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065: Navigating aged care
498 Plays2 years ago
At some stage, we all have to navigate appropriate aged care for ourselves or a loved one, so in this episode we turned to aged care expert Grace Petherick to demystify it for us all.
Many of us are in the sandwich generation, and are the support people for parents as well as young children. Some of us are also of an age where we’re having to investigate aged care services for ourselves or our partner.
This can be an overwhelming task because, let’s face it, the aged care system in Australia is complex, unfamiliar and bureaucratic, and if your family member is suffering poor health or has had a health incident, it's all the more anxiety-triggering.
About Grace Petherick
Global experience in service industries and the shock of accessing aged care for her grandparents sparked Grace Petherick’s passion to revolutionise an industry.
It became clear for her that what her grandparents had suffered was unacceptable, and it was time to shake up 100 years of unchanged service standards in aged care.
Her visionary and innovative approach has attracted extensive investor and media attention, including placing as a finalist in the current Telstra Business Awards and winning a City of Melbourne Innovative Business Grant, for her business Age Up Health.
Our recent survey revealed that one in three of our listeners is doing life admin for a parent or elderly relative and that often includes researching aged care services. In this episode we discuss:
- how the aged care system is very complex and waiting lists can create a lot of stress for families
- that you shouldn’t wait until a crisis occurs to investigate aged care - as soon as everyday things feel harder you should consider investigating options
- the preventive measures you can put in place - allied health to improve balance, ramps and handrails
- the differing roles for Residential Aged Care - including temporary respite and rehabilitation after a hospital stay
- how to fund aged care - the first step should be the government website - My Aged Care
- you can also find information on aged care provider websites and there are paid aged care advisers you can access
- the range of services and products that Home Care Package funding can be used for including home modifications, cooking and meal delivery, supplements, companionship and social support - anything to keep you safe and well at home
- the assessment process for Home Care Packages - government assessors come to your home and consider what support/funding you are eligible for - a letter of support from a GP can be helpful
- after your Home Care Package is approved - means testing is conducted by Services Australia to determine what (if any) income tested fee you will need to pay (there is an income and asset test similar to that for the Aged pension - the maximum contribution you can make is $40 per day)
- after an assessment you receive a notification of your level of funding and estimated the waiting time until the funding will be available
- the wait list for a Home Care Package can be up to 9 months - while you are waiting you may be able to access CHSP or other organisations that may provide support - Carers Gateway and some providers provide limited free support while you wait
- after the funding comes though you need to select from one of 900 providers within 56 days or you will lose the funding
- 3 months before your funding is allocated you will receive notification and this is a good time to start selecting a provider
- things to think about when selecting a provider include: what support you need, what level of admin you are
Transcript
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Hosts Introduction & Podcast Focus
00:00:26
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks.
00:00:28
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podcast that gives you techniques, tips, and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money, and improve your household harmony. I'm Dinaroo Roberts, an operations manager who hopes that by the time I need it, the aged care system has been significantly simplified from where it is today. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who is going to introduce my children to this week's expert so my twilight years are totally taken care
Aged Care System Complexity in Australia
00:00:56
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of.
00:00:56
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In this episode, we interviewed Grace Petherick, founder of AgeUp Health. Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. We're so thrilled to be hearing from you about the wonderful changes you're making with your Life Admin.
00:01:09
Speaker
and how you're dropping the mental load. So a shout out to Gemma who posted on LinkedIn to say, after she'd read life admin hacks, there are so many, I can't believe I didn't do this sooner hacks in there. Highly recommend to anyone needing to empty the life admin entry. Thank you Gemma. Okay. So many of you dear listeners are in the sandwich generation. You are the support people for parents as well as young children.
00:01:36
Speaker
and one in three of us are doing life admin for a parent or elderly relative. And these days that may include researching aged care services. Some of you are also of an age where you're having to investigate aged care services for yourself or your partner.
00:01:50
Speaker
And this can be an overwhelming task because let's face it, the aged care system in Australia is complex, unfamiliar and bureaucratic. And if our family member is suffering poor health or has had a health incident, it's all the more anxiety triggering to get it right. At some stage, we all have to navigate appropriate aged care for ourselves or a loved one. So we turn to an expert to demystify it for us all.
Inspiration Behind AgeUp Health
00:02:16
Speaker
So in this episode, we talked to Grace Patrick who revealed that this is an area that you actually need to organize before you need it. She talked about how the assessment process works to access services, the broad range of residential and in-home services available, and how to make the most of your package depending on what's important to you. If you care for someone that may need support as they age, listen on.
00:02:40
Speaker
Global experience in service industries and the shock of accessing aged care for her grandparents sparked Grace Petherut's passion to revolutionise an industry. She felt that what her grandparents had suffered was unacceptable and it was time to shake up 100 years
00:02:55
Speaker
of unchanged service standards in aged care. The MBA from Melbourne Business School, Grace founded AgeUp Health, and her visionary and innovative approach saw her place as a finalist in the Telstra Business Awards and winning a city of Melbourne innovative business grant. Oh, Grace, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Thanks for having me. I'm really happy to be here. Oh, look, there's no doubt that the aged care sector needs innovators like you. And we're so thrilled to have you on the show today to talk about a challenge so many of our listeners face
00:03:25
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researching and arranging aged care for someone that they care for.
Challenges in Navigating Aged Care
00:03:29
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So what was it about your grandparents' experience that actually inspired you to start Age Up Health? Some of the earliest memories I have of my grandma is her wagging her finger at my sister and I and saying, don't you ever put me into a nursing home. So when my grandparents started to become a bit frailer, we looked for options to support them at home.
00:03:51
Speaker
We were able to get a home care package for both of them and we signed up with one of the big aged care providers. But the experience turned out to be pretty dreadful. The case manager they had wouldn't return their phone calls and wasn't able to even provide the services that they had agreed upon. About 50% of the time they had nobody show up. My grandparents ended up thousands of dollars out of pocket while waiting for reimbursements.
00:04:17
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All the while they were paying close to half of their funding to this company in fees. I have a service background, so I was totally gold-smacked at this experience. I had no health or aged care experience, but I knew that I could do better than that. So I quit my job and, you know, that's how you do it. Age of health was born.
00:04:37
Speaker
Wow, the rest is history. That's indeed. Yep. Good old necessity is the mother of invention. Inspired to take change. So, you know, you mentioned some of the challenges that you faced when trying to navigate the aged care system. What are the challenges that most people face?
00:04:56
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The system is incredibly complex. It has so many different departments and acronyms. It can be really overwhelming. A story that I know of that resonates with me is that the CEO of Medibank had to take two weeks leave from his work just to arrange aged care for his parents. So if he finds it challenging, then what hope do the rest of us have?
00:05:18
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It also can take a long time for any kind of funding support to actually come through. So waiting too long or waiting until a crisis is a common thing that we see happen and can create a lot of stress for families. Yeah. Cause it's often after there's been an incident, like there's a fall or you realize that, you know, the mental health might be an issue or they're starting to see signs of dementia. And then you're like, Oh my God, we have to do something. So you're feeling stressed out and you're sort of reacting to something.
00:05:47
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So Grace, you know, as we've been talking about, often people leave it too late till we get to a crisis situation to start looking around.
Misconceptions & Early Support in Aged Care
00:05:55
Speaker
What might be some of the earlier warnings or signs that an elderly relative needs some additional support at home? Yeah, I think one of the misconceptions that we have about aged care is that it's like a last resort for when the situation with mum or dad becomes really dire. But actually the reality is that there's funding available for more basic supports that keep them independent.
00:06:16
Speaker
So things such as someone to take them to the shops or help them change the linens, that's all available through government funded supports. My advice to older people generally is that if you're starting to find some everyday things harder than they used to be, then the time is really right to start exploring options for a little bit of extra support.
00:06:35
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Also, the home care package funds are there to help extend people's years of wellness and vitality. So it's more than just about handling problems. It's about quality of life and enjoying those golden years and staying independent for as long as you can. Yeah, that's a really good point, if it isn't.
00:06:52
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you know, if there's been something going on and the relative, you start to become that support person, the other trigger for getting home care or looking at what the government can provide is when you get care or burnout.
Types of Residential Aged Care Services
00:07:05
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And they're like, I can't do this anymore. And they're exhausted, and then they go and look for care. So it's interesting to know that way earlier on in the process, you can start to look at what's available.
00:07:18
Speaker
That's right. And you know, we see that all the time. People are caring for mum or dad as their condition changes, but they've also got their own jobs and their own families to manage. And it's just exhausting. Yeah. I think that's interesting because I think this can be a bit of a stigma about like accepting help and
00:07:35
Speaker
particularly sort of getting into the aged care system and certainly my experience is that it's a little bit like the healthcare system in that you kind of need to have your foot in the door before things go too wrong like you kind of want to get in and find out a bit more so that you know right early on if you've already got access in when things aren't in crisis you're in a much better position to try and navigate and find out what you want. That's exactly right and you can also put in some preventative supports just to put that
00:08:02
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that crisis off, you know, it doesn't have to get to a point where things are so dire that you need to move mum or dad into a nursing home. It can be really helpful to get information early on. Okay, so let's start with those preventative supports. There's so many ways that we support people to stay healthy or to prevent any kind of decline. Mobility and falls risks is a huge one. We all know that having a fall when you're older can be catastrophic.
00:08:33
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and often can trigger something like moving into a nursing home or a long hospital stay. So trying to get ahead of that is actually a lot easier than you might think. You can use a lot of preventative supports, things like allied health, so osteo or occupational therapy to support core strength and to support balance. Also things like having just rails around the home or having ramps fitted where there's steps in mum or dad's home can
00:09:02
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avoid having those trips and falls in the first place. And you mentioned there's other things in terms of, you know, the supports around helping people stay committed to the community or helping them stay independent. What kinds of services are available there? Yeah, the community and social connection is such a huge part of wellbeing for us as humans. So particularly for older people who don't have access to things like
00:09:27
Speaker
you know, Facebook or WhatsApp or some of the tools that we've used, particularly during the pandemic. Supports like taking mum or dad out to the shops to do their banking, to the post office, even going to the movies or taking them to see a family member or a friend when they can't drive themselves. All of that can be funded by the government. Yeah, and in terms of, you know, there's obviously the residential side of things as well. So
00:09:52
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you know, if in-home care, you can't get in more, what kind of residential services are available? So residential aged care is not always a big scary permanent solution. There are different ways that residential aged care plays a role in people's lives. So of course there's the standard residential care where mum or dad can't live at home anymore. And so they need to move into somewhere where they're getting 24 hour care. But residential facilities also offer things like a temporary respite where
00:10:22
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someone can go and stay for a week or two when their usual family supports aren't available. So if people go on holidays, et cetera, they can go and have a stay in a local facility and then come back home again. They also offer rehabilitation programs. So many people after they've had a stint in hospital and they're finding that their ability to look after themselves and their independence is depleted a little bit, can spend a four to six week program in a residential rehab facility, getting those
00:10:51
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constant supports such as physio and nutrition to make sure that they're good and ready to go home and that they're not gonna deteriorate when they get back home.
Funding Options for Aged Care
00:11:01
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Okay, so that's sort of given us a bit of an idea of the different services available, but all of this can sound kind of expensive and obviously the costs vary from person to person, but how do you get to grasp with all of the fees and the government benefits and allowance, like what's the best way to work out what funding might be available
00:11:20
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for the person you're caring for. It is so much to think about and there are so many different ways that you can fund these things. It is pretty confusing.
00:11:31
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The first thing that lots of people do is jump on the internet and do some research. And there is some really great information on the internet that you can get initially. So the governing body, my aged care, is usually everybody's first stop. They have a reasonably good website for a government website, and that's sort of meant to be the source of truth for all things.
00:11:54
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aged care funding, so both residential and in home. One of the things that I find is that providers also really have good websites that explain things really clearly and help you understand the difference between different types of funding that might be available for you and also what the eligibility and application process might be. We also recommend if that you do need a little bit of extra support that you have a chat to an expert.
00:12:24
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AgeUp Health offers free consultations, for example. We do 15-minute phone consultations for more tailored advice. Or you can always chat to some of the paid experts that are out there. There's a lot of home care advisors or aged care advisors that are available for a fee if you do need something that's more in-depth. So the resources are there, but yes, navigating it all is a bit tricky, particularly when there's competing information out there on the internet.
Home Care Package Funding System
00:12:54
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Yeah, I guess when I, a few years ago when I worked in sort of adjacent sectors, it was kind of also these services that are provided by the council as well as My Aged Care and trying to figure out like, again, it becomes a bit of a postcode lottery, doesn't it? Does it depend on where you live, what you might be eligible for?
00:13:11
Speaker
Not necessarily. So it has in the past been a little bit that way. And indeed, the recent Royal Commission would argue that things haven't always been very well done in aged care. But at the moment, one of the great things about the sector is that they are transforming that what you've mentioned is the Commonwealth Home Support Package funding.
00:13:33
Speaker
is being grandfathered and it's being replaced by what's known as the home care package scheme. And the home care package scheme is designed to be a little bit more equitable in that it is not related to where you live necessarily but more related to how high your needs are or the types of supports that you might need. Well that just sounds like way better than it used to be so I'm glad things are moving in the right direction.
00:13:56
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Yeah, so the Commonwealth Home Support Package Scheme is still around and people are still being approved for in some areas, but many local councils are now giving up that scheme in favour of home care packages, whilst the government always has
00:14:11
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different public timeline announcements, our understanding of what the government is trying to do is to roll that program back within the next 12 months and replace all of that funding with home care package funding. Okay. And so what does that funding get you? So the funding is really flexible. It's approximately between $9,000 and $52,000 per year, depending on your needs.
00:14:36
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And the idea is that you can spend it on anything that supports you to be healthy, safe, or independent at home. So everything from the obvious things like help with your showering or help with your groceries, help with the domestic support, all the way through to things like gardening,
00:14:53
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cooking and meal delivery, supplements and things that keep you healthy such as a Sustagen or Vitamin Z or any of these other kinds of things that you might take to improve your health. Companionship and social support is definitely included as
Eligibility & Financial Assessment for Aged Care
00:15:09
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well. So that could be having transport to social events, having somebody to take you to.
00:15:15
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your church or your mosque and make sure you're engaging with your local community. Aids and equipment is a really good one. So of course, the basics, the wheelchairs and the walkers are covered by the home care package funding. So also home modifications. So for example, helping you to remodel your bathroom so that it's more accessible for when your mobility is declining a little bit and there's less trip hazards around the home.
00:15:41
Speaker
If you can make a case for any purchase keeping you safe and well at home, then the home care package will likely be able to fund it in some way. That's amazing. So then how, like you mentioned quite a big range there in terms of the level of funding. So how do you know what level you're eligible for? Like how do they assess that?
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's a big difference, isn't it? So the way it works is that the government will send an assessor out once you've applied for a home care package to meet with you and determine your needs. As I said, it's designed to be flexible and apply to different situations. So they will consider if you just need a little bit of extra support or daily care, you may still be eligible for a lower level package. Some of the things the assessors look for when they're determining eligibility
00:16:29
Speaker
are things like falls risks or mobility decline, a decline in a person's ability to manage their activities of daily living, things like showering or preparing meals, a decline in cognition such as memory loss and confusion,
00:16:42
Speaker
And they also look for carer burnout, which you mentioned earlier. And this is when the family are struggling to care for mum or dad in the way that mum or dad need to stay at home independently. So that's a really big consideration when the assessor is meeting with you. They look at the individual as a whole and their support networks around them to determine how much funding they might be eligible for. Right. So if you're that person's support person, you'd be there at the assessment.
00:17:09
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What else do you need to bring to that assessment? Do you need medical records? Do you need to show their financial situation at that assessment? No. So at that early stage, it's really all about just qualitative data. So the assessors really just wanting to get to know you as a family and mum or dad as an individual. So understanding what it is that they're struggling with, any key diagnosis that they might have,
00:17:36
Speaker
what their family situation looks like, what a daily routine looks like for them. You don't necessarily need to provide any evidence, although I have heard that having a letter of support from a GP can be helpful. But for the most part, assessors are trained to be able to ask the right questions to determine whether or not this funding is right for you, but also how much of that funding might be beneficial for you.
00:17:59
Speaker
I just wanted to clarify Grace, in terms of when they do that assessment of the finances, is that, do you have to provide anything, or does that, you know, you've provided a Medicare card, you've probably given you the tax file number, do they just look at your finances from all of the records the government has about you and work out, you know, help that with formal eligibility, or do you actually have to provide documents?
00:18:23
Speaker
because this is again where life at home gets tricky, trying to find your financial documents for a parent or an elderly relative. Yeah. So let me start by saying that the home care package is means tested, but not in terms of eligibility. So everybody is eligible for a home care package, no matter what your assets and income is. Once that home care package is approved according to your needs as an individual and your health and independent support requirements,
00:18:51
Speaker
the means testing comes all the way just before or after you've chosen a provider. So once you have that in place, once you've decided to go ahead with the home care package, there is a certain Department of Services Australia that helps a means test for the home care package and determine whether or not you are required to make a contribution towards the subsidy. Full pensioners are usually not required to contribute anything. And that tends to be, you know, that tends to be pretty, I think,
00:19:21
Speaker
aligned with the pensioner standards across Australia for different services. Any income or assets, aside from the home that you live in, will be counted towards that means test and therefore determine if and how much of what's known as an income tested fee you would have to contribute towards your funding. Yeah, and so they're accessing all that data just from tax records and this is the thing I'm curious, do you have to actually provide financial info?
00:19:50
Speaker
Again, it depends. So yes is the short answer. So yes, you would have to provide information if it hasn't already previously been provided by mum or dad to services Australia for other purposes. So for example, if they are on a pension or a part pension, services Australia will already have that information and you won't be required to resubmit.
00:20:12
Speaker
However, if services Australia does not have that information already, then unfortunately it is a bit of a tedious process filling out the means testing application or going through it over the phone with the person on the other end. Yeah. So it'll be similar to the process you go through to apply for the pension, which is, you know, really just income and assets tests. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yes.
00:20:34
Speaker
And so is there a situation where you want a level of assets or income above which is not even worth applying and therefore you could just get services that you pay for yourself without having to go through this assessment process? So the maximum contribution that you can possibly be asked to make is $40 a day. And so that $40 a day will stay the same no matter how much funding you're deemed eligible to get.
00:21:01
Speaker
So what I would say is if you're paying an income tested fee up the higher end towards the $30, $40 mark, and you've only been allocated a level one package, approximately $9,000, then there's just no way that that's worth it.
00:21:14
Speaker
But if you have been allocated that level four package, which is $52,000 a year, and you're still paying that highest bracket of income tested fee, then so long as you're using up the full value of that funding every year on services, then it is worthwhile. Because for every $40 that you pay per day, the government is going to contribute the other $90 a day of subsidy for you.
00:21:40
Speaker
Okay, so that makes sense. Like as you get higher up the chain, it's definitely worth it, irrespective of your assets and income. And so that might be why you start paying even early, just because in case that's how things transpire. That's right. And a good home care provider should be able to give you tailored advice. They should be able to be comfortable telling you that actually it's not worth you taking up the home care package at this level, or it's worth waiting a little bit longer until a high level comes through.
00:22:06
Speaker
or it's, you know, you're better off just privately funding. That's the kind of advice that you want to be looking for from a really decent home care provider or care consultant. So once you've been assessed and you get some sort of
00:22:20
Speaker
I don't know, do you get graded? Do you get a score? I know it sounds so clinical, doesn't it? Of course there's criteria, although we don't have total visibility over that all of the time. And so the assessor themselves will make decisions based on their own expertise, but you will get within a couple of weeks of your assessment, you will get an outcome delivered to you by post about how much funding you are eligible for and how far away that funding might be.
Aged Care Package Waitlists & Early Assessment
00:22:51
Speaker
And so, does that mean you go on a wait list? What's the wait list situation? Oh, the wait list. So, my goodness, this is something that we all have heard of, I think. The wait list for... Big sigh. Big sigh. I know. It's like, where do I start with the wait list?
00:23:10
Speaker
The wait list for a home care package was something that was examined by the recent Royal Permission into aged care. Some people were waiting up to two years once they had been approved for a home care package before the funding was allocated to them.
00:23:23
Speaker
People were obviously passing away while they're waiting on that waitlist, having to move into residential care. It was an absolute nightmare. Since the commission, the situation has gotten a little bit better, but for higher levels of funding, the waitlist can still be up to nine months. That means from the time you're assessed to the time the funding comes through, you may have to manage for that nine months in between, which is another reason I always advocate for getting assessed earlier rather than later.
00:23:51
Speaker
There are some supports available though while you're waiting, including that interim funding that we discussed, which is the CHSP or Commonwealth Home Support Package funding, even though it's being grandfathered, it is still around as I speak today in February 2022.
00:24:06
Speaker
Otherwise, there's other organizations that can provide support. There's a great organization that we work with known as Carer Gateway. They can help with some free services, things like counseling for people who are caring for a loved one, some respite hours for people caring for a loved one, other training and practical supports for those people as well. That's a not-for-profit organization.
00:24:30
Speaker
Providers like us at Age Up Health also provide an hour of free home care a week for anyone on that national home care package waitlist, just as a way of supporting people while they're going through that. What can be quite a challenging time. So once actually the funding comes through, do you get to choose your own provider or how does that work?
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, so the interesting thing about the funding is that whilst it is technically your funding, the government still dictates that you have to have what's known as a provider as an interim body to manage that funding on your behalf.
Selecting the Right Aged Care Provider
00:25:03
Speaker
There are over 900 providers in Australia, so yes, you can choose it, but perhaps there's a little bit too much choice.
00:25:12
Speaker
I'd say as I'm sure you can appreciate that within that sort of 900 range, there are different standards and styles to each provider. So choosing a provider, even after you've gone through all of this, you've gone through the assessment process, you've done the wait list, you've cared for mum and dad and got them to the finish line. Now you have to choose a provider. And cherry on top, once that funding is allocated, the government gives you just 56 days to choose a provider before they take that funding back.
00:25:41
Speaker
So pressure, stress, you know, it's just crazy. Okay. So using that time on the wait list to do all your comparison shopping for your provider, right?
00:25:54
Speaker
That would be my advice. And you will get a letter from the government three months out from when your funding is allocated, which can give you a little bit of a nudge to let you know that now's the right time to start looking. There is a lot to think about, but my advice when choosing a home care provider is first to determine what's your priority for the home care package management. Is your priority that you want to save as much money as possible and have the time and the capability
00:26:20
Speaker
to manage some of the services and receipts and invoices yourself, in which case self-management might be the option for you and you want to be looking for a provider who allows you to self-manage for a lower fee. If your priority is getting as much support and expertise as you can and getting help with making decisions around what kinds of things the funding might be useful for, then ask the providers you speak to how frequently they'll be in touch with you and how often they're going to review the care plan once you're working together.
00:26:49
Speaker
because actually having that communication as my experience turned out to be with my grandparents isn't always everything that it's promised to be. So can I just ask a clarifying question? Of course. Are the providers running the programs and are they the people that are actually employing the staff that might be going to offer the home help or taking people shopping or are they coordinating the contact with those other helpers?
00:27:14
Speaker
Great question. And again, it varies across the organizations just to throw a spanner in the works. So companies like ours, we do, we hire all of our staff and train them and we're the ones that send all those supports out. Others work in a different way where they might coordinate it for you and outsource that care to agency staff or the like. And so again, if that's an arrangement that's going to be meaningful for you, for example, if you
00:27:40
Speaker
have carers in doing medication prompts and you can't have anybody, you know, not showing up or not being replaced, then you then finding out how that provider manages the supports that they're providing for you is going to be really important. Okay, thank you. So I interrupted keep going with that with those other criteria because we're all about
00:27:58
Speaker
with so many aspects of life admin, you've got so much choice and there are so many providers and we're all about what are the criteria I need to make a decision as effectively as possible. So please do keep going. Exactly. Yeah, of course. I think one of the things that of course is really obvious is comparing costs across providers.
00:28:21
Speaker
So when you're trying to do that, when you're trying to compare these costs though, it can get really confusing because there are just so many different fees and charges that companies can charge, which makes it hard to compare Apple's baffles. All providers will charge two types of fees. So everybody will charge a care fee and an administration fee. In total, these fees can range from anywhere between 23% and 40% of your annual funding.
00:28:47
Speaker
But on top of that, many providers will charge what I like to call hidden fees. So that's things like set up fees and exit fees. It can be travel fees, paying for people to actually come to the home on top of the rate that they charge once they get there. Search charges for every purchase that the provider makes on your behalf. So this is often 10% of whatever purchase they're making out of your package they'll take as a cart on top.
00:29:12
Speaker
And some will even charge you every time you call into the office to speak to somebody. So the best advice in terms of trying to get to the bottom of those things is to find a company I would say that doesn't charge any of those hidden fees and is really upfront about this is what we charge and this is what you have to spend.
00:29:30
Speaker
because you want to know exactly how much of your fun are you going to have to use for the things that you need. And so you know in other industries where they'll have like a product disclosure statement or they'll have some templated way that the provider has to provide all the info in a standard way so you can help compare, please tell me this is what happens in the APS sector with these providers.
00:29:50
Speaker
I so wish I could tell you that. Unfortunately, it's just not the case. There is an obligation for home care providers to publish clearly all of their pricing on their websites. Practically, we really see that, which makes comparing so hard because not only are the prices really opaque, but reviews are often quite opaque.
00:30:14
Speaker
Having somebody who's been through this before is always your best source of information because they can tell you at least they can make a recommendation for or against a provider as a starting point. But actually what we find in practicality is that once you are in the stage of comparing providers,
00:30:33
Speaker
The only way to get that information is to be on the phones, calling up individual providers and asking them to disclose that to you. So yeah, that's going to be my question. You know, like with mobile phones, we recommend using whistle out as like a really good comparison website. Is there a website that people can look at for aged care providers? There are a couple of websites out there to look at comparisons, but I have to warn you that many of them
00:31:00
Speaker
are there to make money. So they work in such a way that they have a certain panel of providers that they work with and those writers pay quite a large sum of money to be recommended on their websites. Why? With the iSelect.
00:31:17
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. There is one website that I know of that is less like that, but I will caution that. They also do charge to have an ad posted on the website, but the agedcareguide.com.au tends to be, I would say the more densely populated websites where they represent most of the providers that are out there without any kind of forced selling. That's good to know. So you're getting a better feel that you're seeing
00:31:46
Speaker
you know, a more comprehensive slice of the market. What does the ones that are paying the most to be there? Yeah. Wow. I'm really, I know, I didn't read the aged care Royal Commission report recommendations, but I'm just assuming there was someone there about making that comparison. There are a national comparison website like for private health and soon think so. It thinks so. And instead, you know, you can get yourself a list of all 900 providers in Australia.
00:32:13
Speaker
if you wanted to from the government website, but that doesn't really put you anywhere. What a nightmare. I guess one of the other issues you hear about is the consistency of care where it's really hard to get the same person coming to visit on a regular basis. Is there anything that can be done to secure a consistent carer? Are some providers better than others with this?
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah, it is such a challenge.
Consistent Care & Provider Staff Impact
00:32:40
Speaker
Having someone in your home is so personal, even if it's just having them do the cleaning, they're still in your home. And I think we all know what it's like when you have a tradie in the house, you just feel a little bit, you know, uncomfortable. There's someone, a stranger in your home, they're leaving mud on the mat and then they're going out again and you kind of have to air the lounge room out with them doing the work. That's what it's like when you have somebody coming into your home day in, day out, helping you with your daily life.
00:33:06
Speaker
And so that consistency in that relationship is just such an important part of a good experience. It's true that that consistency is not always there for most people and their experience is that they have, you know, a horde of different people coming in every day to help with their showers or to help with their cooking or whatever it might be. This is definitely a question to ask the provider when you're first doing your research.
00:33:31
Speaker
My experience is that providers who hire and train their own workforce and who pay them well and treat them well are the ones that are going to keep their staff for longer and therefore be able to provide more consistency for you. While it seems like something that you shouldn't have to worry about, this transient workforce that we have in HK
00:33:51
Speaker
It is a high turn of the workforce and often they're not treated very well. It's a job that's reserved for what we in society see as a dead end job. And it shouldn't be that way. And I don't believe that that's the case.
00:34:05
Speaker
Unfortunately, that's the status quo here in Australia at the moment. So understanding what that relationship is between the provider and the people coming to your home is going to be a key part of your research. Yeah, excellent. Thank you. So we've talked a bit about needing to get paperwork together, and I guess you're going to get numbers and registration forms and all sorts of things. Is there any recommendations you have about how to manage all this paperwork? And I guess if you're the carer,
00:34:32
Speaker
What do you need to be able to, I guess, contact my aged care or the provider? Do you need a power of returning? What's the legal standing?
00:34:40
Speaker
and what online systems are there, all those things. Tell us the life admin associated with this.
Organizing Aged Care Paperwork
00:34:48
Speaker
So the good news is that there is some online systems available to make an application and to take those first steps registering my little dad with my aged kid. The second bit of good news is that you don't need a power of attorney or any kind of formal representation to be able to speak on my dad's behalf.
00:35:05
Speaker
And that first call, you just need to set up a record from mum or dad, giving you approval to be a representative and to speak for them. So that anytime you call My Aged Care, they should keep all the records at their side. You can identify yourself, or mum or dad can identify themselves if they're calling, and they should be able to just pick up where they left off before. That works fairly well, I have to say, again, in terms of government systems, the people at My Aged Care are generally pretty good. In terms of managing paperwork, My Aged Care,
00:35:34
Speaker
We'll send you about 3,000 letters in a year in the post. So many of which are some key letters.
00:35:43
Speaker
So keep them in file, you know. Can you opt on? Can you optionally also just get the email? I'm sure that we could have an extra rainforest in the world if my age care went to email. But the good news is that at least they keep you informed, right? So you'll know what's happening and if you ever lose that mail or if mum or dad doesn't get it or they lose it, you can quickly and easily call and find out where things are at.
00:36:11
Speaker
All of this, of course, can be done online as well. There are forms on the My Aged Care website that you can fill out to refer somebody, to have somebody call back mom or dad for you, just to hopefully save you a bit of time on the phone during the day. I should have laughed. I mean, they know their audience, not all of their... They do. ...uses are going to be digitally savvy, so you put it in the post. So it does sound a little bit overwhelming. It's been great chatting to you and I guess
00:36:41
Speaker
You know, one of the sometimes when these topics are illuminating but terrifying all in one. So I feel a little bit like that category. So what sort of services does, you know, age up health provide that can help us out in terms of, you know, sharing the load, I guess, of sorting out these issues?
Services by AgeUp Health
00:36:56
Speaker
I 100% agree. It's like the more, you know, the worse it gets sometimes. Yeah, it's not a comforting situation. But as I said, the good news is there is lots of people out there who do know the system and you can help and Asia Health is definitely one of those companies. So there are a couple of services we provide. As I mentioned, we do provide the free home care for people who are already on the national waiting list. And during that time, when you're working with our carers, we're always available to chat to you about different things.
00:37:26
Speaker
But if you're right at the beginning of your journey, my recommendation is jump on our website and book in a time to speak to one of our care consultants. We do free, no obligation, 15 minute phone sessions where you can ask all the questions that you have and just get an idea of what the starting point is for you and for your personal situation. From there, I would recommend locking in your provider early who you want to work with so that you can get them to help you along the way even
00:37:54
Speaker
from application all the way through to getting your income tested fee sorted right at the very end. Right, so even before, like, assessments happened, you'd find that provider. Okay, well that's good to know. I would, yeah, and look, you're never obligated to stay with that provider, but at least they can, if they're good, and if they're good at what they do, they can help you along the journey and give you advice along the way. Oh, okay. And are there other government websites or resources that are useful beyond myagedcare.gov.au?
00:38:25
Speaker
In terms of government websites, I would say, the only other, I think I mentioned Carer Gateway during our chat today. Carer Gateway is a really helpful website in terms of what support you can get as a carer of a loved one. But aside from that, the government is perhaps not the best source of information for these things. So again, I reiterate that there are lots of great websites from providers out there that try to explain these things in a really easy to understand way.
Additional Resources for Aged Care Information
00:38:53
Speaker
And that's one thing that they do do well. Big companies have great marketing departments and they can help us all to understand what's happening. And of course, Age of Health has a bunch of resources, our website as well. Grace, thank you so much for sharing your experience and ideas with us today. It's been great. It's my absolute pleasure. I hope it's been helpful. And if we can support even just a few more people to get help earlier, then I've achieved my goal. So where can our listeners find you if they want to know more?
00:39:21
Speaker
So all of the things that I've spoken about today can be found at our website, so that's ageuphealth.com.au. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeandminlifehacks.com. And if you're a fan, please subscribe and share the love and tell a friend, or review us in your podcasting app. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
00:39:50
Speaker
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