Brunswick Health
Allied health and aged care: how the funding works
Support at Home, the Commonwealth Home Support Programme and DVA — which fund allied health, and how to use them as people age.
Allied health can be funded through several aged care programmes, and the rules differ between them. This is a plain account of the routes into physiotherapy, podiatry and related care, and what each actually covers.
Programme details change. Confirm current arrangements through My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or myagedcare.gov.au before making decisions.
The main funding routes
Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP). Entry-level support for people who need a little help to keep living independently. Can include allied health and therapy services. Accessed through My Aged Care, with a small client contribution. CHSP continues to run alongside Support at Home and is funded to at least 30 June 2027.
Support at Home. The replacement for Home Care Packages since 1 November 2025, and the main route for ongoing care at home. There are eight ongoing classifications, each with its own budget, released quarterly and administered by a provider you choose. Physiotherapy, podiatry and occupational therapy sit in the clinical supports category, which the government funds in full — unlike help with personal care or everyday living, allied health carries no contribution from you. Waiting times can be long, so registering early matters. Anyone already holding a Home Care Package moved across automatically, protected by the no worse off principle.
Residential aged care. Allied health is generally arranged by the facility.
Department of Veterans’ Affairs. DVA Gold and White Card holders can access allied health with a GP referral, generally at no cost to the veteran. This is often the most straightforward route where it applies, and it is under-used.
Medicare Chronic Condition Management Plans. Up to five allied health sessions per calendar year with a $63.40 rebate as at July 2026. Available regardless of age where a chronic condition qualifies. More on care plans.
Private health extras cover, which remains the most common route and is claimed on the spot.
Getting started with My Aged Care
- Contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, or register online
- A screening conversation establishes broadly what help is needed
- An assessment through the Single Assessment System, with one assessor covering both entry-level support and ongoing care
- An approval, and for Support at Home a classification and a waiting period
- Choose a provider and agree how the budget is spent
Register earlier than you think you need to. Assessment and waiting times mean the process is measured in months, and it is far easier to have an approval in place and not need it yet.
What allied health contributes as people age
Falls prevention. The single highest-value contribution. Around one in three people over 65 falls each year, and falls are the leading cause of injury-related hospitalisation in older Australians. Exercise programmes that challenge balance and include progressive strength work reduce falls meaningfully — the evidence here is strong and consistent.
Strength and function. Muscle mass and strength decline with age, and the decline accelerates markedly with inactivity. Progressive resistance training works into the eighties and nineties. The determinant of whether someone can get off a low chair unaided is leg strength, and leg strength is trainable.
Foot care. Podiatry matters more with age than people expect. Nails that cannot be reached or cut safely, corns and calluses that alter how someone walks, and — critically — diabetic foot assessment, where reduced sensation means an injury can go unnoticed until it is serious. Regular podiatry is one of the more effective preventive measures available and one of the most neglected.
Bone health. Progressive loading supports bone density, and the evidence for resistance training in osteoporosis is now good. More on osteoporosis and exercise.
Pain management. Osteoarthritis, spinal pain and long-standing musculoskeletal problems are common and often accepted as inevitable when they are frequently improvable.
Maintaining independence. Which is usually the goal underneath all the others, and it is worth naming explicitly when talking to an assessor — programmes fund capacity for daily living rather than treatment for its own sake.
Practical points
Home visits. Some providers offer them. Brunswick Health is a clinic-based practice, so treatment happens at 1/68 Melville Road, Brunswick West. Worth knowing before arranging transport.
Getting here. Street parking directly out front, and the route 58 tram runs along Melville Road, stop 35 at Victoria Street. If mobility is a concern, call (03) 9380 8099 before booking and reception can tell you exactly what access is like for the room you would be in.
Bring a support person. Anyone is welcome in the consultation room, and for a first appointment a second set of ears is genuinely useful.
Bring your medication list. Polypharmacy is common, several medication classes increase falls risk, and it changes what a practitioner recommends.
Get the authorisation in writing. If your Support at Home budget is to pay for the treatment, ask your provider to email the clinic authorising payment before the appointment. With that email on file the clinic invoices the provider directly and there is nothing to pay at the counter. Without it, you pay on the day as usual and submit the invoice to your provider yourself — every appointment is receipted with the itemised detail a package provider or plan administrator asks for. Arranging it is a conversation between you and your provider, so start there rather than at the front desk.
Where to start
If the person you are asking for is not yet registered with My Aged Care, that call is the first step and it can be made by a family member with consent.
If they hold a DVA card, a GP referral is often the fastest route to allied health.
If neither applies, a Chronic Condition Management Plan through the GP or private health extras cover are the two usual paths. Every fee on this site is published with its item code, so quote the code to the fund and they will tell you what that policy pays — funds only discuss a policy with the member named on it, which is why that call has to come from the member or someone they have authorised.