The Commonwealth Government regulates and partly funds residential aged care for people as they become older and are no longer able to live independently in their own home. There are two levels of
residential aged care:
Low-care residential care (hostels), and
High-care residential care (nursing homes).
At both levels, the facility may be approved as an extra-service facility. This means they are providing high levels of service such as better standard of accommodation, choice of meals, glass of wine/beer with meals, podiatry services, newspapers etc. Details of services provided will be outlined in the Resident Agreement as well as fees for these services. High-care extra-service facilities are able to charge accommodation bonds as an entry fee instead of the normal accommodation charge that applies to low-care facilities.
In low-care (hostel) a person can independently manage with many of the activities of daily living and are reasonably mobile but need help with services such as meals and laundry. They may also need some level of help with personal care like dressing and bathing and constant supervision. High-care (nursing home) includes ongoing nursing care, as well as meals, laundry, cleaning and personal care. The essential difference between a hostel and a nursing home is that the latter provides more intensive nursing type services and additional personal services.
Before an individual can enter a government-subsidised aged care facility they must undergo an assessment and be approved for care by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) under Commonwealth legislation based on the applicant’s state of health and ability to self-care. ACATs are a team of health care professionals that may be made up of doctors, nurses and social workers. They will usually conduct the assessment interviews in the person’s home. The ACAT team will provide approval for either permanent and/or respite care and specify whether the person can access low-care or highcare.
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