All Care, All Heart: Chris Barnard Health and the Art of Staying Home in Malvern East

On Waverley Road, between the tram lines, corner shops and quiet streets that run towards Caulfield and Chadstone, most people are not thinking about aged care. They are thinking about a parent who is still fiercely independent, a partner who needs a little more help in the morning, or a facility roster that is one sick call away from falling over.

That is the everyday work of Chris Barnard Health, the Malvern East-based home care and nursing organisation that has spent more than 15 years connecting skilled people with families, NDIS participants and aged care providers across Melbourne and beyond.

Their line is simple: All Care, All Heart. In a sector that can feel bureaucratic, that promise is the whole point.

A name with a pulse

The organisation was founded in 2010 as Chris Barnard Nursing Agency, an Australian-owned aged care staffing specialist. The name is not a coincidence. It honours Dr Christiaan Neethling Barnard, the South African surgeon who led the world’s first human heart transplant in 1967.

The founders wanted a standard of care that matched that kind of courage: technical skill, yes, but also a life dedicated to other people. More than a decade and a half later the business has grown from a Melbourne and Gippsland nursing agency into Chris Barnard Health — an approved Support at Home provider, a registered NDIS provider, and a national healthcare staffing partner — while keeping its head office at 508 Waverley Road, Malvern East.

Leadership today includes General Manager Supun Wali and a management group with more than 50 years of combined healthcare experience. The company describes itself as big enough to deliver and small enough to care: national reach across Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland, with a local heart that still answers the phone.

It has been recognised with the Australian Achievers Award across multiple years and presents itself as Melbourne’s leading aged care nursing agency. Older published figures from the business have spoken of hundreds of clients and hundreds of thousands of hours of care. The more useful measure, staff and families say, is consistency: the same familiar face walking through the front door.

What they actually do

Chris Barnard Health works on three fronts, which is why families in Stonnington often hear the name from more than one direction.

First, Support at Home. This is Australia’s government-funded in-home aged care programme, which replaced Home Care Packages from 1 November 2025. As an approved provider, Chris Barnard Health delivers the services older Australians use to stay safely in their own houses: personal care, nursing and clinical support, domestic assistance, meal preparation, transport, social support and companionship, home and garden maintenance, allied health, home modifications, respite, and care management.

Second, NDIS support. As a registered NDIS provider they work with self-managed, plan-managed and NDIS-managed participants across Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales. Supports cover home and living, social and community participation, capacity building, therapy and mental health support. The starting point is a free consultation, then a Care Manager visit, then a matched support worker.

Third, the original nursing agency. Facilities and community providers still call Malvern East when they need registered nurses, enrolled nurses, personal care assistants and support staff — for planned rosters, last-minute gaps, surge periods and ongoing shortages. The allocations team is built for speed; the business says shifts are often filled within minutes, not hours, and that operations run from early morning through late evening, seven days a week.

There is also an executive search arm for clinical leaders and permanent healthcare recruitment. For most local readers, though, the question is more personal: can Mum stay at home?

How Support at Home works from a kitchen table in Malvern East

The system still starts with My Aged Care. Anyone aged 65 or over who needs help to live safely at home can request an assessment. Funding is then assigned in classifications, released quarterly, and used for approved services.

Chris Barnard Health’s role is to take the complexity out of what comes next. Every client is given a dedicated Care Partner — an aged care professional who coordinates services, explains the funding, builds a plan around actual goals rather than a generic menu, and stays in contact when needs change. The business aims for the same support worker on around 80 per cent of visits, which is how a roster becomes a relationship.

Services commonly arranged for Melbourne families include:

• Personal care: showering, dressing, grooming and mobility support
• Nursing and clinical care: medication support, wound care, chronic disease management
• Domestic assistance: cleaning, laundry, shopping and meal preparation
• Social support and companionship
• Transport to appointments, shops and family events
• Allied health: physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry and related therapies
• Home maintenance and modifications
• Respite for family carers
• Restorative Care Pathway support — a short-term, goal-focused stream (up to 16 weeks) aimed at rebuilding independence rather than locking someone into long-term care
• End-of-life support at home where that is the person’s wish

Clinical care under the programme is government-funded. Some other services may involve a co-contribution depending on financial circumstances. Privately funded care is also available for people who are waiting on an assessment or who want extra hours.

The practical difference families notice is not the brochure. It is the Care Partner who will take a call about something that feels “too small” to mention. Current clients Barrie and Dot put it this way: “You can ring them about anything, it doesn’t matter how trivial it feels. They will always pick up the phone and listen. That level of care and attention makes you feel valued and supported.”

Why the Malvern East address matters

508 Waverley Road is not a shopfront clinic. It is a head office for home care, NDIS services and workforce partnerships across metropolitan Melbourne, with further offices in Traralgon (Gippsland), Hobart and Sydney.

For Stonnington households that still matters. Malvern East, Malvern, Armadale, Prahran, Caulfield, Carnegie and Glen Iris are full of older people who want to age in the house they already know — close to the tram, the grandchildren, the Greek or Italian club, the GP they have seen for 20 years. A provider that understands those suburbs, and that can put consistent local workers on the road, is more useful than a call centre in another state.

Chris Barnard Health also runs community information sessions for churches, neighbourhood houses and facility groups, explaining Support at Home in plain language. In a year when the aged care rules have changed, that kind of local conversation is part of the service.

The culture inside the office is described by staff in family terms. Team member Maria Kiryakos has said, “It feels like family. Everyone genuinely cares about each other.” That is the tone they try to take into other people’s homes.

For facilities, and for people who want to work in care

The other half of the business is still the reason many Melbourne directors know the name. Aged care homes, hospitals and community providers use Chris Barnard Health for short-term and long-term staffing: RNs, ENs, PCAs, lifestyle staff, kitchen and domestic roles, and allied health support. Map listings and the company’s own materials have long pointed to specialised aged care training and a quality focus, including ISO 9001 accreditation in earlier descriptions of the agency.

Staffing coordinator Mary-Anne has been quoted saying the team “bend over backwards to meet our needs.” For nurses and carers, the pitch is flexible shifts, an allocations desk that actually answers, and work across aged care, home and community, and disability settings.

If you are looking for work rather than care, the same Malvern East office is the place to apply. The public contact number for general and staffing enquiries is 1300 133 291, and applications go through the website rather than the general enquiry form.

A human standard in a system that keeps changing

Aged care in Australia is not simple. Funding classifications, quarterly releases, co-contributions, restorative pathways and NDIS plan reviews can leave families exhausted before a single shower visit has been booked.

Chris Barnard Health’s argument is that the paperwork should sit with them. The person at home should keep their routine, their dignity and, as far as possible, the same carer. That is what “national reach, local heart” is supposed to mean when the office is around the corner on Waverley Road and the work happens in kitchens and bathrooms across Melbourne.

Whether you need a few hours of domestic help each week, complex nursing after a hospital stay, NDIS support to get back into the community, or a reliable agency partner for a facility roster, the starting point is a conversation with a real person.

Chris Barnard Health — contact details

Chris Barnard Health (Chris Barnard Nursing Agency)
Melbourne head office: 508 Waverley Road, Malvern East, Victoria 3145
Website: https://www.chrisbarnardhealth.com/
Email: info@chrisbarnardhealth.com

Phone — general, staffing and NDIS enquiries: 1300 133 291
Phone — Support at Home and aged care guidance: 1300 602 469
Phone — Support at Home (also listed on social channels): (03) 9968 3901

Other offices:
206 Princes Street, Traralgon, Victoria 3844
207 Davey Street, Hobart, Tasmania 7004
526/368 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Hours (operations / allocations): 5.00 am – 11.00 pm, seven days

Instagram: @chrisbarnardhealth
LinkedIn: Chris Barnard Health