Background
Moving house is known to be one of the most stressful life events. Moving to an aged care home - nursing home or hostel - is even more stressful.
One of the reasons for this is the aged care system is extremely complex and constantly changing and yet there is a lack of support and assistance available to help people make the move.
Just a few of the complexities are that nursing homes and hostels may:
- be run by for-profit, not-for-profit or government organisations
- provide high-level care, low-level care, respite care, dementia specific care or a mix
- stand-alone or be part of a large multi-tiered residential complex
- cater only to people from particular religious, language, cultural or ethnic groups
- provide extra hotel type services
and while most aged care homes provide high quality accommodation, care and services – some do not. There are also aged care fees and charges to consider.
Finding a suitable nursing home or hostel is difficult. Some people are lucky enough to be given a recommendation or a list of vacancies by someone they trust. The challenge is working out whether a nursing home or hostel is the best (or even a good) option for the particular person in need of aged care placement. An added challenge may present if the person is in hospital and pressure is placed on the family to quickly locate and accept a placement. It is hard to make a good choice in these circumstances.
Support and assistance to understand the aged care system and find a suitable nursing home or hostel, quickly if needed, is generally not available through the public system. This is why private aged care placement services like Finding Aged Care exist. Private aged care placement services are not for everyone, as there are costs involved, but for those who can afford to pay it can ease them through a difficult time and reduce the stress of moving to a nursing home or hostel.