Companionship services and companion care in Victoria

What are companionship services?

Companionship services are regular, one-on-one social visits from a support worker matched to a person’s interests and personality, aimed at reducing isolation rather than performing physical care tasks. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW 2025) identifies social isolation as a major risk factor for poor health outcomes in older Australians, which is why companionship is funded as a distinct support alongside personal care.

A visit might mean sharing a cup of tea and conversation, playing cards, going for a short walk, or help staying in touch with family by phone or video. The point is a familiar face turning up on a predictable schedule, which is what makes the difference to someone who might otherwise go days without talking to anyone.

How to choose a companion care provider from the list above

The list above is ranked using the criteria explained in the methodology above it. Four checks matter specifically when you compare companion care providers.

Matching. Ask how the provider pairs companions with clients. A worker who shares a language, a background, or an interest in gardening, football or a particular era of music will build rapport faster than one assigned at random.

Continuity. Ask whether the same companion can hold the same weekly time slot, and what happens when that person takes leave. A different stranger each week defeats the purpose of the service.

Registration. For NDIS funding, check the provider against the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission register; for aged care funding, confirm the provider is registered for Support at Home through My Aged Care (My Aged Care, 2026).

Carevo measures whether a provider accepts an enquiry, not when care starts or a practitioner contacts you. Confirm current capacity and a start date directly. How Carevo measures enquiry acceptance.

What does a companion care visit involve?

A typical visit runs one to three hours on a set day. Common activities include conversation over tea or coffee, cards and board games, a walk or a drive, help with a hobby, reading aloud, and help making video calls to family. A companion can also go with someone to a cafe, a club, a place of worship, or a community event, and can prompt meals, fluids, and rest without doing hands-on care.

Families often book visits for the days no one can drop in, or to cover the hours a family carer is at work. For an older person recently widowed or newly housebound, the scheduled visit itself, something to look forward to, is a large part of the value.

Companionship, social support or personal care: what is the difference?

The three overlap but are staffed and funded differently. Companionship is unstructured one-on-one time at home or nearby, built around conversation and shared activity. Social support visits lean toward structured programmes, group activities and centre-based outings, often funded through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme. Personal care is hands-on assistance with showering, dressing and toileting, and needs a worker trained for it.

The distinction matters when you book. If a visit needs to include help in the bathroom, ask for personal care, not companionship; a provider can roster one suitably trained worker to cover both in a single visit.

How much does companion care cost?

Companionship is billed at standard support-worker rates. Under the NDIS, the weekday daytime price cap for a support worker is $73.58 an hour, with higher caps for evenings and weekends (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27). Support at Home has no fixed price caps yet: caps were deferred in May 2026, so hourly rates differ between registered providers and a full written price list is worth requesting before you compare (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2026). Group social activities usually cost less per person than one-on-one visits because the worker’s time is shared.

Who pays for companionship services?

Companionship supports older Australians and NDIS participants at risk of loneliness, including people who have lost a partner, live alone, or have reduced mobility.

For people 65 and over, or 50 and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Support at Home funds social support after an assessment through the Single Assessment System; the Commonwealth Home Support Programme continues to at least 1 July 2027 for entry-level needs (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025). For people under 65 with a permanent disability, the NDIS funds companionship through Core Supports as Assistance with Social and Community Participation (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27). Veterans can use DVA-funded home care, and families who want visits to start without an assessment or a waiting period can pay privately through private home care; see private funding options for how self-funded arrangements work.

For families in Victoria weighing up options, companionship sits between clinical care and doing nothing. It is low intensity, but the routine and the personal match are what give it value.

Can we request the same companion each week?

Yes, and you should ask for it before you sign. When you look at companionship in Victoria, ask providers how they match workers to clients and whether you can request the same person each week, since continuity is most of the benefit. Rapport builds over months, not visits, and for a person with memory loss a familiar face is the difference between a welcome guest and a stranger in the house. A good provider gives notice of roster changes and introduces the fill-in worker before the regular one goes on leave.

What about a live-in companion?

A search for a live-in companion usually means one of two arrangements. Live-in care places a support worker in the home with their own room, combining daily support and company across the day with agreed breaks. Overnight care covers the evening-to-morning stretch only, as either a sleepover shift, capped at $311.79 a night under the NDIS, or an active overnight shift billed hourly. Live-in arrangements cost more than most government budgets will carry, so they are usually self-funded or NDIS-funded; compare private rates before assuming a Support at Home budget will stretch to it.

Where companionship services are available

Availability changes by area, so the practical question is which providers already visit Victoria and can hold a regular weekly time. Carevo currently lists 34,600 providers across 8,918 suburbs, including companionship and social support specialists, with records updated 2026-08-26. Social support is named in 562 of the 9,483 inquiries tracked on the platform, so book the weekly time you want early. If the underlying need is a scheduled break for a family carer rather than company, look at respite care instead.

Social support visits

Companionship and social support visits are the same service under two names. A worker visits on a regular schedule for conversation, a walk, a shared activity, help getting to a social group, or simply presence for someone who lives alone.

The value is in the regularity rather than the hours. A consistent weekly visit from the same person does more for isolation than a larger number of hours spread across changing staff, which is worth raising when you compare providers. Funded under CHSP and Support at Home in aged care, and under NDIS Core Supports as assistance with social and community participation.

What does companion care cost per hour?

Companion care is delivered by a support worker rather than a clinician, so it is priced at support worker rates rather than therapy rates. That makes it one of the cheaper funded supports per hour.

Under the NDIS it is billed against Assistance with Social and Community Participation, capped at $73.58 an hour on a weekday daytime, $103.54 on a Saturday and $133.50 on a Sunday (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27). Under CHSP there is a small client contribution set by the provider. Under Support at Home the provider sets its own hourly rate, because price caps were deferred in May 2026 (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2026).

Two things affect the real cost more than the headline rate. Minimum visit length, commonly one to two hours, sets the floor for a short social call. And weekend loadings apply to companionship exactly as they do to personal care, so a Sunday visit costs materially more than the same visit on a Tuesday.

Is companion care worth funding?

It is the support families most often dismiss as a luxury and clinicians most often recommend.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare identifies social isolation as a major risk factor for poor health outcomes in older Australians (AIHW 2025), which is why social support is funded as a distinct service under CHSP and Support at Home rather than being treated as an optional extra. A companion visit is also the most reliable early-warning system a family has at a distance: a worker who sees someone weekly notices a change in mobility, appetite, mood or cognition before a monthly phone call does.

The practical case for funding it deliberately, rather than hoping a personal care worker has spare minutes, is that rushed task-based visits do not produce the continuity that makes either benefit work.

How this page is compiled

The provider rankings and figures on this page come from Carevo platform records, including provider registrations, measured response times and coverage, together with the cited official sources. Carevo is an Australian platform that connects families with NDIS and aged care providers. Carevo does not deliver care itself.

Funding sources and checks

Check the current NDIA pricing arrangements and Support at Home program rules for the proposed service. Funding depends on the approved support and available budget; a Carevo listing is not approval. Confirm availability and a start date directly with the provider.