Aged care · Home visits · Sydney and Melbourne
Aged care exercise physiology
Home based exercise physiology for older Australians, built around chronic conditions, strength and staying capable.
Strength is one of the few things about ageing that answers directly to what you do about it. Muscle built at seventy-five is still muscle. The work that builds it looks nothing like a gym class.
Our Accredited Exercise Physiologists come to you, at home or in residential aged care, and prescribe exercise for the long run rather than for a six-week block.
The short version
You don’t need a gym, a sporting past, or a condition that has already settled down. We start from wherever your strength sits today.
Resistance training builds muscle in your seventies, eighties and beyond. Age slows the rate of gain. It does not remove the response.
We come to you and bring what’s needed. The programme is built around the chair, the bench and the stairs you already have.
Strength, balance and endurance are re-tested as you go, so improvement is something you can see rather than something you hope for.
We work with Medicare, WorkCover, DVA and NDIS funding, alongside Support at Home and CHSP.
What an Accredited Exercise Physiologist does
An Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP) is a university-qualified allied health professional accredited by Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA), the national accrediting body for the profession. AEPs prescribe exercise as clinical treatment for chronic disease, injury and disability. That accreditation is also what makes an AEP claimable through Medicare, DVA, the NDIS and most private health funds, so the letters do real work.
The exercises are chosen for a reason, adjusted as things change, and monitored like any other part of a treatment plan.
A home visit aged exercise physiologist starts with your medical history, your medications, what your body is doing at the moment and what you want to keep doing, then builds the programme from there. Sometimes that means resistance bands and a kitchen chair. Sometimes it means a walking plan. It is rarely what people picture when they hear the word exercise.
AEPs don’t provide hands-on treatment: no manual therapy, no massage, no joint mobilisation. That work belongs to physiotherapy, and we have physiotherapists on the team.
What home based exercise physiology covers
- Assessment
- of strength, balance, endurance and functional capacity, with a baseline to measure against
- Exercise prescription for chronic conditions
- built around your full medical picture and medications rather than one diagnosis at a time
- Progressive resistance training
- for age-related and illness-related muscle loss
- Balance and mobility work
- including falls prevention
- Weight-bearing and resistance exercise
- for osteoporosis and bone health
- Cardiac and pulmonary programmes
- within limits set with your medical team
- Support during and after cancer treatment
- timed around treatment cycles and fatigue
- Ongoing monitoring and progression
- so the programme keeps pace instead of standing still
- Education
- for you and your family on what to do between sessions, and how hard is hard enough
- Coordination
- with GPs, specialists, nursing staff, and our own physiotherapists and occupational therapists
How home based exercise physiology is funded
Almost everyone qualifies through at least one pathway. There are two tracks, and knowing which one you’re on saves a lot of time.
The aged care track: My Aged Care, CHSP and Support at Home
My Aged Care
My Aged Care is the Australian Government’s single entry point for aged care. You register once, an assessment follows, and the outcome decides which programme funds your exercise physiology.
Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP)
The entry-level programme, assessed by a Regional Assessment Service. CHSP funds allied health and therapy at home under a reablement model, which is the same thing home based exercise physiology is for: rebuilding function rather than working around its loss. Clients contribute a modest fee toward sessions. CHSP continues to run alongside Support at Home and is expected to fold into it no earlier than July 2027.
Support at Home
Replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care on 1 November 2025. Assessed by an Aged Care Assessment Team and funded across eight classifications rather than the old four package levels, with the budget released quarterly.
The part that matters most here: Exercise physiology sits in the clinical supports category, which carries no participant contribution. Where it is part of your assessed support plan, the government funds it in full, whatever your income or assets. Under a Home Care Package, therapy competed with cleaning and personal care for the same pool of money. It no longer does.
If you already held a Home Care Package, you moved across on a transitioned level and keep your existing funding. Nothing needs redoing.
The Restorative Care Pathway
Also new under Support at Home, and the part most people haven’t heard of. Up to 16 weeks of intensive allied health and reablement, funded separately from your ongoing budget and available twice in a twelve-month period. It exists for exactly this: a concentrated block of exercise physiology after a fall, a hospital stay, or a sudden drop in function. Ask us or your assessor whether it applies to you.
Everything else
Medicare, through a Chronic Disease Management plan
Your GP writes the plan and it covers five subsidised allied health sessions a calendar year. Useful, but limited: those five are shared with physiotherapy, podiatry and every other allied health service on the plan, and a gap fee usually applies. Best treated as a way to start rather than a way to keep going.
Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA)
Gold and White Card holders may have exercise physiology funded in full, home visits included, once DVA approves the referral. We lodge the claims and follow them up.
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
Funded under Improved Daily Living, and the relevant track for participants under 65 or those who entered the scheme before turning 65. Self-managed, plan-managed and agency-managed all welcome.
Private health insurance, and self-funded
Extras policies commonly cover exercise physiology, though less reliably than physiotherapy, and rebates vary widely by fund. We’ll tell you exactly what to ask yours. Or book directly, no referral needed, with the cost in writing before the first appointment.
Ring us if you’re unsure which track you’re on. That conversation is free and carries no obligation. It covers funding and eligibility rather than clinical advice, which needs an assessment.
Who we work with
People managing chronic conditions
Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, COPD, high blood pressure. Exercise is part of how all of these are managed, and the difficulty is rarely knowing that. It’s knowing what to actually do, how hard to push, and what’s safe when you have three conditions at once and a list of medications.
That’s the question an AEP is trained to answer. The programme accounts for all of it together rather than treating one condition and hoping the others hold.
People losing strength without knowing why
Muscle mass declines with age, and it accelerates after any period of illness, hospitalisation or reduced activity. It gets put down to simply getting older, when a good part of it responds to progressive resistance training.
We assess where strength sits now, then rebuild it through structured loading. The exercises look unremarkable: standing up from a chair, pushing against a band, carrying something across a room. The structure and the progression are what make them work.
After a hospital stay, or after physiotherapy finishes
Even a short admission costs strength, and older adults lose it faster than most people expect. Physiotherapy ends when the immediate problem resolves, but the strength and balance gained in rehabilitation fade if nothing maintains them.
We start from where you actually are, not from where you were before, and rebuild deliberately. If you’ve been our physiotherapy client, the handover happens internally.
People living with dementia
A diagnosis changes a great deal. It doesn’t mean stopping. Exercise supports balance, mobility, mood, confidence and cardiorespiratory health, and it is a recognised part of living well with dementia.
Around half of people living with dementia are also managing three or more other health conditions, so the programme has to be safe, tailored and realistic rather than a template. We build routine and confidence around movement, adapt as things change, and give carers something clear to work with. It is never too late to benefit from movement.
People with Parkinson’s, MS or post-stroke
These conditions change what the body can do, and exercise is a recognised part of managing them alongside medical treatment. The programme is designed around your presentation on the day and revised as things shift.
We aren’t working against the diagnosis. We’re working on the strength, balance and capacity you have, and holding onto as much of it as we can for as long as we can.
During and after cancer treatment
Exercise is now routine in supportive care. Fatigue, muscle loss and deconditioning are common through chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and a properly prescribed programme accounts for treatment cycles rather than ignoring them. We coordinate with your treating team and adjust week to week.
People in residential aged care
Residential care means less incidental movement, simply because meals arrive and distances are short. Structured exercise offsets that.
Our AEPs work inside the facility, schedule around meals and activities, and coordinate with nursing and care staff. Sessions focus on what decides how much of the day you can run yourself: standing up, staying steady, walking the distances you need to walk.
Veterans
DVA Gold and White Card holders may have exercise physiology funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, home visits included, subject to approval. We handle the claims. We work with veterans managing service-related conditions, rebuilding after surgery, and those who simply intend to stay strong for as long as they can.
What changes
Clients often arrive with constant aches, finding household tasks harder than they used to be. Over weeks rather than days:
Physiotherapy, exercise physiology or occupational therapy?
All three are allied health professions, all three sit under the same roof here, and people are often unsure which they need.
Physiotherapy
Treats the immediate problem: an injury, a painful joint, recent surgery, balance that’s become unreliable. Includes hands-on treatment.
Exercise physiology
Prescribes structured exercise over the longer term, for chronic conditions and for building or holding onto capacity. No manual therapy.
Occupational therapy
Works on the task and the surroundings: showering, dressing, cooking, moving around the house, plus equipment and home modifications.
Getting over a knee replacement is physiotherapy. Staying strong in the years afterwards is exercise physiology. A rail that makes the shower safe is occupational therapy. Plenty of people use two or three, and moving between them here doesn’t mean starting again with a stranger.
What to expect
Before the first session
We take details over the phone: medical history, conditions and medications, recent hospital stays or falls, how active you are now, and what you want to be able to do. If your GP has sent a referral, we work from that too.
The initial assessment
Unhurried, in your own space, with baseline measures of strength, balance and endurance so there’s something concrete to track. We also talk about what you’ve tried before and what you’re realistically willing to keep doing. A programme nobody follows isn’t worth prescribing.
Your programme
Built around your conditions, your capacity and your goals, written down plainly so you know what each part is for. We start conservatively and build.
Ongoing sessions
We supervise, correct technique, progress the load as you adapt, and re-measure so you can see what’s changed.
Exercise physiology by video call
Not everyone needs a home visit, and not everyone can have one. If you live regionally, if you’re arranging care for a parent from another state, or if getting to appointments is itself the difficulty, sessions with an Accredited Exercise Physiologist run by secure video call.
This is the service itself, not a preview of it. We assess, prescribe, watch your technique, progress the load and re-measure. Home based exercise physiology mostly uses a chair, a resistance band and your own body weight, which is exactly what makes it translate to video. Family members and carers can sit in from wherever they are, which is often useful in its own right.
Plenty of people run both: a home visit to start and to reassess, video sessions in between.
Why people choose JC Care
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Support at Home or CHSP for this?
Yes to both. Under Support at Home, exercise physiology sits in the clinical supports category, which means no participant contribution: where it’s in your assessed support plan, the government funds it in full. CHSP is the entry-level programme and is often the faster route if you don’t yet have a Support at Home classification. Either way it starts with a My Aged Care assessment, and we’ll help you work out which applies.
Does Medicare cover exercise physiology?
Partly. Medicare subsidises exercise physiology through a GP chronic condition management plan, still widely called an EPC or CDM plan, which covers five allied health sessions a calendar year. Two things to know: those five are shared across every allied health service on the plan, so physiotherapy or podiatry draws on the same allowance, and Medicare pays a set rebate rather than the full fee, so a gap usually applies. For a programme meant to continue, five sessions runs out quickly. If you’re eligible for Support at Home, exercise physiology sits in clinical supports there with no participant contribution at all, which suits ongoing work far better.
Do I need any equipment at home?
No. Your programme is built around what you already have: a sturdy chair, a wall, the stairs, a bench. If a resistance band or a light weight would help, your exercise physiologist brings it.
Do I need a referral from my GP?
Not to book. A GP referral is required for the Medicare pathway and for DVA, and it helps us work from your medical history, but you can book directly without one.
Will I see the same person each visit?
Yes. You’re matched with one Accredited Exercise Physiologist who stays with you through the programme, so you’re not re-explaining your history every session.
What happens in the first visit?
An assessment, in your own home, taking about an hour. We measure strength, balance and endurance to set a baseline, talk through your conditions and medications, and agree on what you want to be able to do. The programme follows from that.
Is it suitable if I have several conditions at once?
That’s the usual case rather than the exception, and it’s what an AEP is trained for. The programme is built around your whole medical picture and your medications, not one diagnosis at a time.
Book home based exercise physiology
Whether you’re arranging this for yourself, for a parent or for someone in your care, structured exercise is the most useful thing available for staying capable as you get older.
JC Care Pty Ltd acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.