Refer an Aged Care Client for OT Assessment
Under Support at Home, occupational therapy is clinical care: fully government funded, with no participant contribution. Our assessment is also the document that unlocks equipment and home modification funding. This page tells you exactly how referring works, what you get back, and when.
An OT referral costs your client nothing, and releases funding for everything else
Two facts about the current system do most of the work on this page.
First: under Support at Home, allied health sits in the clinical care category, which is fully funded by the government at every classification level. Under current settings there is no participant contribution for our assessments and therapy, unlike independence and everyday living services.
Second: the supports your client most often actually needs, rails, equipment, bathroom modifications, flow through the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme, and the higher tiers of that scheme require an assessment from an allied health professional before funding moves. The same is true of a Restorative Care Pathway episode after an illness or fall.
Funding settings are current as at August 2026 and are indexed and subject to ongoing aged care reform. Confirm current contribution and scheme settings with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing or the client’s registered provider before relying on them.
Every way an aged care OT referral can be funded with us
| Route | How it works |
|---|---|
| Support at Home | We deliver services as an associated provider working with your registered provider, who remains responsible under the new Aged Care Act. OT is clinical care: fully funded, no participant contribution under current settings. |
| AT-HM scheme | Equipment and home modifications are funded separately from the quarterly budget, in three tiers. Our assessment provides the clinical evidence the medium and high tiers require. |
| Restorative Care Pathway | Short-term episodes of allied health support after an illness, injury or decline, separate from ongoing funding. We deliver the OT component and the goals-based reporting it needs. |
| CHSP | The Commonwealth Home Support Programme continues until at least 1 July 2027, with allied health among its service streams. |
| Medicare | OT under a GP chronic condition management plan (item 10958): up to five allied health sessions per calendar year, shared across professions. GP referral required. |
| Private | Families can engage us directly at our published hourly rate, with no plan or program needed. Common where a family wants answers quickly. |
We are not a registered aged care provider and never claim to be: Support at Home work is delivered under associated-provider arrangements with registered providers. Program rules change; confirm current settings before relying on them.
The assessments care managers ask us for
What happens after you press send
Acknowledged within 2 business days
Every referral gets a human response with honest triage: urgent contacts prioritised, and a realistic booking window stated up front rather than discovered later.
Funding route confirmed before booking
We confirm which route applies and what it needs, provider agreement, GP plan, or private engagement, so nobody books an assessment the funding cannot carry.
Assessment in the client’s home
We watch the actual routines where they happen: the shower transfer, the kettle, the back step, the night route to the bathroom. Family and carers are part of the picture, with consent.
A report written to a published standard
Every recommendation names the evidence it rests on, says where it came from, and states what happens without the support. Usually delivered within 2 to 3 weeks of the visit, formatted so you can act on it directly.
Follow-through
Equipment setup and training, builder liaison for modifications, and post-installation review where works are significant. The report is the start of the outcome, not the end of our involvement.
The full method behind every assessment is public: our assessment methodology.
A referral, worked through end to end
The situation
A care manager at a registered Support at Home provider has a client in her mid-eighties, living alone in Liverpool, discharged a fortnight ago after a fractured wrist from a fall on the back step. The hospital’s summary recommends “OT review of home environment”. The client is anxious about being moved into care, her daughter is pushing for “everything possible”, and the care manager needs an assessment that will hold up, quickly, without burning the client’s budget.
What we would do
Acknowledge the referral within 2 business days and triage it as high priority given the recent fall. Confirm the funding route: the assessment sits in fully funded clinical care under her provider’s arrangements, so her quarterly budget is untouched. Assess her at home: the step where she fell, the bathroom, lighting, the routes she walks at night, her footwear and how she actually carries washing, shopping and the kettle, and speak with her daughter, with consent, separately.
What the report would set out
The fast items first: a rail at the back step, non-slip treatment, sensor lighting, specified with low-tier AT-HM evidence so they can move immediately. The functional findings on her strength, balance and confidence, with a recommendation for a Restorative Care Pathway episode to rebuild what the fracture and the fright took. The honest reassurance the file needs: what she can still safely do, stated as clearly as what she cannot, because a report that only lists deficits feeds exactly the residential-care conversation she fears.
Why the care manager could rely on it
Because every recommendation carries its evidence and its funding pathway, the urgent items are separated from the considered ones, and the document is written to be lifted straight into the provider’s records and the AT-HM process without translation. And because it costs her client nothing, there is no budget conversation to have.
What our time costs, stated plainly
Aged care work is priced as fixed packages, not open-ended hours, because families and providers deserve to know the total before anything is booked. A Home Safety Assessment Package is $450: the home visit, a prioritised written plan and a phone follow-up. A Comprehensive Assessment and Funding Report Package is $850: the longer visit, measurements, the full evidence report for AT-HM or home modification funding, and supplier or builder liaison. Travel is included across Greater Sydney; Illawarra visits are quoted at booking.
For Support at Home clinical care, services are billed through your registered provider under our associated-provider arrangement at agreed rates, and the participant pays nothing under current settings. We publish our private packages because almost nobody else does, and a care manager comparing quotes deserves a number rather than “prices vary”.
Referrer questions, answered straight
Are you a registered aged care provider?
Does the assessment really cost the client nothing under Support at Home?
How fast can you see an urgent client?
What do you need from us to unlock AT-HM funding?
Can you take on Restorative Care Pathway work?
Do you take CHSP and Medicare referrals?
Will your report recommend residential care?
Send an aged care referral
Use the form below or call 1300 316 664. Include the funding route if you know it; if you do not, send it anyway and we will sort that part with you.
Evidence that keeps people in their own homes
Talk to our mobile OT team about an aged care referral anywhere in Greater Sydney. Acknowledged in 2 business days, assessed at home, reported to a published standard.
Send a referral or call 1300 316 664