Plan To Age Gracefully
Our expertise in aged care planning allows us to help you navigate your support options and the tricky transition into full time care if needed.
What Is Aged Care?
Understanding your aged care options.
Aged care is not just about nursing homes. The government’s focus is on helping the elderly remain at home as long as reasonable. Care packages are available for support in the home.
The Starting Point For Care Is At Home
The Commonwealth Home Support Programme helps senior Australians access entry-level support services to live independently and safely at home.
Home Care Packages are designed for those with more complex care needs beyond what the Commonwealth Home Support Programme can provide.
Home Care Packages can be an option if you need a coordinated approach to the delivery of your help at home – perhaps because you need help with many everyday tasks, or the care you need is more complex or intensive.
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Services That Keep Me Well & Independent
| Personal Care | Help with showering, self-care, hygiene and grooming. |
| Nursing | Wound management or help with medicines. |
| Allied Health and Therapy Services | Health and therapy services e.g. podiatry, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. |
| Specialised Support | Help for people with a particular condition e.g. vision, dementia. |
| Meal Preparation and Diet | Help with feeding, meal preparation and using eating utensils. |
Services That Keep Me Safe In My Home
| Domestic assistance | Help with basic chores around the house |
| Home maintenance | Help with keeping your home and garden safe |
| Home modifications | Changes to your home to improve safety and access e.g. ramps and rails |
| Goods, equipment and assistive technology | Items to help you get around or adapt e.g. walking frame, shower chair |
Services That Allow Me To Interact With My Community
| Transport | Community transport, transport to GP |
| Social support | Social activities in a community-based group setting or accompanied activities |
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If you are no longer able to stay at home you can look at short term respite care, or you may need to move into an aged care home.
In all cases you will need to be assessed for the level of care you require either via a Regional Assessment Service (RAS) or a comprehensive assessment with the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT).
Choosing A Home
If you have to move into a home, how do you choose which one and what to pay?
The main driver behind your move into care will be what you can afford to pay. miPlan has special qualifications in aged care to help you make this big decision. Our main goal in advising you is understanding your cashflow, and the impact your assets and income will have on both your care fees and Centrelink entitlements. There are a lot of levers to pull, a major one being how to deal with the former home. This is at its heart an emotional issue and requires delicate handling.
Sample Of Cashflow Planning
Centrelink
The assessment of care fees is related, but different to the assessment for age pension.
Aged Care Clients Can Be The Elderly Or Their Representatives
miPlan has the expertise to manage their sometimes differing opinions.
At the end of the day, the strategy must be in the best interests of the care clients, not the estate. However there are strategies we can employ to protect estate assets.
Age Pension & Managing Fees
Retaining an age pension and managing fees is usually a major goal of our aged care clients. There are strategies to manage the assessment of assets and income for the age pension and care fees. Often clients will find they sell up the home to move into care and benefits are reduced, which seems unfair. Understanding how this works and what can be done to improve your affairs required time and effort. miPlan often acts as the nominee for Centrelink clients, so we can liaise directly with them to update your affairs and manage your benefits.
Your Estate Plan
Your estate plan is closely tied to any aged care planning. miPlan can assist with estate and succession planning and has experts on hand for complex cases, or can facilitate simple estate plans in-house.
