• Aged care physio across Carnegie

Aged care physiotherapy and OT at home in Carnegie

You are in London, or Perth, or just in Doncaster with three kids and a job, and your mother is on her own in Carnegie.

The phone calls are fine. She always says she is fine. Then you visit at Passover or at Christmas and she is not fine, and you spend the whole flight home trying to work out what you are supposed to do from that far away.

The thing families in this position need is not more phone calls. It is somebody who goes to the house and then tells you the truth in writing.

  • Physiotherapy
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Home Assessments
  • Assistive Equipment

What we do and where

Total Health Choice provides physiotherapy, occupational therapy, exercise physiology and speech pathology in people’s own homes in Carnegie 3163. Podiatry and massage therapy are both coming. We also visit Murrumbeena 3163, Glen Huntly 3163, Ormond 3204, Caulfield 3162, Caulfield South 3162, Malvern East 3145 and Oakleigh 3166, We also go past these suburbs, usually another ten kilometres or so. If yours is not on the list, ring and ask.

We come to the house. Private homes, retirement villages, independent living units and residential aged care homes.

Make a Referral

What you get if you are not in Melbourne

This is the part that matters when you live somewhere else, so it is worth being specific.

  • The same therapist, every visit. Not a roster. She gets used to one person and you have one person to ring.
  • A monthly progress report with outcome measures in it. Not just a line saying she is doing well. When we re-test, the numbers go in: Timed Up and Go in seconds, thirty second sit to stand as a count, four metre walking speed. Reported the same way each time, so you can see the line, up or down.
  • You get it the same day her GP gets it. And her Support at Home provider, if she has a Support at Home package.
  • You can call us any time for an update. You do not have to wait for the report.
  • We will tell you when it is going backwards. If the numbers drop, you will hear about it from us before you hear about it from a hospital.
  • We ring back within thirty minutes on business days, which matters more than it sounds when you are trying to sort something out from another time zone.

The first visit

Our admin team books the visit and takes the details then, including anything the therapist needs to know about getting in. You get a text confirming the date and time.

The physiotherapist, or the exercise physiologist.

The visit runs about an hour.

Twenty minutes of talking, and this is where living alone changes the questions. Has she ended up on the floor. If she did, how long before someone knew. Does she have a pendant, and does she actually wear it. Is she still driving. Is she still going to the shops on Koornang Road, or has she started getting things delivered. When did she last leave the house. What has she stopped doing.

Then the measurements, written down, so month two can be compared to month one. Timed Up and Go. Thirty second sit to stand. Four stage balance test. Walking speed over four metres. Grip strength.

And when somebody lives alone we look at two extra things. What is in the fridge, because weight loss and weakness travel together and nobody notices either on a phone call. And, if she is able, whether she could get herself up off the floor, which we test rather than ask about. Plenty of our clients are too frail for that to be relevant, and that is worth knowing too.

The occupational therapist.

The OT walks through the house with her. Front step, path, letterbox. Hall lighting. Rugs and cords. The bathroom, and how she gets in and out of the shower and up off the toilet. Bed height. What she is reaching for above her head in the kitchen. The path from bed to toilet at two in the morning in the dark.

What happens next

A home exercise program built around what the client can tolerate. Seated or standing exercises, near a benchtop or a chair for support, ideally five to ten minutes a few times a week, printed with photographs.

An occupational therapy visit if the house needs rails, a shower stool, better lighting or a raised bed. Costs told to you before anything is ordered.

An exercise physiologist if the goal moves past safety into getting genuinely fit again.

And the report, on time, every month.

Explore Physiotherapy

How it gets paid for

Support at Home.

Which replaced Home Care Packages. Ask her SAH provider to call us and we deal with them, not with you at midnight your time.

Commonwealth Home Support Programme.

For smaller amounts before a full package.

Private.

No referral, no waiting for an assessment, we can start this week.

If you are trying to get her assessed by My Aged Care and it is slow, start privately in the meantime. You are not locked out of the package later.

Why families call us

Fifty of us, mobile since 2011, so when your mother’s therapist is on leave someone else can come, or we reschedule for later in the week.

4.9 from over 200 Google reviews.

Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, exercise physiology and speech pathology in one team, with one phone number, so you are not coordinating four businesses from another country.

Most first visits happen within five business days. We will give you a real date on the phone rather than “we’ll be in touch”.

Every therapist who comes to the house holds a current police check and NDIS worker screening clearance. And you get the same therapist each visit, so it is not a different stranger at the door every fortnight.

Explore Occupational Therapy
  • Helpful information

Questions Carnegie families ask

The monthly progress report with the outcome measures in it. It has repeated tests in it, not adjectives. And you can call us or join a visit by phone whenever you want.

Yes. That is the assessment visit, and you can book it without her having a diagnosis, a referral or a package. About an hour, in her house, and you get the written result.

Yes. Carnegie 3163, Murrumbeena 3163, Glen Huntly 3163, Ormond 3204, Caulfield 3162, Malvern East 3145 and Oakleigh 3166.

We invoice you directly, or we invoice her Support at Home or CHSP provider. You can pay after each visit, or we can send you a statement at the end of the month.

An occupational therapist can raise it properly, and there is a formal driving assessment pathway if it comes to that. It is a hard conversation and it goes better coming from a clinician than from a daughter.

We test whether she can get up off the floor, and we teach it, because it is a skill and most people have lost it. We will also tell you plainly if she needs a personal alarm.

Most first visits happen within five business days. We will give you a real date on the phone, and we contact you within thirty minutes on business days.

Yes, and independent living units, and residential aged care homes.


  • Talk to our team

Talk to us about Carnegie

Call 1800 847 847, or submit an enquiry with your number and the best time to reach you, including your time zone, and we will call back within thirty minutes on a business day.

On an NDIS plan instead? Our Carnegie NDIS physiotherapy and occupational therapy page is the one you want.

Contact Us Make a Referral