Aged care
If you are over the age of 65 years and you need support services to maintain you independence and stay in your home longer, call My Aged Care to register your name on phone 1800 200 422 and ask them for Home Support Assessment.
Regional Assessment Service Team will call you and make appointment to see you at your home. Assessment stuff work with you to identify and access appropriate supports you need to promote and enhance your independence at home and your community. At assessment process they will let you know for which type of government-funded aged care you are eligible. These are:
- Short-term restorative care. Short term care services in the home or residential care settings for situations such as restorative care (return to independence)
- Entry-level support at home. Ongoing or short-term care and support services through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme including help with housework, personal care, meals and food preparation, transport, shopping, allied health, social support and planned respite (giving your carer a break).
- More complex support at home. Four levels of consumer directed coordinated packages of services through the Home Care Packages Program including personal care, support services and nursing, allied health and clinical services.
- Residential aged care. Personal and nursing care in aged care homes for older people unable to live independently in their own homes. This also includes residential respite for short stay in an aged care home.
Assessment stuff will work with you to develop a support plan. The support plan will help you identify your strengths, your areas of difficulty, and what you would like to achieve. The plan will enable you and the assessor to identify the types of support that will best suit you to achieve your desired outcome. This assistance may be provided by services, or may be support that’s already available in your community.
Your support plan will be sent to you following your assessment. If you have any questions or concerns with details in your support plan please contact your assessor.
If required and with your permission, your assessor will make referrals on your behalf to service providers as discussed at you assessment. Your support plan contains the contact details of the service providers where referrals have been sent. The service provider will contact you to discuss the commencement of your service. They may come to visit you in your home to discuss your service. You may wish to contact the service provider directly on the number provided in your support plan.
After your Home Support Assessment you may be referred to a service provider to provide you with assistance. If you require any changes to this service call the service provider directly.
If your health or situation changes significantly you may need a review or a new assessment with the My Aged Care Regional Assessment Service. To organize a review or new assessment you can call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or the Regional Assessment Service who completed your assessment.
As an aged care consumer, you have access to the My Aged Care Client portal available through the myGov website.
To log into the client portal or view the My Aged Care Client Portal user guide, go to: www.myagedcare.gov.au/login-using-mygov
If you don’t have access to the internet you can call the My Aged Care Contact Centre 1800 200 422 to update and access information about you on My Aged Care.
Regional Assessment Service aims to provide a quality assessment service. They welcome your feedback to help them to improve their services to you.
If you provide feedback or complain
- You have the right to provide feedback and to have your complain investigating objectively,
- Your concern will be taken seriously and followed up.
- Your feedback or complaint will not impact on the services you receive.
- You are encouraged to raise issues as early as possible to clear up misunderstandings and to resolve issues early.
- Please contact us if you need someone to communicate or advocate on your behalf or contact the Aged Care Advocacy Service 1800 700 600.
Your Rights and Responsibilities
People receiving assessment services by a Victorian RAS have:
- The right to respect for individual human worth and dignity
- Right to be treated with courtesy
- The right to be assessed for access to services without discrimination
- The right to be informed and consulted about all available services known to the RAS and other relevant matters
- The right to be of decisions made about their care
- The right to choose from available alternatives
- The right to pursue any complaint about service provision without retribution
- The right to involved and advocate of their choice
- The right to receive a high-quality assessment service
- The right to privacy and confidentiality, and access to information kept about themselves through appropriate channels.
People receiving assessment services by a Victorian RAS have a responsibility:
- To respect the human worth and dignity of Regional Assessment Service staff
- To treat Regional Assessment Service staff with courtesy
- For the result of any decisions they make
- To provide a safe work environment for Regional Assessment Service staff.
In providing Home Support Assessment services, Victorian RAS outlets have a responsibility:
- To respect the independence and dignity of the home support assessment recipient,
- To ensure that the service recipient’s access to an assessment is decided only on the basis of need,
- To inform service recipients about options for support in line with their goals, needs and eligibility,
- To inform service recipients of their right and responsibilities in relation to Home Support Assessment,
- To be responsive to the diverse social, cultural and physical experiences and needs of service recipients,
- To inform service recipients of potential fees that they may be expected to pay for services,
- To respect the privacy and confidentiality of the service recipient,
- To allow the service recipient access to information held by the funded organization,
- To deliver home support assessment services to the service recipient in a safe manner,
- To recognize the role of carers and be responsive to their need for support,
- To allow the carer access to information held by the provider about the service recipient where the carer is the legal guardian or has been so authorized by the service recipient,
- To respect a service recipient’s refusal of a service and to ensure any future attempt by the service recipient to access assessment services is not prejudiced because of that refusal,
- To accept the service recipient’s choice and involvement of an advocate to represent his or her interests,
- To deal with service recipient’s complaints fairly and promptly and without retribution,
- To mediate and attempt to negotiate a solution if conflict arises between the carer and the older person,
- To ensure that the service recipient continues to receive services agreed with the provider, taking the service recipient’s changing needs into account.
