Before joining Happy Living, Mrs. Li was using another Home Care Package Provider.
Her reason behind getting a Home Care Package was because she didn’t consider herself a “ young person anymore, and there are a lot of things that I can’t accomplish by myself. I was hoping that someone could give me a hand since I had been issued a Home Care Package.”
The Home Care Package Provider Mrs. Li was with at that time stated that she would be assigned a dedicated Case Manager to solve every single problem when using her Home Care Package.
“They told me that in Australia, older Chinese people are not able to handle a lot of things themselves. That we are not like kids, who are fast learners, and it would be too hard for us to pick up new stuff.”
Mrs. Li said she felt disappointed when she heard this from her previous Provider which made her look elsewhere.
‘Overall responsibility’ or ‘overall constraints’?
After joining that Provider, Mrs. Li had some weekly home care services arranged for her and was assigned in-house service personnel by her Case Manager.
However, she felt a bit let down because she did not have the ability to make her own decisions when using her own Home Care Package.
She had to go with the arrangements of the Home Care Package Provider, which made her feel restricted.
For example, it was the in-house Home Care service team who provided her services, and because of this, Mrs. Li felt scared to be an inconvenience to her Case Manager despite the Care Workers not doing their job.
She also disliked the fact that she had to be accompanied by her Care Worker as her appointed Chinese medicine practitioner was not within her proximity.
Not only was this an extra expense out of her Home Care Package, but it was also a draining experience.
Self-managing does not mean ‘doing everything on your own’.
After transferring to Happy Living, Mrs. Li noticed that her experience was a lot better than her previous Provider.
According to Mrs. Li, since joining Happy Living, she has been assigned her own dedicated Care Manager who helps her manage her Home Care Package efficiently.
A Care Plan and specific care goals were developed based on Mrs. Li’s individual care needs when she signed up and she only needs to arrange her services based on these goals.
Mrs. Li is able to choose her own Care Workers, some of which were referred to her by friends, and others were chosen online.
Her Care Manager will contact these service workers directly to conduct a review before they start providing services for Mrs. Li.
All of Mrs. Li’s service personnel speak Chinese, and therefore Mrs. Li is able to communicate with them directly whenever she needs to.
In 2017, the Australian government amended the Consumer Directed Care (CDC) legislation within the Aged Care industry, which decided that older Australians should be entitled to more power of choice and control when it came to their Home Care Package.
This is where the self-management model comes from as it was designed to acknowledge older people’s entitlements rather than restrictions.
The model itself was launched by the government targeting most of the Home Care Package users, which are older Australians.
Happy Living has been emphasising that the self-management model is suitable for a lot of Home Care Package holders to use as it allows them to have more flexibility and choice.
If you would like to learn more about a Home Care Package, don’t hesitate to reach out to our friendly Care Expert team on 1300 911 728.
