Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Veterans' Home Care) Determination 2000 (Cth)

REPATRIATION COMMISSION

VETERANS’ ENTITLEMENTS ACT 1986

Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Veterans' Home Care) Determination 2000

Instrument No. 13/2000

The Repatriation Commission makes this Determination under subsection 88A(1) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986.

Dated                   fifteenth day of December  2000

IAN CAMPBELL
A/g PRESIDENT PAUL STEVENS
COMMISSIONER

Repatriation Commission

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Part 1        Introduction

1.1Name of Determination

This Determination is the Veterans' Entitlements Treatment (Veterans' Home Care) Determination 13/2000.

1.2Commencement

This Determination commences, or is taken to have commenced, on

1 January 2001.

1.3Definitions

In this Determination:

Act means the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986;

care needs means the needs of an entitled person that would be satisfied by the provision of a Home Care Service (category A) or a Home Care Service (category B);

Note: the conditions on which Veterans' Home Care services are provided are set out in the Treatment Principles and in most cases an assessment is required.

Domestic Assistance means:

(a)assistance with domestic chores, including assistance with cleaning, dishwashing, clothes washing and ironing, shopping and bill paying; and

(b)help with meal preparation where this is not the primary focus of the occasion of the service; and

(c)        in remote areas, activities such as collecting firewood;

entitled person means a person defined as an entitled person under

the Treatment Principles made under the Act;

Excluded service means a service within the scope of the Home and Community Care Program established under the Home and Community Care Act 1985, as amended from time to time, that is commonly known as:

(a)      domestic assistance or personal care;

(b)home maintenance; or

(c)respite care;

Note (1): for the purposes of this definition, "respite care" does not include centre-based day care (also called "day centre respite" or adult day activity centres").

Note (2) the intention is that Home Care services categories A and B are mutually exclusive.

"Home and Garden Maintenance" means the service, under the Veterans' Home Care Program, of maintaining the home, garden or yard of an entitled person, and includes:

(a)assistance with minor maintenance and minor repair of the home (e.g changing light bulbs, minor carpentry, minor painting, replacing tap washers, but not the supply of replacement items), garden or yard to keep the home, garden or yard safe and habitable;

(b)          lawn mowing;

but does not mean:

(c)tree felling or tree removing or other major tasks related to a garden or yard;

(d)        provision of materials.

Note: recipients of Veterans' Home Care services will be expected to supply materials used in home maintenance, eg replacement light bulbs and tap washers.  Service providers will be required to provide any equipment needed, eg garden tools.

Home Care Service (category A) means the provision of Domestic Assistance, Personal Care or Home and Garden Maintenance to an entitled person pursuant to the Veterans' Home Care Program;

Home Care service (category B) means the provision of treatment, pursuant to the Veterans' Home Care Program, that would satisfy the description of a service within the scope of the Home and Community Care Program established under the Home and Community Care Act 1985, as amended from time to time, but does not mean the provision of treatment, pursuant to the Veterans' Home Care Program, that would satisfy the description of an Excluded service;

Note: an example of a Home Care service (category B) would be Meals-on-Wheels.

Personal Care means assistance with daily self care tasks, such as eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, grooming, getting in and out of bed, and moving about the house;

repatriation condition means an injury or disease or an impaired state of health in respect of which an entitled person is eligible for treatment under the Act;

specified treatment means the treatment described in Part 3 of this Determination;

Treatment Principles means the document prepared by the Repatriation Commission under subsection 90(1) of the Act;

Veteran means a person who is a veteran under Part V of the Act;

Note: "veteran" under Part V of the Act includes a member of the Forces and a member of a Peacekeeping Force.

Veterans' Home Care Program means the treatment program under which the Commission ensures the provision of care and assistance services to entitled persons who are frail, or who have disabilities, with the aim of maintaining the independence of those people and reducing avoidable illness and injury, and includes this Determination, and the Principles made under section 90 of the Actand the arrangements in support thereof.

1.4  Purpose

Veterans' Home Care treatment is designed to maintain the independence of eligible members of the veteran community, to assist them to remain living in their homes and to reduce avoidable illness and injury.  It achieves this by the provision of Living-at-Home Support Services to eligible members of the veteran community who are assessed as needing home care assistance.

Veterans' Home Care is "treatment" under the Act and it can only be made available to people eligible to receive it.  One category of veteran (those with "White Cards") is only eligible for treatment for war-caused conditions.  However Veterans' Home Care is to be available for any condition of a veteran, war caused or not.  In order to enable Veterans' Home Care treatment to be available for the non-war caused conditions of certain veterans it is necessary to make those veterans eligible for that treatment and that is what this Determination does.

Note (1): Entitled persons with "Gold Cards" are already eligible for treatment, including potential     

Veterans' Home Care treatment, in respect of any condition and do not need an extension of eligibility as do

entitled persons with "White Cards with non-war caused conditions.

Note (2): "Gold Card", "White Card" are defined in the Treatment Principles.

Part 2      Eligibility for Treatment

2.1Specified Class of Veterans Eligible for Specified Treatment

2.2        A Veteran who is eligible for treatment under Part V of the Act in respect of a repatriation condition is hereby eligible to be provided with specified treatment under Part V of the Act in respect of care needs.

Note (1):This Determination merely establishes eligibility for Veterans' Home Care.  It does not create entitlement to Veterans' Home Care.  The Treatment Principles establish entitlement to Veterans' Home Care ie they set out the conditions on which the Repatriation Commission will accept financial liability, on behalf of the Commonwealth, for the provision of Veterans' Home Care to an eligible person.  One condition will be that, for a Home Care Service (category A), an assessor has assessed the eligible person as requiring that service.

Note (2): the fact that a Veteran is only eligible for treatment under Part V of the Act in respect of a war-caused condition does not mean that Veteran is only eligible for Veterans' Home Care in respect of that war-caused condition.  The effect of this Determination is to make such a Veteran eligible for Veterans' Home Care in respect of any condition.

Part 3Specified Treatment

3.1Kind of treatment veteran within specified class is eligible to receive

3.2For the purposes of section 88A of the Actand this Determination the following treatment is "treatment of a specified kind":

Home Care service (category A)

Home Care service (category B)

Note:"treatment" under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 is very broad and

includes treatment to restore a person to physical or mental health, alleviate a person's

suffering or ensure a person's social well-being.

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Repatriation Commission