Garden & Home Maintenance: The Often-Overlooked Support At Home Benefit

Why garden and home maintenance matters

A parent may be perfectly comfortable living at home but find that certain tasks have gradually become more difficult. Perhaps mowing now feels too strenuous. Meanwhile, leaves are accumulating on the path, or a shrub has grown across the walkway.

These may sound like ordinary household jobs, but they become safety issues when mobility or balance changes with age. Falls remain the leading cause of hospitalised injury among older Australians.

That gives garden maintenance for elderly Australians a practical purpose beyond keeping the yard looking presentable. It can help make the areas they regularly use easier and safer to navigate.

There’s another side to it too. Many older Australians take pride in their homes and gardens. A little help with the harder jobs lets them keep things the way they like, without doing work that has become difficult or unsafe.

What gardening and home maintenance can Support at Home cover?

Under the current Support at Home service list, gardening and assistance with home maintenance and repairs are classified as Everyday Living services. The government describes this category as support that helps older people keep their home in a liveable state so they can remain independent.

For families researching aged care gardening services, the important word is “essential”, which means you can’t use the funding for every gardening job around the property. Services identified as “in scope” are:

• Lawn mowing
• Pruning
• Yard clearance where needed for safe access
• Gutter cleaning
• Repairing a broken door handle
• Other essential minor repairs or maintenance that the person previously managed themselves, or that are required to maintain safety

Light tasks like weeding may also need to be considered in the context of the person’s approved services and whether the work relates to safety or accessibility. This distinction matters because Support at Home is not intended to fund every job that could improve a property.

Other out-of-scope services include:

• Professional landscaping
• Tree removal
• Farm maintenance
• Water-feature maintenance
• Gardening carried out primarily for visual appeal, like installing or maintaining garden beds, plants and compost

Similarly, home maintenance for the elderly in Australia is focused on essential assistance rather than general renovation or property improvement. Professional maintenance that would ordinarily be a household expense is generally excluded, although there can be exceptions where an imminent safety risk is involved. Uneven flooring that poses a fall risk is one example.

In short, think safe access and essential upkeep rather than a garden makeover.

How to access gardening and maintenance services

Gardening is not automatically available simply because someone receives Support at Home funding.

An aged care assessment determines a participant’s needs, funding classification and approved services. Their Notice of Decision and support plan then set out which services they have been approved to access. From there, the participant and their care partner can decide which approved services they want to use and how those services fit within their individualised budget.

For people who self-manage, there can also be greater involvement in choosing workers. Under Support at Home, a participant can ask to use a third-party worker, although the registered provider must still formally engage that worker and remain responsible for the services delivered.

If you want to understand how classifications and budgets work before arranging services, check out Homecare My Way’s guide to Support at Home service categories and budgets.

What this can look like in everyday life

Imagine your dad has always mowed his own lawn. He still cooks, drives locally and takes care of most things himself, but lately he has started leaving the lawn longer because pushing the mower has become difficult.

There’s also a narrow path down the side of the house where shrubs are beginning to encroach.

He doesn’t necessarily need someone taking over his daily routine. What may help is targeted gardening assistance for the jobs that have become tough, especially where keeping clear access around the property is important.

That is the value of this support, as it addresses a very specific problem without taking independence away from the person receiving care.

A few things worth checking around your parent’s home

Families don’t always hear, “I need help with the garden.” Often, the signs appear first. The next time you visit, look at the jobs your parent once handled routinely.

• Is the lawn becoming difficult to manage?
• Are paths clear?
• Have minor repairs been left unfinished?
• Are they still comfortable cleaning gutters, pruning or completing other physically demanding jobs?

Then check what has actually been approved in their Support at Home plan. Gardening and home maintenance must relate to assessed needs and approved services, so it’s better to confirm eligibility before arranging work.

If gardening is included, Homecare My Way can help organise practical assistance such as mowing, pruning and other appropriate maintenance. Reach out to learn more about Gardening Assistance and discuss which services fit within your plan.

Gardening and home maintenance may not be the first thing families think about when organising aged care at home. But when a simple job outside has become one job too many, having the right help available can make home a little easier to manage.