The Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) is Australia's national funding program to help older people stay independent and in their homes and communities.
To receive CHSP funding, you need to:
- register with My Aged Care
- have a Regional Assessment Services (RAS) assessment.
Register with My Aged Care
To register, call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422. Have your Medicare card ready and allow at least 10 minutes to go through the questions they will ask.
If you are a carer or family member helping someone else with My Aged Care, you will need their consent to speak on their behalf. See My Aged Care Portal - Talking to My Aged Care for someone.
My Aged Care will refer you for a home support assessment with a Regional Assessment Service (RAS) if you need low level support to stay independent in your home.
If you have more complex needs, they will refer you for a different type of assessment with an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT).
Your RAS assessment
Once My Aged Care refer you for a RAS assessment, we will contact you to make an appointment for this. We are usually able to come to your home within 2-3 weeks of your referral.
Find out more about what to expect on the My Aged Care Portal - Preparing for an assessment.
What happens at the assessment
A member of our RAS team will visit you at your own home.
We do what is called an ‘active assessment’. This means we look at your:
- daily tasks – we'll ask you to show us how you are doing them now, and where you are finding things difficult
- goals and aspirations - we want to know what's important to you
- health and wellbeing - we can help with any health concerns
- carers and community - to understand your support system and needs.
After your assessment, we'll develop a home support plan which is tailored to your individual needs. Our aim is to help you live as independently as possible.
What your home support plan includes
Our support plans include strategies on how to help you achieve your goals.
We follow an approach called "reablement". Reablement delivers intensive, short-term care - usually in the home - to help address a specific health or wellness concern.
If you need other assistance
If your RAS assessor finds that your needs cannot be met by CHSP, they will organise for you to have a more comprehensive assessment. This is done by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT).
Your support plan will be given to the ACAT team member so you don't have to repeat what you discussed and agreed with RAS.
General Enquiries
Complete our simple online form and we'll get back to you, or call us to speak with our team.
