White Oak Home Care Services expands its community involvement by managing the Villa Dalmacia Day Centre in Spearwood. Supported by Hall & Prior, it provides culturally appropriate care for clients with Italian, Croatian, and Portuguese heritage, fostering a vibrant hub of culture and community.
How to Choose a Quality Home Care Assistance Provider
Researching for a home care provider can be overwhelming, but it is certainly worth the time and effort once you have landed on a quality and trusted provider for yourself or a loved one. First and foremost, it’s important to know that everyone is different, and everyone wants to be supported in different ways.
While it’s great to seek advice from your network of friends and family, conducting your own research will ultimately help you reach a confident decision.
In this article, we’ll help you focus on what you need to know when researching Perth home care services and how to reach your decision in choosing a quality home care provider.
What Services to look for in Home Care?
If you’re new to researching home care, you may not be aware of the common services available. So, before we dive into the research phase, let’s look at the common service offerings. A quality home care provider should offer some, if not all the following:
Transport
Home care providers may offer transport to help you commute to appointments and to complete errands. This can include trips to the grocery store, medical appointments, or even social arrangements.
Home and Garden Maintenance
General home maintenance can come in a variety of forms. You might need general domestic house cleaning or have specific requirements like changing bed sheets, washing dishes or completing laundry. Gardening and other landscaping jobs fall under this category too.
Clinical Support
From monitoring, dressing (re-dressing) and managing wounds, to reminding you to take your vitamins and/medications – medical support is very important. A home care provider that can directly offer clinical support without needing to outsource this service is a priority. Being able to have these clinical services provided in the home without needing to see their GP is important and must be considered when choosing a provider.
Allied Health
Whether you need physiotherapy or mobility sessions, always check that the prospective home care provider offers the allied health support required. Nutritional advice from dietitians is another commonly required service. Additionally, a home care provider that can organise aids and equipment, as well as directly provide an Occupational Therapist is an important consideration.
Assistance with Daily Living
Assistance with daily living refers to the general day-to-day activities including hygiene, social interaction and more. If you or a loved one needs help showering, dressing, or simply getting ready in the morning, make sure the prospective home care provider offers all of this at a minimum.
It is also important when choosing a home care provider to ensure that when providing personal care or high care assistance that they have qualified staff and a minimum of a certificate in individual support.
Respite
Caring for yourself is as important as caring for your loved one, and sometimes we need to attend appointments, conduct personal matters, go on a vacation or even take a break. Respite care provides an organised, temporary break for both carers and the person they care for.
When choosing a home care provider, it’s worth making sure the provider can provide respite on an as need basis, or in the event of an emergency. It’s important that providers offer respite care plans that are tailored to each client and a program is offered that meets your needs and your budget.
1. How to Research
Before picking up the phone or searching the internet, ask yourself what sort of values are you looking for in a home care provider? What are the priorities of you and your family? If you’re embarking on this journey with loved ones, make sure you collectively work together in this initial pre-research stage.
The best way to research home care providers without getting too overwhelmed, is to begin by focusing on your local area. Start with your location and branch outwards – this will make the process easier.
The My Aged Care website is an excellent place to start and is the main source of information for aged care providers. The website offers a tool where a search area can be performed and the costs to provide services are listed for home care packages and the Commonwealth Home Support Package.
Begin vetting prospective In Home Care options:
- Read their websites, pamphlets, and promotional materials.
- Visit their social media pages and Google profile to read online reviews and testimonials.
- Look for any industry awards, quality/regulation certifications and other credentials.
- Read up on their leadership and management team to ensure proper expertise and experience in providing quality In Home Care services.
If the provider meets your standards on the above, you may feel ready to pick up the phone to learn more.
2. What to ask
To help drive your conversation with prospective home care providers, here’s a list of important questions to consider:
- How, when, and where do they provide In Home Care support?
- What home care packages or programs are available?
- If looking for a home care package, how much does the provider charge for package management and care management?
- What are their fees and are there other expenses not covered in standard fees?
- What qualifications/checks do the staff have? For example, police clearances and NDIS worker screening, and certificate III in individual support.
- Are the staff competent with medication management, senior first aid, manual handling and infection control?
- How much influence do you have in choosing a support worker? Also, do they employ their own staff or use other agencies?
- What is the process of service review/feedback?
- What is their main philosophy of care?
- How do they ensure quality control of their service/care?
3. What to do next
If you have had this initial conversation with a representative of the home care provider and are comfortable with their service, it’s time to meet face to face with a coordinator. By meeting with a coordinator or support staff, you can ask any additional questions that may arise to ensure you are completely satisfied with their service delivery. You or your loved one deserves to feel comfortable with the selected home care provider. So, make sure you do before moving ahead with any longer-term agreement.
At White Oak we believe family is the most important value. When you become part of our family, we make sure that everything we do keeps you and your wellbeing front and centre.
Remember to take the time and effort to research different home care providers and ask all the questions you need until you are confident with your decision. When you’re ready to speak to our team here at White Oak, we’re ready for you. Ask us about our quality Perth home care services today.
Home Care Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the difference between In Home Care and Residential Aged Care?
In Home Aged Care generally refers to the provision of care in your home. Residential care is used to refer to care within a residential aged care facility and not from your private dwelling.
2. What does quality In Home Care look like?
A quality home care provider will operate in line with your shared values, offer the services you need and ensure that their quality control and management is effective. Online research into a home care provider’s credentials, reviews and industry awards can help you identify good providers.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (Commission) conducts quality reviews of home services to assess whether a home service provider delivers services in accordance with the Aged Care Quality Standards (Quality Standards). All home aged care providers are expected to comply with these standards. Should any non-compliances occur, this will be published on the My Aged Care website to ensure consumers can make a well-informed decision before committing to a home care provider.
Look for the quality endorsed symbol on your home aged care provider’s website to ensure your home care provider meets these standards.
3. What services do In Home Aged Care providers offer?
Perth home care providers generally offer a wide range of services including social support, general home care and maintenance, nursing care, home modifications and assistance with technology. Depending on your needs, there are various types of support programs that you may be eligible for including:
- The Commonwealth Home Support Program
- Home care packages
- Respite care
- Veterans’ home care
- DVA community nursing
- Interim hospital care
If you would like some support in your home outside of a Government program, aged care providers can arrange private home care services, meaning that you pay for the services you receive rather than paying through government funding.
