If you have a loved one living with dementia and are looking for additional support for them to continue living independently in the home, a Home Care Package is what might suit you best.
What is a Home Care Package?
A Home Care Package (HCP) is one of the ways that older Australians can access affordable care services to get some help at home. They are designed for those with more complex care needs. Once you have cleared the eligibility requirements for a home care package and have been assigned one, you can use it to find support services via Mable.
Everyone who receives a government-funded home care package has the option to ‘self-manage’ it. Self-managing your Home Care Package means you make most of your own choices about how your money is used to best meet your needs. That includes choosing the people who support you, what they do and when.
Find out how self-managing a Home Care Package works through Mable and how it can help you get more out of your funding paying lower administration fees.
What services can you use with your Home Care Package?
Through Mable, you can book independent support workers to help you with a range of services, including cleaning, meal preparation, personal assistance, companionship, social outings, maintaining the home, pet care, laundry, gardening or higher-level care like respite care, clinical care, medication prompting and even round the clock care.
Finding dementia support using your Home Care Package
As defined by Dementia Australia, dementia is an extremely broad set of symptoms, affecting nearly 1 in 10 people over the age of 65. Dementia is often used as a general term when talking about the cognitive decline associated with ageing – and it has many causes.
Typically, persons with dementia experience memory loss (the severity depends on how far the condition has progressed), confusion, disorientation, difficulty concentrating or executing daily tasks that they earlier found easy or enjoyable. As such, they may need any or all of the following types of support:
- Assistance with day to day tasks such as cleaning, washing, personal care, cooking
- Driving to appointments or work (if they choose to continue with employment)
- Staying physically and mentally active through exercises, participating in activities or outings they typically enjoy
- Help with administering medications
- Respite care for family members or loved ones who are also supporting them
With your home care package, you can find dementia support through Mable for any or all these services to help your loved one live as independently as possible in their home.
You can search for and book Independent Support Workers in your local area through Mable.
FAQs
How is self-managing a Home Care Package different?
Self-management gives you the power to make your own decisions around the services you need. For a start, you can choose and engage your own service providers and health professionals directly to suit your particular needs. You might want someone who lives locally, speaks your language, shares your interests, can meet your scheduling requirements, or meet any other expectations you might have.
Is there anything a Home Care Package won’t pay for?
A Home Care Package doesn’t include funding for things like day-to-day bills, food, rent or mortgage payments, gambling, holidays, entertainment, health care already covered by Medicare or Pharmaceutical Benefits and programs already funded or subsidised by the government.
What safeguards do I have access to if I register with Mable?
A range of safeguards are in place to build trust, and offer safety, protection and peace of mind for the entire Mable Community. For the safety of our community, all independent support workers, before they are approved and available on the Mable platform, are required to undergo police checks, training and other rigorous checks. Find out more about safeguards on the Mable website.
