5.4.4 Community Nursing Program

Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA) and Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1998 (DRCA) clients who hold a DVA Health Card are able to access nursing services through the Community Nursing Program.

The program provides community nursing services to address a client's clinical or personal care needs. Services are considered based on evidence from an assessment by a contracted community nursing service provider. Access to the Community Nursing Program requires referral from an authorised referrer, such as the client's treating medical practitioner, treating specialist, specialist in hospital, a hospital discharge planner or a Veterans' Home Care (VHC) assessment agency.

More detailed information about the Community Nursing Program can be found in section 8.8 of this Library and on the Community Nursing Program page on the DVA website.

The Community Nursing Program has an Exceptional Case Unit that assesses the clinical and/or personal care needs of those entitled persons, whose care requirements, due to their complexity and care regimes, are significantly outside the scope of normal community nursing services. The Exceptional Case Unit is an independent unit of Clinical Nurse Consultants contracted by DVA.

It is likely that clients who require community nursing assistance through the Exceptional Case Unit will also require levels of attendant care in excess of the legislated statutory limits under MRCA or DRCA. In these cases, Rehabilitation Coordinators are requested to contact rehabilitation@dva.gov.au so that the Community Nursing Program and the Rehabilitation Policy section can work together to ensure that coordinated assessments can be organised and an appropriate level of services can be provided to clients to meet their assessed needs.