Our comments on Nine News's article about Home Care

Your Aged Care Compass

The wait times to receive some home care packages (HCP) have tipped out to around 12 months. This has increased significantly in the past year, from about six months in September 2023.

This article described the frustration of the adult daughter in not only having to wait such a long time for her mum’s home care package (HCP) to be assigned, but her belief that the providers couldn’t offer services under the home care package anyway due to a lack of staff.

We discuss the important points from this article and address some of the confusion around accessing in-home help.

In this episode:

• The confusion about what aged care is and what it looks like
• How the wait time for HCPs is determined and by whom
• Priority levels for HCPs and how they work
• Asking for a support plan review/priority review
• Extended wait times force people out of their own homes
• The risk of carer burnout
• Meeting the needs of clients is difficult when there are limits on the number of high priority approvals that assessors can give
• Significant wait times just to get an assessment are not often mentioned
• The financial and emotional toll of waiting for in-home support is huge
• There are problems with having enough workers across the aged care system
• One provider is not the same as the next. Do your research
• Assuming other options are available while waiting for HCPs is not realistic.

Resources mentioned:

• Nine News article - "I've got nobody else": Home aged care lags behind demand.
• Blog – How does aged care work in Australia?
• Blog – How do I refer to My Aged Care?
• Blog – What’s the difference between a RAS and an ACAT assessment?
• Let's Talk Consultation

Related Episodes:

• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 7
• Episode 16
• Episode 22

Connect with Coral Wilkinson:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Guiding you through My Aged Care | SeeMeACN website

More about Your Aged Care Compass podcast:

Are you supporting an older loved one at home and ready to give up because it’s just too hard? Your Aged Care Compass is aimed at anyone who is caring for an older loved one who still lives at home and is wondering what support is available to them.

We're Coral and Michelle, the sisters behind our business, See Me Aged Care Navigators.

Coral is a registered nurse with over 30 years’ experience in both health and aged care. A former assessor with the aged care assessment team, an advocate and author, there’s not much Coral doesn’t know about Australia’s aged care system.

Michelle is a former pharmacist with over 30 years in the public health and private sectors of pharmacy. Michelle is now client care manager for our business.

Our story started as one of supporting our parents to remain in their own home, to be as independent as possible and remain connected to their community. We reached a point however, of needing extra support and we achieved this because we know Australia’s aged care system so well, we knew what programs could assist us and our parents.

This podcast, Your Aged Care Compass, brings together not only our personal experience in supporting our own ageing parents but also our vast professional experience in supporting other families to keep their loved ones at home.

We will help you makes sense of Australia’s aged care system, from your first contact with My Aged Care through to the different funding streams and assessment workforces, management options for home care packages and extra funding that people might be eligible for.

There's so much more. Topics relating to dementia and legal and financial considerations will be covered, as well as real life stories of where it went wrong for people and how we guided them to get it right.

Your Aged Care Compass will guide you clearly and compassionately to the right support at the right time for your ageing parents and loved ones.

Like what you hear? Please leave us a Rating and Review. We’d love you to share this podcast with any friends or family who have older loved ones.