Personal care support covers the daily tasks of looking after your body — the ones that have to happen every day, on a schedule that fits your life rather than a roster’s convenience.
Personal care works when it fits your actual day. If you start work at eight, a morning visit at nine is useless. If you are not a morning person, being showered at six because that suited a roster is not support, it is compliance with someone else’s timetable.
Getting this right is largely a scheduling and staffing question, and it is worth asking a prospective provider directly how they handle it — including what happens when a worker is sick, which is when the difference between providers becomes obvious.
Good personal care support does the parts you need and no more. That distinction matters: taking over a task someone can partly manage erodes the ability to do it, and it is a very common failure mode when workers are rushed. Where you can wash one part of yourself and need help with another, the support should be shaped that way — even though it takes longer.
Personal care is funded from Core Supports under Assistance with Daily Life. Core funding is generally flexible, so hours can shift between personal care, household tasks and community participation as your needs change through the plan.
Where support involves clinical tasks — ventilation, tracheostomy, complex bowel care, PEG feeding — it becomes a high intensity support with additional training, supervision and provider obligations. See our community nursing page.
Can I choose my support worker?
You should have genuine say, particularly for personal care. That includes the gender of your worker, and it includes being able to say an arrangement is not working without it becoming difficult.
What happens if my regular worker is unavailable?
We aim to provide continuity by maintaining a consistent team of workers familiar with the participant’s needs. If a regular worker is unavailable, we will provide a suitably matched replacement wherever possible and ensure they receive the relevant information and handover to support a smooth transition.
Can I have support more than once a day?
Yes. Many people have a morning and an evening visit, and some have additional visits through the day. It depends on your assessed need and the hours in your plan.
Personalised in-home support and community care, empowering NDIS participants to live independently and actively engage.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we live and work and pay our respects to the Elders of the past, present and future.
