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Older people are requesting to return to the Commonwealth Home Support Program instead of entering Support at Home, LiveBetter Community Services general manager of in-home support services and clinical lead Helen Miller tells Australian Ageing Agenda.
This is possible if the participant still has the CHSP codes, she said.
Speaking with AAA at the LPA workshop on clinical and restorative care in Support at Home, Ms Miller said she believed the rejection of SaH was largely due to a misunderstanding of co-payments.
As long as CHSP is running separately to SaH and people want to remain in that space, Ms Miller said the provider focus will need to be on how many services that individual can safely be provided and within a sustainable financial model for the participant.
“We have been a CHSP provider for quite a while and we have a bit of a rule around if someone’s getting three or more services under CHSP we will do a bit of a review,” because SaH is designed for people needing multiple services while the CHSP is not, she added.
“But the reason that people are making that decision is because of the cost of contributions, and perhaps not understanding it,” Ms Miller said.
During the interactive workshop, Ms Poulos encouraged the approximately 40 delegates to record as much evidence of people pulling away from services as possible.
Once there is enough evidence of older people pulling away from services, providers can pass that on to peak body Ageing Australia to advocate for necessary changes, she advised.
Ms Miller flagged the middle-income cohort as likely to be the most impacted.
“If you’re a fully funded pensioner, my understanding is that whatever you pay under Support at Home as a contribution is not too dissimilar to what you’re going to pay under CHSP for the services that you get, and I think for that group it’s going to be that middle cohort that is struggling,” Ms Miller told AAA.
“I think there will be this group in the middle who will just go: ‘no, we literally can’t afford it’.”
She acknowledged that more time is needed to understand the full impact but said it is a space she thinks providers will need to monitor “very carefully.”
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