Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) 065-13150000

Support at Home (SaH) replaced Home Care Packages (HCP) and STRC from 1 November 2025.

STRC provided support for up to 8 weeks to help care recipients continue to live at home rather than go into care. STRC was aimed at reversing and/or slowing 'functional decline' in care recipients without the need for a hospital admission. This package of care was designed for, and approved by, the care recipient.

STRC was goal-oriented, time-limited and multi-disciplinary. STRC was provided in a home setting, residential care setting or a combination of both. A care recipient had up to 6 months and 1 day to commence STRC or their approval lapses.

While STRC ended on 31 October 2025, there are provisions in place to support care recipients during the transition to SaH. This is dependent on their STRC approval and their episode’s start date.

For care recipients with a STRC approval who have started their episode before 1 November 2025, they:

• will complete their current episode with their provider (these are called inflight STRC episodes)
• can take up to 7 unpaid leave days as part of their episode
• cannot change STRC providers during their STRC episode. This would be considered a 2^nd episode with a new provider, which does not align with STRC policy intent

This means:

• providers who have care recipients completing STRC episodes will continue to lodge monthly claims
• STRC episodes with a start date of 1 November 2025 onwards will not be accepted
• the December 2025 advance was the last STRC advance

For care recipients with a STRC approval who have started their episode on or after 1 November 2025, will:

• start their episode as SaH Restorative Care Pathway
• these care recipients will continue to have 6 months from their STRC approval start date to enter a Restorative Care Pathway episode with a SaH provider
• have approval for all SaH services
• be allocated an Assistive Technology (AT) medium funding tier and Home Modification (HM) medium funding tier
• the AT and HM 12 months funding period starts from 1 November 2025

To have been eligible for STRC, a care recipient must have been:

• at risk of losing independence
• able to improve their independence with STRC

A person is not eligible to receive STRC if they:

• were receiving (or on leave from) permanent residential care
• were receiving home care
• were receiving transition care
• received transition care in the 6 months before assessment
• were hospitalised in the previous 3 months for a condition related to their current STRC needs
• were receiving end of life care
• received more than 2 episodes of STRC in a 12 month period (an episode is 8 weeks)

Note:

• pre-entry could not be claimed in respect of care recipients receiving STRC
• See Aged care leave for more information on leave types and how to manage leave events in the Aged Care Staff Portal (ACSP) and ACMPS

An STRC approval was valid for 6 months and 1 day after the date of My Aged Care signing the approval. To receive STRC, the care recipient had to have entered STRC within the 6 month entry period.

STRC approvals lapsed if the care recipient:

• did not commence STRC within the entry period, or
• departed an episode of care

A care recipient required a reassessment and a new STRC approval from My Aged Care if:

• an STRC approval lapsed or
• they wanted to commence another STRC episode

Note: if STRC commenced on the last day of the approval period, the STRC was deemed valid.