Applies to
This supplement is for approved providers of Home Care Packages.
It automatically applies to the following types of flexible care:
- Multi-Purpose Services
- National Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Programme
- Transition Care Program.
What is the supplement?
This supplement helps with the cost of caring for people with moderate to severe cognitive impairment from dementia or other conditions.
Supplement rate
View the current supplement rate in the Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements.
Eligibility
You can only assess your care recipients’ eligibility using one of the following assessment tools.
A diagnosis of dementia alone is not sufficient. A person diagnosed with dementia may not be moderately or severely cognitively impaired. Care recipients with lower levels of cognitive impairment are not eligible for the supplement.
Culturally and linguistically diverse care recipients
Care recipients from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background must score 22 or lower on the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) to be eligible for the supplement.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander care recipients
An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person living in a rural or remote area must score 33 or lower using the Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment (KICA-Cog) to be eligible for the supplement.
All other care recipients
All other care recipients must score 10 or higher on the Psychogeriatric Assessment Scales (PAS) to be eligible for the supplement.
Use one of the following scales, depending on which is suitable for the care recipient:
- Cognitive impairment scale
- Cognitive decline scale – suitable if the care recipient is non-verbal, has reduced fine motor skills or is visually impaired.
Read the PAS User Guide to find out how to do a PAS assessment using these scales.
Veterans
If your care recipient is eligible for both the veterans’ supplement and the dementia and cognition supplement, you will only receive the veterans’ supplement.
Who can do the assessments
When assessing dementia and cognition supplement eligibility, the PAS and RUDAS assessments can be done by:
- a registered nurse
- a clinical nurse consultant
- a nurse practitioner
- a clinical psychologist
- a medical practitioner.
The KICA-Cog assessment can be done by:
- a registered nurse
- a clinical nurse consultant
- a nurse practitioner
- a medical practitioner
- another health practitioner trained in its use – to find one, contact the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency.
How to apply
If you’re a home care provider:
- assess your care recipient
- record the results
- keep proof of eligibility with the care recipient’s records
- apply for the dementia and cognition supplement online with Services Australia.
Services Australia aged care providers enquiry line
Your organisation’s monthly payment statement from Services Australia will contain information about your client’s eligibility and will list payments against their name.
If circumstances change
If a care recipient has been assessed as eligible for the dementia and cognition supplement and their package level or provider changes, their eligibility for the supplement does not need to be reassessed.
While eligibility for the dementia and cognition supplement does not lapse if a care recipient changes providers, as the new home care provider you should check your monthly payment statement to confirm that the supplement is being paid and request a copy of the assessment that was used to determine eligibility from the previous home care provider.
If your care recipient stops their services with you, you can still submit an application for the supplement for the period up to when you stopped providing home care services to the care recipient.
In these instances you need to make sure:
- the care recipient was eligible up until the date they stopped services; and
- that you enter the end date to avoid overpayment.
Contact
