It’s never too early to find out about the aged care services and support that are available before you need them. This way you will be prepared to make decisions about your future when the time comes.
More details are available through the My Aged Care website – myagedcare.gov.au and the information phone line on 1800 200 422.
Annette McNee: A Home Care Package is a co-ordinated package of services for people so that they can maintain the quality of life and really it helps them to stay home. Bernard: I have a choice, I have a choice to change the package i’m on. I looked at the Aged Care website. I’ve looked at the Aged Care plan and I’m on level two and now the girls come in every morning. There’s not a lot more i can say on that. It’s just that it’s a great thing, great package. I love it. Lloyd: A lady comes every day and puts these compression stockings on. Mary: It’s such a good system. Anything you want to know about what’s going on or what is available to you is on the My Aged Care website. Diana: I think our lives would have been so restricted. It changed our lives. Annette McNee: The new home care reforms are fantastic in that as much as before people had coice in who and when and where the services were delivered but they didn’t have a choice of who delivered them, the service provider. These new Home Care Reforms will give people their choice in who their service provider is. Once upon a time those service providers would be allocated a package. Now the older person will have the package allocated to them. They can then choose their service provider. You can control who oversees your package, who delivers your care, who meets your needs best and who will make sure that your package is delivered in the most efficient manner. People are given that control, that if they’re unhappy with the provider, they can change. Paul Sadler: We’re looking at the changes to My Aged Care and to Home Care Packages which really will involve consumers having much more choice about who provides their service and how it’s provided to them. For providers that’s going to mean we have a greater choice and how we innovate, how we provide services and how we really provide personalised services to older people. What they do is they give us an opportunity as a provider to put the older person and their family at the centre of everything that we’re doing because we can react much more flexibly and provide the sorts of services that older people want and we’re in a market place. We will be out there competing with other providers to provide a really high quality service that attracts older people and their family carers. Annette McNee: I always say to people My Aged Care is where you go for information. If you’re not familiar with the computers and technology, ring the My Aged Care number and you’ll get as much information as you need.
