Caring for Elderly Parents | Elderly Care | Elder

Seniors who are no longer able to live independently at the comfort of their own home may find Residential Aged Care an appropriate opportunity to get the services and the accommodations they need 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The Australian government has made it affordable and more accessible to those who might need it the most.

Overview

Residential Aged Care is for residents who want to benefit from healthcare they need that they cannot avail at the comfort of their homes. They offer accommodation and healthcare to the elders so they can maintain good well-being and good health. One must be an approved resident before he or she will be subsidized by the government to avail aged care. There will be an assessment team that will approve possible care recipients and people can apply for such assessment through a website.

A Residential Aged Care provides the seniors on the following:

  1. Daily tasks— such as cleaning, laundry, and cooking.
  2. Personal hygiene care— Bathing, dressing, going to the toilet, and other hygiene matters to attend to.
  3. Healthcare— having residential aged care makes clinical care, therapy, and prescription check-ups more accessible.
  4. Social needs— the elders also need to have social and emotional support. For instance, simply having a welcoming atmosphere in a LGBTI friendly aged care provider will help maintain their physical and emotional well being. Entertainment and leisure should also be available so they can still find time to enjoy their smiles.

As good as they might be, the government will only fund those residential aged care that is approved and are able to meet the quality standards set. This is to ensure that the seniors are getting the best services they could get that is worth every penny they spent.

Costing

The cost usually varies from one residential aged care to the other. They all have basic daily fees to start with.

You can consider the following factors as determinants of possible cost if you are planning to get one:

  1. Income— Residential aged care can base the costing as what is determined by Services Australia and your income. This means that they can offer you something as per how you can be able to pay for it as a means-tested fee or an accommodation contribution.
  2. Agreement— Most instances, the provider and the resident can have an agreement on what type of accommodation and care they may avail as what is only needed by the resident and the means he or she may be able to avail it.

In the costing procedure, each home usually sets and publishes room costs up to a refundable deposit of $550,000 that is the equivalent daily payment. Approval lasts for four years from its approval date and if there is a need for you to renew your approval, you must apply to an Aged Care Pricing Commissioner who can help you with costing, applying for a subsidized place, and how much a resident can pay using fee calculator.

If you are an approved provider, you can read more about fees and charges that you can charge to the clients and the government subsidies and supplements you can receive for delivering services. Since only the Australian government can approve residential aged care providers, they can be rest assured that they will be provided the best services. Seniors who are looking for short-term and respite care can look for these approved providers through My Aged Care. For Respite care, residents or carers were able to take a break from their usual care arrangements This can be planned or on an emergency basis with 63 days of subsidized care on one financial year. He or she can extend it until 21 days more.

More about Residential Aged Care

With the Aged Care Act 1997, the Department of Health approves only those who are highly capable to deliver the services to those who need it the most. They allocate places and capital grants to providers through the Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR). ACAR allows the government to plan the number of residential aged care and Short-term and Respite Care places it can subsidize. With the aging population, ACAR makes sure that subsidies can be increased for these people who need them, equally, across regional and remote areas. ACAR is focused on priority needs—giving only the most needed care for the elders.

For funding concerns, The government wants to make sure that the funding can be further improved. This is to ensure fairer, and stable funding for the residents as they consider the assessment. The assessment must be also accurate so that the care workers can focus and spend more time delivering the most effective and efficient services they can offer while enhancing their health and well-being.