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Consumer Directed Care

Consumer Directed Care (CDC) in Australian Government Funded Community Aged Care

Fact sheet - Consumer Directed Care (CDC)

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What is the Government doing around Consumer Directed Care?

The Australian Government is funding consumer directed care in selected Australian Government community aged care programs. Under the initiative, the Government will fund selected community aged care providers to deliver innovative service models, which provide care recipients and their carers with greater control over the design and delivery of the care and services they receive.

What is CDC? Consumer (or self) directed care allows people to have greater control over their own lives by allowing them, to the extent that they are able and wish so to do, to make choices about the types of care services they access and the delivery of those services, including who will deliver the services and when.

Which programs will CDC affect? Participating providers can offer care recipients a consumer directed care package. The Australian Government also funds the packaged care programs of Community Aged Care Packages (CACPs), Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH) and Extended Aged Care at Home Dementia (EACHD). Consumer direction will also be delivered in the respite services under the National Respite for Carers Program (NRCP) through a separate process. Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centres will deliver Consumer Directed Respite Care (CDRC) in this program.

CDC Packaged Care Framework

The model adopted for CDC packaged care places uses an individual budget for each care recipient, based on a needs assessment. This budget is administered on the care recipient’s behalf by an approved provider

The approved provider holds an agreed portion of the budget to cover administration costs and a small amount to cover contingencies. This amount should be transparent and agreed upon between the care recipient and the approved provider.

Funds for an individual’s allocated budget will be drawn from the provider’s income, which is obtained from government subsidies and care recipients’ fees. It is not intended that in each case an individual’s allocated budget would exactly match the subsidy received by the provider in respect of that care recipient.

There are three levels of CDC packaged care subsidy depending on the assessed level of care to be provided. These three levels will broadly align with the existing subsidy levels of the current Packaged Care programs, namely, CACPs, EACH and EACHD.

An individual budget will:

• be allocated to the care recipient;
• be based on a care recipient’s needs as assessed by the packaged care provider and agreed with the care recipient;
• follow the care recipient’s assessment by an ACAT, which determines eligibility for a specific level of Packaged Care (eg, CACP);
• be held and administered by the packaged care provider for an amount agreed with the care recipient from the total budget; and
• be set for a one year period

Evaluation

CDC places are currently funded until 30 June 2012. The future of any further CDC funding and places is yet to be decided. Future Government policy decisions will take into account the evaluation of the Consumer Directed Care initiative, currently being undertaken by KPMG, on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, together with the Government's response to the Productivity Commission Report Caring for Older Australians. Top of page

Information on the evaluation is available at Consumer Directed Care Evaluation

CDC Low Care

This level of care is similar to a CACP in that it provides complex low level coordinated care and will provide services such as personal care, social support, transport to appointments, home help, meal preparation and gardening.

CDC High Care

This level is similar to an EACH package in that it will provide care services to people living in the community who have complex high level care needs. It provides services such as nursing, domestic assistance, in-home respite, personal care, transport to appointments, and social support.

People assessed as eligible for this package will have complex high care needs, be eligible for high level residential care, have expressed a preference to live at home and be able to do so with the assistance of a package of care.

CDC High Care Dementia

This level is similar to an EACHD package and will provide care services to people living in the community who have high level, complex care needs and also experience behaviours and symptoms associated with dementia that affect their ability to live independently.

People assessed as eligible for this package will have complex high care needs associated with their dementia, be eligible for high level residential care, have expressed a preference to live at home and be able to do so with the assistance of a package of care.

Assessment by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT)

To be eligible for a CDC package, older people must first be assessed by an ACAT as eligible for a CACP, EACH or EACHD package.

For information on ACATs, you can review the ACAT Information page or you can call the Commonwealth Respite and Carelink Centre on free call 1800 052 222.

How many CDC places are available?

A total of 1000 (non-ongoing) CDC places have been made available nationally, with 500 being allocated in 2010-11 and another 500 allocated in 2011-12.

Who can apply to deliver CDC packages?

CDC places will only be allocated to existing approved providers as defined under the Aged Care Act 1997. A formal application for CDC places must have been submitted to the Department of Health and Ageing, during the first round, which closed on 21 April 2011. In order to deliver CDC packages, services must be approved providers of flexible care. It is possible for other existing approved providers that are not approved for flexible care to apply to the Department for Health and Ageing to be approved providers of flexible care. This can be done at the time of submitting their CDC places application. Approved provider can obtain a copy of the 2011-12 CDC application pack by emailing cdcpackagedcare@health.gov.au

Who can I call for more information?

Further information and application forms are available from the website at www.health.gov.au/cdc or from the Aged Care Information Line on 1800 200 422. Top of page