Open to interpretation?

There is a conversation unfolding between my Mum’s Home Care Package provider and me.
From where I am sitting, what is occurring doesn’t seem to be right.
So I am doing what I do…pursuing it.

But first, let’s take a look at the description about Home Care Packages from the Department’s own site, My Aged Care.

The description states “A home care package is a coordinated package of care and services to help you to live independently in your own home for as long as you can”.
It goes on to state “The benefit of a home care package is that your home care provider will work with you to:
• choose care and services that best meet your needs and goals
• manage your care and services”.

Let’s zoom in on “choose care and services that best meet your needs and goals.”

So…when my Dad had his Home Care Package 4, he had the cost of washing the pet dog covered within his Home Care Package.
Since my Dad’s passing, Mum has been paying to have the dog washed out of her limited savings.
My mum has recently been offered a Home Care Package 2 and she’d like to have the cost of washing the dog covered within her package.

My mum is 78.
Her functional ability is impaired and she isn’t able to wash her dog herself.

Her package provider is reluctant to ‘approve’ for the washing of the dog.
She has been told to get a letter from her GP to support the claim.

Hang on…what?

A letter from her GP.
Yes.
Now I won’t get started on the lunacy of sending a frail older person off to her GP to ask for a letter regarding the washing of her dog.

So…I am trying to get to the bottom of why this change seems to be pervading the space of Home Care Package administration.
And I am yet to get a satisfactory answer.
On the same page on the My Aged Care website the description goes on to state the restrictions regarding Home Care Packages.
It states “items that would normally be purchased out of general income”.

But let’s reflect.

Couldn’t just about anything covered within a Home Care Package also be regarded as being purchased out of general income?

Given Home Care Packages are delivered as Consumer Directed Care, I would like to know who is making the decisions about what a frail aged person can and can’t receive to keep them living independently in their own home.

Is this problem then, that this open to interpretation?