What is a Self-Managed Home Care Package — and Why It’s Changing Lives

A self-managed Home Care Package gives you access to government-funded care — but with the reins in your hands. Instead of a provider telling you how to use your package, you decide what support you need, who delivers it, and when they come. It’s aged care, redesigned around your life.

This model has been quietly reshaping how care works — and for good reason. It brings choice back into the conversation. Want a care worker who speaks your language? Prefer someone who understands your routine or shares your background? With self-management, you’re not handed a list — you create your own.

And there’s more to it than just personal choice. It often means better use of your funds. Without the extra layers of management fees charged by traditional providers, your budget stretches further. That could mean more hours of support each week, or additional services that once seemed out of reach. For many, it’s the difference between basic help and real, responsive care.

But managing a package on your own doesn’t mean you’re left to figure everything out. Support Network quietly takes care of the formalities — the government reporting, the payments, the documents that keep everything compliant. We don’t step in unless you ask us to. Instead, we work in the background, so your focus stays on living well, not sorting out forms.

It’s a better balance — care that feels like yours, supported by a team that respects the space you need to make it truly personal.

Freedom to Choose the Right Carers for Your Life

One of the most powerful aspects of self-managing your Home Care Package is the ability to choose. Not just from a list — but to truly choose who walks into your home, who supports your daily routines, and who shares those quiet moments of care. For many in Toowoomba, this freedom marks the beginning of something deeply personal — the chance to build a support system that fits your life, not someone else’s schedule.

We don’t assign strangers. We support you to find the right people — those who listen, who show up with purpose, and who genuinely care about your well-being. Each person’s care journey is different, so we make sure the services you select reflect what you need, right now, and as things change.

Here’s how that freedom unfolds across the care options you can choose from:

Home Care

Your home isn’t just a space — it’s filled with stories, routines, and comforts you’ve created over time. Our carers understand the significance of being welcomed into that space. With self-managed home care, you choose a worker who respects that environment and offers support that feels like a helping hand, not a disruption. Whether it’s help with mobility, gentle companionship, or day-to-day upkeep, your chosen carer works with you — not just for you.

Daily Living

Daily tasks often go unnoticed — until they become harder to manage. From preparing meals to helping with grooming, dressing, or taking a walk outside, our carers approach daily living support with sensitivity and grace. They know it’s not about rushing through a checklist. It’s about ensuring you feel steady, clean, supported, and confident in how each day unfolds.

Domestic Assistance

A clean, organised home offers peace of mind. Our domestic assistance carers do more than tidy up — they bring calm into your space. Whether it’s vacuuming, laundry, or light cleaning, you get to choose someone who values your home as much as you do. These are carers who take care of the small things, so your day can go on without worry.

24 Hour Care

Sometimes, reassurance comes from simply knowing someone is there. Our 24-hour care options are ideal for individuals who need round-the-clock support — not just in moments of need, but for consistent presence and peace of mind. When you choose the carer yourself, you know exactly who will be by your side, day and night. That stability makes all the difference.

Personal Care

Personal care is intimate — and we treat it with the quiet dignity it deserves. When you choose your own personal care worker, you can ensure they align with your preferences, cultural values, and comfort levels. Whether it's assistance with showering, dressing, or toileting, you’re supported by someone who understands the importance of respect and privacy.

Overnight Care

Nighttime can bring its own set of worries. Whether it’s medication reminders, bathroom assistance, or simply having someone present in case you wake, overnight care ensures you’re not alone. The carer you choose becomes a familiar and calming presence through the quiet hours — making sleep feel safer.

Disability Care

Disability support should never feel clinical or disconnected. Our carers work with people of all ages and disabilities, offering assistance that adapts to each individual’s abilities and lifestyle. When you choose your carer, you’re choosing someone who understands — someone who helps without taking over.

Disability Support

From goal-setting to social connection, our disability support workers empower participants to do more — and feel more confident doing it. Whether it’s attending appointments, navigating public transport, or learning life skills, the support is tailored around your aspirations. Self-managing means picking someone who will walk that path with you, at your pace.

Complex Care

Complex care needs require not only skill but sensitivity. Our carers are experienced in handling medical or behavioural complexities, but more than that — they’re calm, intuitive, and genuinely focused. You have the freedom to choose a support worker who you trust, someone with the right balance of professionalism and compassion.

High Care

When health concerns require extra support, high care services become essential. Our team includes carers with specialised experience — whether it’s catheter care, hoist transfers, or managing chronic conditions. Through self-management, you choose who you trust with this level of care. You’re not handed a stranger — you select a professional who earns your confidence.

Social and Community Participation

We all need connection — to others, to hobbies, to community. This service supports that in a gentle, empowering way. Whether it’s going to the markets, joining a class, or simply taking a stroll in the park, your chosen carer helps you stay engaged. It’s not just transport or assistance — it’s company, conversation, and a chance to stay involved in life outside your home.

Behaviour Support

Behaviour support requires more than knowledge — it needs calm, patience, and insight. Our support workers in this space are trained, yes — but more importantly, they understand that behaviour reflects unmet needs. When you self-manage, you choose someone who doesn’t just react — they listen, observe, and support with care that’s consistent and kind.

Dedicated Support for Every Health Condition and Need

When someone’s health changes, it doesn’t just affect the body — it touches everything around them. Routines shift. Emotions surface. Life begins to feel different. And in those moments, care needs to feel deeply personal. That’s where self-managed support stands apart. It puts you — or your loved one — in charge of choosing someone who truly understands the specific condition and the kind of life you want to keep living.

We believe support should be thoughtful and quiet, not loud or intrusive. Below are the different types of condition-specific care we help you organise — where each carer brings real experience, and above all, heart.

Arthritis Care

Living with arthritis means waking up to stiffness, slowing down more often, and sometimes needing a little more help just to get through a normal day. But that doesn’t mean giving up your rhythm. Through self-management, you can choose someone who doesn’t rush you. Someone who’ll help with simple things — tying shoes, cooking, carrying groceries — with steady, reliable support that respects your pace and doesn’t make you feel less capable.

Autism Care

Autism is not a single story. Everyone’s experience is different. That’s why the right support worker isn’t just trained — they listen. They notice. They learn how to meet the person where they are. With self-managed care, you get to choose someone who knows when to give space, when to step in, and how to create calm. Whether it's routine-building, social outings, or simply creating a safe space, the connection is what counts.

Cancer Care

Cancer brings uncertainty, both for the person and those around them. The days may feel long, the body weak, and the heart heavy. A carer in this space doesn’t just help with practical things — like getting to appointments or managing fatigue — they sit with you in silence when words aren’t needed. You choose who that person is. Someone strong enough to be there in the hard parts, but soft enough to hold space when you need quiet.

Epilepsy Care

Supporting someone with epilepsy means understanding the unpredictable. It means being alert, but never making the person feel like they’re being watched. Our carers are trained to respond to seizures safely, but also know how to provide a sense of calm during the in-between. Self-management allows you to choose someone you trust — someone who respects your independence, while standing by, just in case.

Heart Disease Care

With heart disease, daily life often needs careful balance — gentle exercise, healthy meals, medication, and sometimes just slowing things down. But that doesn’t mean life has to shrink. It simply needs adjusting. Your chosen carer can help you do that — supporting you with what’s needed while encouraging the parts of life that bring you joy. It’s about living well, not just being safe.

Huntington's Disease Care

Huntington’s brings gradual, often invisible changes — to movement, to thinking, and to personality. It takes a very specific kind of care to meet those changes with patience and presence. That’s why choosing your own carer matters. It allows you to build continuity — someone who understands not only the condition but the person who’s living with it, day by day.

Mental Health

Mental health doesn’t always look the same, and it doesn’t follow a schedule. Some days are light, others heavy. What matters most is being surrounded by people who don't just tick boxes but genuinely care. Whether it’s support for anxiety, depression, PTSD or something else, self-managed care lets you choose someone who walks with you, without judgement, and helps create a space where you feel safe to just be.

Motor Neurone Disease Care

MND slowly takes away physical control, but it never takes away the person. That’s why the carer you choose needs more than just training — they need understanding. From help with speech tools to assistance with feeding or moving around, this care has to be respectful and quiet. Self-management gives you the power to pick someone who sees you, not just the diagnosis.

Muscular Dystrophy

Muscular Dystrophy often calls for early and adaptive care — support that grows with the person and changes as the condition progresses. With self-managed care, you’re not locked into a single approach. You find someone who knows how to work alongside you, not ahead of you. They’re there to help you keep doing what matters for as long as you can.

Out of Hospital Care

Leaving hospital should feel like a step forward — not a gap in care. This service offers exactly that. Whether you’ve had surgery or just need recovery support at home, self-managing your package means you can choose someone who helps you rest, heal, and regain strength in a way that fits into your home, not a hospital ward.

Parkinson’s Disease Care

Every day with Parkinson’s can be different. The tremors, the stiffness, the slowing down — they come and go. So the care needs to adapt too. With a self-managed package, you get to choose someone who doesn’t push when you need stillness, who encourages when you need movement, and who helps with confidence when balance becomes shaky. It’s care that notices without needing to be asked.

Palliative Care

There is a quiet kind of care that lives at the end of life — one that doesn’t just focus on comfort, but on meaning. Palliative carers need to be present without being overbearing, respectful without retreating. They may hold a hand, wipe a brow, or simply sit nearby. When you manage your care, you choose someone who will honour these last stages with grace and gentleness.

Dementia Care

Caring for someone with dementia means showing up again and again, often in the face of confusion or forgotten names. But the right carer never sees just the symptoms — they see the person behind them. Through a self-managed package, you can choose someone who brings familiarity, patience, and kindness into each day. It’s about making the world feel safe again, even when memory begins to fade.

Support Network’s Platform: Making Self-Management Simple

When someone chooses to manage their own care, they’re not asking for less support — they’re asking for the right kind. A quieter kind. One that gives them space to decide what works best without getting caught in the details that don’t belong on their shoulders. That’s what our platform helps with.

It’s built to make things clearer, not more complicated. If you need someone to help, you write a short job post. You explain what kind of support you're after. Not just the tasks — but the kind of person who’d be a good fit in your home. You send it through, and carers respond. You decide who feels right. No pressure. Just choice.

Once care begins, your carer enters the hours they worked. You’ll see it. You approve it. That’s it. There’s nothing confusing. You’ll know exactly when care was given, and how long it took. It gives you a quiet sense of order.

Invoices come through the same way. You review them and approve when you're ready. Everything is recorded and managed without needing to follow up or double-check. If something doesn’t look right, you can pause and reach out. It’s not rushed.

Your budget is always there when you want to check it. You can see how much has been used and how much remains. You can plan. You can slow down. You can make changes if things in life shift. It’s all there, steady and visible, without needing to ask.

And while you focus on finding the right people, and building a care plan that makes sense for your life, we stay in the background. We keep things in line with the rules, make sure the records are clean, and that your package keeps working the way it’s meant to. Nothing loud. Just steady support where you need it.

This isn’t about doing it all alone. It’s about keeping your say — and knowing someone’s there to quietly hold the structure together.

Benefits of Self-Managing Your Home Care Package

• You choose who helps you. You're not given a name. You bring in someone you feel right about.
• You know where your money goes. It’s clear. It’s visible. It’s yours to manage.
• Lower fees. More care hours. Less taken out means more support in your week.
• You choose someone who understands you. Maybe they speak your language. Maybe they just get your rhythm. That choice is yours.
• You see everything, clearly. From services to spending — nothing is hidden, and nothing is vague.
• You're supported — quietly. While you manage the care, we take care of the rules and the paperwork.
• Change doesn’t take time. If your needs shift, you can adjust right away. You don’t wait.
• It grows with you. As life changes, your care can change too.
• You build trust over time. The people you choose get to know you — and that makes a difference.
• You’re not alone in it. You’re leading your care, but you’ve got someone behind you making sure it all holds steady.

Contact Us

If you’re thinking about making a change — or just want to understand your options — we’re here to help. Our care team listens before anything else. We’ll walk with you through what each care level means, from basic assistance to more involved support, and help you find what fits best.

Whether you need help with everyday tasks, personal care, or something more specific like wound care or meal preparation, we’re ready to talk it through. If you’re with another care provider now, we can also guide you through what’s involved in switching — including any exit fees and care continuity.

We’re not here to rush you. Just to give you the space, answers, and support to move forward in a way that feels right.