The following family stories will tell you about
the type of work that our aged care placement service is completing on a daily basis.

Family Story 1: Sheila

From the family home to dementia specific care.

Suzanne contacted Aged Care Connect because her mother, Sheila, had been diagnosed with dementia and her father, Terence, was no longer able to care for Sheila as he was becoming increasingly frail.

Sheila had been assessed as eligible for dementia specific high level care. The recent times had been very challenging for the family and they were looking for appropriate solutions to a very stressful time.

Suzanne is a busy professional who lives interstate. Her brothers and sisters were also busy professionals. They all wanted to find the very best accommodation and care available, and wanted some assistance. This was a very difficult time for the family who had to come to terms with a major task in their lives.

Suzanne contacted Liz, the Manager at Aged Care Connect, and they talked about the situation. Suzanne had some nursing homes in mind that she wanted Liz's team to report on and also asked for Liz's own thoughts based on her knowledge and experience of aged care. After speaking with Liz and checking with her siblings, Suzanne engaged Aged Care Connect to prepare a Shortlist Report.

Liz immediately got to work and ruled out homes that currently or in the past have provided sub-standard care or have unsuitable buildings. Liz then ruled out homes that do not provide dementia specific care.

With the homes left, Liz went through a short-listing process identifying those that best meet Sheila's needs and preferences based on what Suzanne had told her.

Aged Care Connect has built up a valuable database about aged care homes with information from a range of reputable sources.

(The Aged Care Connect database is not based upon any advertising model and contains minimal marketing hyperbole. The Aged Care Connect database is simply based upon quality research and valuable feedback and comments provided by our past family clients who have been residents at the homes).

By referring to the database and getting in contact with some of the aged care homes, Liz was able to identify some aged care homes to recommend that met all of Sheila's needs and preferences.

In the shortlist, Liz provided information about the owners of the homes (whether for-profit or not-for-profit; their reputation and experience; and their history of compliance), the accommodation at the home, the care provided at the home, the lifestyle services provided at the home, the fees and charges, and the current availability / waiting list situation.

Suzanne and her siblings had already looked at one of the homes Liz recommended and the information in the Report reassured them they were on the right track and helped with their decision-making.

They eventually accepted a place in that recommended home for Sheila.

Family Story 2: Duncan

Accommodation Bond Negotiation

Simon's Father, Duncan, had recently moved into a new low care hostel. The family were quite happy with the home and the services provided.

Duncan is a self- funded retiree, having successfully started and managed a business in the past, and being very canny with his investments had amassed an impressive list of assets and income stream over the years.

The financial manager at the aged care home was requesting a significant accommodation bond ($750,000), which was initially and loosely based on the assumption that there was capacity to pay.

Simon (EPOA) asked Ron from Aged Care Connect to describe all of the aspects of the accommodation bond, and to provide an understanding what the median bonds in the local area are, what other residents have been paying to enter the same or similar facilities and why his much loved Father, Duncan, seemed to be unfairly targeted to pay this large accommodation bond amount.

Ron explained all of this to Simon, gave very valuable insights into "Accommodation Bonds 101" and also gave an overview of why the Productivity Commission was recently asked to investigate the current situation with financials in residential care, to explain the changes that will be made to the system.

Most importantly, Ron explained that he could assist with arranging Duncan's accommodation bond. Simon engaged Ron to help.

Ron contacted the home and, through a series of phone calls and emails was able to place Duncan as a permanent resident at the home, but paying a bond of $450,000.

While the home would have preferred the higher bond amount, they were still agreeable to this figure. This was an effective saving to Duncan and the family of $300,000 x 9% pa or $27,000 per year, for each year that Duncan is a resident.

Simon was understandably pleased with the result (so was the canny Duncan), and Simon has since referred one of his own business colleagues to Ron to assist them as well.

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Family Story 3: Ray

Hostel placement from hospital

John contacted Aged Care Connect as his father-in-law, Ray, was in a rehabilitation hospital and would shortly need to move to an aged care home. Ray is a 93 year old gentleman who had been living alone since his wife passed away about 12 months prior. Ray had a fall at home and fractured his hip. After a period of rehabilitation Ray was assessed as needing hostel, low level care and accommodation.

John asked Ron from Aged Care Connect to phone Ray and make a time to meet him. Initially Ray thought the meeting could wait a couple of weeks and declined to make an appointment. Ray called Ron back a few days later on a Thursday quite distressed as the hospital staff told him he needed to leave sooner rather than later.

Ron met with Ray's family that Saturday morning at the hospital coffee shop and then at Ray's bed, with some of his family members in attendance.

Ray engaged Aged Care Connect to provide an aged care placement package assisting with all aspects of placement.

During the meeting Ron explained the fees and charges in aged care homes and talked about what Ray could expect a hostel to be like.

Ron also found out about Ray needs and preferences to help find a hostel that would be suitable for him and meet his expectations. Ray was very clear that he wanted the hostel to be close to a particular daughter and son-in-law; that he wanted "a nice standard of accommodation"; and he wanted to find a placement quickly.

After the meeting Ron returned to the Aged Care Connect office and undertook a search in the database. He came up with a shortlist of five homes with modern accommodation, including single rooms with ensuite, and contacted them to find out about vacancies. Three of the homes had vacancies and would be willing to meet with Ray and consider offering him a room.

Ron prepared a report with her recommendations and delivered it to Ray on the Tuesday after the meeting. Ray discussed the report with family members and then contacted Ron to say he wanted to visit one of the homes in particular.

Ron contacted the director of nursing (DON) of that home and arranged a time to visit on the Friday. The DON met Ray and John at the home and helped them feel comfortable looking around and asking questions.

The DON had worked with Aged Care Connect in the past, and was pleased because the DON knew that the family had already been informed by a third party about the homes services, fees and good reputation; which made the process easier for the DON.

At the aged care home Ron met privately with Ray who said he wanted to take the room.

Ron then spoke with the DON and brought the two together to finalise the accommodation bond negotiations.

Ray was offered the room that day and moved in the following Monday.

In the intervening time, Ron made sure that the home's entry paperwork for Ray was correctly completed and submitted it to the home so that all the information was there when he arrived.

As a direct result of John getting in touch with Aged Care Connect, it was possible to arrange a placement for Ray within a very short timeframe. This meant that Ray and his family did not have to experience ongoing pressure from the hospital to vacate the room.

Having Ron from Aged Care Connect involved also meant Ray did not have to rely as heavily on his family members and this made him feel more independent.

Family Story 4: Giuliana

Hospital to Nursing home placement

Tony rang Aged Care Connect for assistance as his mother, Giuliana, urgently needed placement in a nursing home.

Giuliana had been living in a hostel (low level care) for three years and ended up in hospital after fracturing her hip as a result of a fall. While in hospital Giuliana was assessed by the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) as in need of nursing home placement.

As Giuliana was medically stable, the hospital wanted her to leave. The hospital was not able to help Tony find a placement for his mother as Tony wanted to move her outside of the hospital's catchment area to be closer to him.

Liz from Aged Care Connect spoke with Tony on the phone to find out about Giuliani's situation - her care needs and preferences - and to get some information about the preferred area for placement. Tony explained that Giuliana spoke Italian only and he wanted to find a nursing home with Italian speaking staff and a higher number of residents with similar background to his Mother.

Tony had already contacted the two Italian ethno-specific nursing homes and they did not have vacancies. Tony said that the hospital was putting a great deal of pressure on him to move his mother out of the hospital so the need for placement was urgent. Liz asked Tony to provide a copy of the ACAT approval forms and he did so on Thursday. By Friday Liz had a short-list of homes that met the criteria Tony had spoken about.

By Monday morning Liz had identified that two of those homes had vacancies and would be willing to offer placement to Giuliana. Liz contacted Tony who went and visited the two homes. After visiting the homes Tony had a further discussion with Liz on the phone and he decided to take one of the placements. Giuliana moved in on Tuesday.

Aged Care Connect is able to assist people who need to find an aged care placement urgently. In some cases, even shorter timeframes than described above have been achieved.

Family Story 5: Henry and Margaret

Interstate aged care placement

Karen contacted Aged Care Connect for assistance with aged care placement for her father and step-mother (Henry and Margaret) that lived in their own house in a retirement village in South East Queensland. Her step-mother was being cared for by her father.

Unfortunately her father's health had been declining, which meant that both her father and step-mother needed more help with the Activities of Daily Living (ADL's) - personal hygiene, cooking, cleaning the house among other things.

Karen had undertaken the research a few years earlier to help her father and step-mother find a suitable retirement village and she suspected it would be just as difficult to find a suitable aged care home for them to live in. Karen is a busy professional and wanted to save herself some time and effort. She was interested in booking an Aged Care Consultation to help her understand the aged care system.

Karen had organised to fly to Queensland to visit her father and step-mother the coming weekend. Liz from Aged Care Connect was able to accommodate Karen's request for an urgent Aged Care Consultation.

Liz met Karen at her house a few days later in the early evening and they were joined by Karen's sister. Over the next hour and a half, Liz explained what is available in aged care (accommodation types, care and services), what the fees and charges are for aged care, and what steps need to take to find and secure a placement in an aged care home.

Liz provided Karen with an information package so that she felt free to absorb information during the meeting rather than spending time writing notes. Karen and her sister had some questions, which Liz was able to answer for them.

Karen and her sister thanked Liz for the information and said they now understand what the options are for Henry and Margaret.

Karen had all the information she needed to be able to initiate a conversation that weekend with her father and step-mother about the need to consider moving to an aged care home.

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Aged Care Placement - Family Stories and Case Studies

Family Story 1: Sheila From the family home to dementia specific care.

Family Story 2: Duncan Accommodation Bond Negotiation

Family Story 3: Ray Hostel placement from hospital

Family Story 4: Giuliana Hospital to Nursing home placement

Family Story 5: Henry and Margaret Interstate aged care placement

Family Story 1: Sheila

From the family home to dementia specific care.

Family Story 2: Duncan

Accommodation Bond Negotiation

Family Story 3: Ray

Hostel placement from hospital

Family Story 4: Giuliana

Hospital to Nursing home placement

Family Story 5: Henry and Margaret

Interstate aged care placement