for escalating health or mobility concerns.
- Level 7: Very high-level comprehensive aid for advanced decline, encompassing daily personal care, medical oversight, nutrition support, and social help to sustain quality of life.
- Level 8: Maximum intensive care for extreme complexities, supplying near-constant specialised nursing, multidisciplinary therapies, and end-of-life elements to assist those with severe impairments at home.
There are 2 short-term pathways of Support at Home:
- The Restorative Care Pathway delivers short-term intensive therapy to improve function, independence, or recovery—for example, following hospitalisation, a fall, or illness—and replaces the previous Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) program.
- The End-of-Life (Palliative) Pathway provides intensive support for individuals with a terminal illness, focusing on comfort, pain management, and maintaining dignity while remaining at home.
And assistive technology and home modifications supports of Support at Home:
- The Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) Scheme offers dedicated funding for equipment, aids, and home alterations, such as ramps, grab rails, or mobility scooters to enhance safety and support independent living.
Services Included
Services align with the official Support at Home Service List and are categorised as follows:
- Clinical Supports: Nursing (e.g., wound care, medication administration), allied health (e.g., physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology), and therapeutic services to maintain or regain function. These must be delivered or supervised by qualified health professionals.
- Nutrition: Prescribed supplements (e.g., enteral feeding via Services Australia supplement).
- Care Management: Planning, coordination, monitoring, and advocacy (delivered by qualified care partners).
- Restorative Care Management: Specialist coordination for time-limited restorative pathways.
- Independence: Personal care (e.g., bathing, toileting, dressing, mobility, transfers, meal preparation/eating, non-clinical continence management), social support/community engagement (e.g., group/individual activities, accompanied outings), and everyday living aids.
- Out-of-Scope: General expenses (e.g., tickets for activities, non-prescribed products), services funded elsewhere (e.g., primary health like ambulance, dental, or chronic disease plans via Medicare), or unrelated conditions.
Services can be delivered in-person, via telehealth, individually, or in groups. Short-term support (e.g., for illness) falls under the Restorative Care Pathway. Sensory aids are under the AT-HM Scheme. Burringilly only follows the defined service list; no additions allowed.
What costs are involved?
Contribution rates are based on your income and assets; and that vary by the type of services received.
For more information on costs and to see our pricing list, please click here.
How It Works
A referral is made to the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) through My Aged Care, which coordinates the assessment (e.g., at QEII Hospital for Brisbane residents). Post-assessment, choose a registered provider, develop a support plan, and receive services. Reviews occur periodically or on change of needs. Providers comply with strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.
Who Can Make Referrals?
- You (Client), a relative or carer
- Neighbours & friends
- Other community organisations
- Hospital Liaison Officers
Anyone can initiate contact with My Aged Care to start the process.
Rights and Responsibilities
Support at Home recipients have the following rights and responsibilities:
- To be involved in deciding and choosing the care most appropriate to meet their needs
- To be given enough information to make an informed choice about their care
- To receive care that takes account of their lifestyle, cultural, linguistic and religious preference
- To be given a written plan of the services they will receive. This plan should be included in the Care Recipient agreement. Any changes to the plan should be made in consultation with the care recipient, agreed to by the care recipient and signed where possible, and incorporated in the agreement
- To take part in social activities and community life as they choose
- To be treated with dignity, with their privacy respected
- To complain about the care they are receiving, including the manner in which it is being provided, without fear of losing the care or being disadvantaged in any other way
- To choose a person to speak on their behalf for any purpose. If a care recipient does appoint an advocate to act on their behalf, the approved provider must allow the advocate to act on their behalf. The approved provider must allow the advocate access to their service
- To inform care recipients of the provider’s privacy and confidentiality procedures, and their rights under those procedures
- To give each care recipient access to personal information about him or herself, held by the provider
Information current as of March 2026, check My Aged Care for updates.
