DVA community nursing pays for nurses and personal care workers to help you at home with things like medicine, wound care, showering, dressing and palliative care. It's free if you have a Gold Card, or a White Card and need it for an accepted condition, and have an assessed clinical need.
What community nursing covers
Registered and enrolled nurses and personal care workers from a DVA-contracted provider can help with medication, wound care, hygiene and showering, dressing and palliative care.
How to get community nursing
You need a written referral from your GP, a treating doctor in hospital, a hospital discharge planner, or a nurse practitioner in community nursing. The referral goes directly to a DVA-contracted community nursing provider, and DVA publishes a panel of providers by area. Referrals from a GP or nurse practitioner last 12 months; hospital referrals last 6 weeks.
Read DVA's community nursing information
Community nursing and other help at home
Veterans' Home Care and Attendant Care aren't designed for complex or clinical care; community nursing is. For cleaning and gardening, see Veterans' Home Care and Household Services.
Checked against DVA's website on 25 September 2026.