Major changes to aged care start today
Peter Scutt is the CEO and Founder of Better Caring, an online platform where people with a disability or those who are ageing can find and hire local care and support workers. This is the second part of his Q&A about the government changes to aged care. Read part one here.
What kinds of services are offered under Consumer Directed Care?
The flexibility of consumer directed care is opening up new possibilities for people to reimagine traditional notions of aged care. Our clients are using our platform to build teams of support that suit their life and priorities – with everything from traditional supports such as nursing, personal support and domestic assistance – to support with reigniting a passion or learning a new skill. We have workers on the platform who are supporting clients with travel opportunities, and others who specialise in teaching client’s computer skills. It’s also allowing clients to access care when and how they would like – whether it’s ad hoc or regular care. We’ve had clients engaging a care worker as a one-off to take them out to a festival, and another who engaged a care worker to spend some ‘girl time’ with his wife while he attended dance classes.
We hear that Consumer Directed Care is about providing greater choice and control for when it comes to accessing support they need to live independently. How can this “choice" for consumers be demonstrated?
The choice is not only about what care is provided and when, it’s also about who. Increasingly, people are going to choose an individual care worker ahead of a provider. Unlike traditional models, where a large provider is generally rostering care and support workers to service a range of clients, models like Better Caring allow consumers to foster a direct relationship with their workers. This connection is what great care relationships are about, and it enables clients to choose workers not only because they have the right availability, skills and experience, but also because they have shared interests or a good personality or cultural fit. Our platform allows clients to choose a worker who loves pets, can speak a particular language, shares their love of museums or who have taken a course in care for LGBTI clients. It’s this kind of choice that consumers have never seen before.
How do the services differ under Consumer Directed Care?
Increasingly, Australians want to stay at home as long as possible and remain active in their community as they age. Consumer Directed Care is designed to enable them to make decisions about how they do this in a way that works for them and their life. This could include physical activities, transport, social activities. Increasingly, we are also seeing consumers looking to their own communities to find the support they need – whether that be from a neighbour, or friend. We have seen clients using the Better Caring platform to easily engage these friends and neighbours to provide them with transport and domestic assistance, helping their government funding to go further.
Where can consumers go for more information?
We encourage consumers visit us at Better Caring to find out about how we work. The government is set to launch a new portal on 27 February, but in the meantime, consumers can also find some information on the My Aged Care website.
Related links:
How to spot and prevent 4 age-related health conditions
Why too much relaxation in old age can be a bad thing
Lower your stroke risk with a tipple