A dementia diagnosis is frightening, and for many families the first fear is that it means a nursing home, soon. It often doesn’t. With the right support, many people living with dementia can stay safely in their own homes for a long time, and the Support at Home program is designed to help make that possible. Here’s the plain-language guide to caring for someone with dementia at home and what support is available.
Staying at Home Is Often Possible
First, the reassurance: caring for someone with dementia doesn’t automatically mean residential care. With the right mix of in-home support, many Australians living with dementia can safely remain at home for years, which is where most people want to be.
The aged care system is built around this idea, often called “ageing in place.” Services can be scaled up over time to provide increasingly intensive support at home as needs grow, delaying or sometimes avoiding the need for a nursing home. Since Support at Home began, there’s also a stronger focus on “reablement”, helping people maintain their independence and abilities rather than just managing decline.
The Three Areas Support Usually Targets
For families managing dementia, effective home care usually focuses on three key areas. Personal safety: managing daily risks like wandering, falls, or leaving the stove on, through supervision, home modifications and assistive technology. Personal care: help with the daily activities that become harder over time, bathing, dressing, grooming, eating. And support for the carer: because caring for someone with dementia is demanding, and sustaining the carer is essential to sustaining the arrangement.
Getting the right combination across these three areas is what makes staying at home work, and it’s worth thinking about all three, not just the obvious care needs.
What Support at Home Can Fund
Support at Home can fund a range of services relevant to dementia care. These include personal care (help with daily living), which becomes fully funded from 1 October 2026. Clinical care such as nursing and allied health, fully government-funded. Domestic assistance like cleaning and meal preparation. Social support to maintain connection and reduce the isolation that can worsen dementia. And, importantly, respite care, which gives the carer a genuine break.
There’s also separate funding for assistive technology and home modifications, through the AT-HM scheme, which can fund safety equipment, home adaptations and technology that helps manage risks like wandering. An occupational therapist can assess what would genuinely help.
Don’t Overlook Respite and Carer Support
One of the most important and underused supports is respite, care provided so the primary carer can rest. Dementia caring is relentless, and carer burnout is one of the main reasons home arrangements break down and residential care becomes necessary sooner than it needed to.
If you’re caring for someone with dementia, building respite into the plan isn’t a luxury or a failing, it’s what makes the whole arrangement sustainable. Ask your provider to include respite, and behaviour support if it’s not already there. Looking after the carer is looking after the person with dementia.
Practical Steps for Families
Several things genuinely help. Review the care plan regularly and ask your provider to include the supports you need as things change, dementia is progressive, so needs evolve. Request a reassessment if support needs increase significantly, since your funding level can rise to match. Get an occupational therapy assessment for safety equipment and home modifications. And use the free expert help available: the National Dementia Helpline (1800 100 500) offers free, confidential advice and support for families navigating exactly this. General information is on My Aged Care.
Looking After Yourself as a Carer
A genuine word for carers: your wellbeing matters, and not just for the person you care for. Caring for someone with dementia is one of the hardest roles there is, and doing it without support is unsustainable. Accept help when it’s offered, use respite, connect with carer support services and groups, and don’t measure yourself against an impossible standard. Sustaining yourself is part of the care, not separate from it.
The Bottom Line
A dementia diagnosis doesn’t have to mean residential care soon, with the right in-home support, many people can stay safely at home for years. Support at Home can fund personal care, clinical care, domestic help, social support and crucially respite, alongside safety equipment and home modifications. Focus on safety, personal care and sustaining the carer, review the plan as needs change, and lean on free help like the National Dementia Helpline. Staying home is often genuinely possible. This is general information, not aged care, medical or financial advice.
Epik Wire covers aged care in plain language for older Australians and their families. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.
