It is recognised that two or more people may equally share the caring role (e.g. mother and father) however, for the purposes of the CSTDA NMDS collection, characteristics are only required for one of these carers. The expressed views of the service user and/or their carer(s) or significant other should be used as the basis for determining this.

An informal carer is someone, such as family member, friend or neighbour, who has been identified as providing regular and sustained care and assistance to the person requiring support.

It is recognised that two or more people may equally share the caring role (e.g. mother and father) however, for the purposes of the CSTDA NMDS collection, characteristics are only required for one of these carers. The expressed views of the service user and/or their carer(s) or significant other should be used as the basis for determining this.

An informal carer is someone, such as family member, friend or neighbour, who has been identified as providing regular and sustained care and assistance to the person requiring support.

It is recognised that two or more people may equally share the caring role (e.g. mother and father) however, for the purposes of the DS NMDS collection, characteristics are only required for one of these carers. The expressed views of the service user and/or their carer(s) or significant other should be used as the basis for determining this.

An informal carer is someone, such as family member, friend or neighbour, who has been identified as providing regular and sustained care and assistance to the person requiring support.

It is recognised that two or more people may equally share the caring role (e.g. mother and father) however, for the purposes of the DS NMDS collection, characteristics are only required for one of these carers. The expressed views of the service user and/or their carer(s) or significant other should be used as the basis for determining this.

An informal carer is someone, such as family member, friend or neighbour, who has been identified as providing regular and sustained care and assistance to the person requiring support.

It is recognised that two or more people may equally share the caring role (e.g. mother and father) however, for the purposes of the DS NMDS collection, characteristics are only required for one of these carers. The expressed views of the service user and/or their carer(s) or significant other should be used as the basis for determining this.

An informal carer is someone, such as family member, friend or neighbour, who has been identified as providing regular and sustained care and assistance to the person requiring support.

This data element should only be reported in relation to service users that have a carer (Person—Informal carer existence indicator, code N = 1).

In the DS NMDS, this data item refers to the person's main informal carer—the person who provides the most significant care and assistance related to the service user's capacity to remain living in their current environment. It is recognised that two or more people may equally share the caring role (e.g. mother and father) however, for the purposes of this collection, characteristics are only requested for one of these carers.

A carer is considered to be co-resident if they usually live in the same household: ‘usually’ being 4 or more days per week on average.

This data element should only be reported in relation to service users that have a carer (Person—Informal carer existence indicator, code N = 1).

In the Disability Services Minimum Data Set (DS NMDS), this data item refers to the person's main informal carer—the person who provides the most significant care and assistance related to the service user's capacity to remain living in their current environment. It is recognised that two or more people may equally share the caring role (e.g. mother and father) however, for the purposes of this collection, characteristics are only requested for one of these carers.

A carer is considered to be co-resident if they usually live in the same household: ‘usually’ being 4 or more days per week on average.

The data element Carer residency status helps to establish a profile of the characteristics of informal carers assisted either directly or indirectly by the HACC program. As such it increases our knowledge about the dynamics and patterning of the provision of informal care to and by clients of the HACC program. In particular, whether the Carer lives with the person for whom they care or not is one indication of the level of informal support available to HACC clients and of the intensity of care provided by the Carer. Future developments of the HACC MDS will include more information about the level and type of assistance provided by carers.

A co-resident carer is a person who provides care and assistance on a regular and sustained basis to a person who lives in the same household. A non-resident or visiting carer is a person who provides care and assistance on a regular and sustained basis to someone who lives in a different household.

The process of identifying a single person who provides the most significant care and assistance is similar to that used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the 2003 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers to identify ‘principal carers’. However, reliable comparisons of ABS ‘principal carers’ and carers identified in the HACC MDS cannot be made without the inclusion of additional information in the HACC MDS about the types of assistance needed by care recipients and provided by carers. Future developments in the HACC MDS will take this issue into consideration.

Verification rules:

A value for this data element should be present in any client record with a value of 1 in Carer—existence of.

A record with the value 1 in this data element should not have a value of 1 in the data element Living arrangements.

The agency should record this data element at the beginning of each HACC service episode for any care recipient who has a carer (i.e. Carer—existence of code 1).

The agency should assess the currency of this information at subsequent assessments/re-assessments within any given HACC service episode and should update the agency’s record of Carer residency status if necessary.

Reporting requirements:

This data element is required for reporting within the HACC MDS collection for any HACC client who has a Carer (i.e. Carer—existence of code 1).

Agencies are required to report the most recent Carer residency status that the agency has recorded for the client. This information is to be related to the same person to which the data element Relationship of carer to care recipient relates.

Information provided by the agency about Carer residency status will be considered to be at least as up to date as the Date of last update reported for the person. This is in line with the request that agencies assess and update the information they have about Carer residency status at the beginning of each HACC service episode as well as at subsequent assessments/re-assessments within any given HACC service episode.

If the agency’s system or records do not provide sufficient information to accurately report on this data element, the agency should use code 9 Not stated/inadequately described.