Independence at Home

This week at MHC we are looking at Independence at home - helping our older people to remain in their homes with services to support them. Research shows that older Australians are much happier when they are in their own environment, feeling independent and not feeling like they are a burden on their family and friends. 

There are many services in our region that can facilitate our older people to live at home, help with the tasks that might be difficult for them, assist them with getting them out of their home and help them stay connected with their community. A big shout out to these services as they are invaluable for our older people and their families. 

Our key topics for this week are: Maintaining social ties, maintaining a healthy and active mind, ensuring you have access to services to support you, how your GP can help you stay and support you at home and planning for your future. 

We have really enjoyed focusing on our older Australians so far and we hope you have enjoyed following us while we touch on some subjects that warrant a look at. 

One of the first steps our GP would encourage is to arrange a referral for an ACAT assessment. The Aged Care Assessment Team will come to the home and look at what packages might be beneficial for you or your family member. 

Aged Care Assessment Team 

ACAT assessments are a comprehensive assessment of a person’s physical, medical, psychological and social needs, and they identify whether people have activity limitations in 10 specific activities (self-care, movement, moving around, communication, health care tasks, transport, social or community participation, domestic duties, meal preparation and home maintenance). 

ACAT Recommendations for the future

ACAT assessments make recommendations regarding future needs and support services. This includes recommendations for assistance for specific activity limitations, and for specific government aged care programs or supports, as well as recommending the most appropriate long-term care setting for the person assessed.

Recent statistics from the AIHW found that almost all completed ACAT assessments identified limitations that required the help or support of another person in more than one of these activities—there were only 1,955 (1.1%) assessments where the person was assessed as having no limitation in any activity. Most commonly, assessments identified activity limitations in domestic duties (95% of all completed ACAT assessments), transport for getting to and from places (90%) and social or community participation (88%). 

It is important to remember that this is a process that takes time. Speaking to your GP, having your GP write a referral and starting this process as early as you can is imperative. Often our older Australians are waiting a significant amount of time before they can access at home services. This just reinforces how important it is to have conversations early and make plans for the future, so that you are not left waiting for a service when you really need it. 

If you have been thinking about getting an ACAT assessment or you have a family member who might need a little more help around the home, make an appointment with your GP. Start the process. Once you have been assessed and have been given your recommendations, you can look at what packages you can access, however minimal, and what providers are available to you. You can always check back in with the ACAT if you start needing additional services.