FAQs

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna Land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello, I’m your host, Kate Holland. Thanks for listening to another episode of Age Old Problems, New Aged Care. Today we’re talking about social isolation. And many of us would have heard about the loneliness epidemic, which peaked during COVID times.

00:00:34 Kate
Despite our almost constant connection to devices, many of us feel disconnected in real life. And for older people, social isolation is almost commonplace. According to aged care research and industry innovation, around one in five older Australians are socially isolated. Reasons include the social, economic and health changes that commonly occur later in life. And these often result in a decline in the quality and quantity of social relationships. And the reality is that being socially isolated or disconnected from community can be really bad for a person’s health, even if that person doesn’t feel lonely.

00:01:05 Kate
Maria Chabrel is Group Manager, My Life and Social Connections at Helping Hand, and she’s joined me today to help pinpoint some of the risk factors and some of the available remedies for social isolation. Welcome Maria.

00:01:15 Maria
Thank you.

00:01:16 Kate
And also joining us is Tony Barrillo and he is a Commonwealth Home Support Programme client and he can talk to us about how social connections have benefited his life. Welcome Tony.

00:01:25 Tony
Thank you. Very glad to be here.

00:01:27 Kate
We’ll start with you Maria. Can you please explain your role at Helping Hand? What is it that you do?

00:01:31 Maria
So my role is to lead a team that are delivering services to older people and the combination of services that is social work. So we have social work within our profile, but we also have people working within social connections. So they deliver group programs and also one-on-one social connections as well.

00:01:49 Kate
Beautiful. How long have you been with the organisation?

00:01:51 Maria
I’ve been twice. First time around, four years. Second time around, this is 2 1/2 years now.

00:01:56 Kate
One in five Australians, that’s quite a lot of people feeling socially isolated, isn’t it? How does that impact them and what’s something that you observe about this?

00:02:03 Maria
So the most recent data, we’re looking at 30% of people over the age of 60 experiencing social isolation.
Part of the barrier as well is that people don’t recognise when they are experiencing social isolation. It tends to happen very, very slowly.

00:02:17 Maria
What can happen is that there is a loss. So they were experiencing loss in the family. It could be a partner, could be friends. The social network becomes a lot smaller. It happens very slowly. That’s a risk factor for them.

00:02:29 Maria
We’re also looking at the ease of connecting with community isn’t quite there. So they used to be able to drive, so perhaps they can’t drive anymore. So getting to a place that they would be able to connect now has become difficult. You now need to think every step before that happens. So sometimes that becomes too hard in amongst everything else that’s happening in someone’s life.

00:02:50 Maria
Health can decline. Getting up in the morning and preparing for an outing can take a little bit longer or it can take more time. So it’s easier for someone to say, I’m not going to do that today.

00:03:01 Maria
So that happens once a month, it can happen then once a fortnight, once a week, two or three times a week. And before you know it, someone’s experiencing that social isolation.

00:03:09 Kate
And I remember speaking earlier this year to someone who deals with hearing loss too, which would be one of those health things. They mentioned that if people delay improving their hearing, it can make them more nervous in social situations, they end up retreating. So there are lots of small steps that can make a really big impact, aren’t there? So what impact can social isolation have on an older person’s health and wellbeing?

00:03:28 Maria
So it can decline someone’s quality of life and that’s a big broad term to describe someone’s mental wellbeing and the feeling of connection. We experience positive hormones going through our bodies when we laugh, when we connect, that’s absent when we’re socially isolated. So we don’t have that natural fix that can support us in that as our social networks decrease, we’re also increasing our vulnerability. So there’s less eyes on us, there’s less support, there’s less understanding of what we’re experiencing and going through. So what happens is then we’re more open to scams, we’re more open to abuse and neglect from others because we don’t have that village that is supporting us that we would normally have if we had those broader social networks.

00:04:13 Kate
Yes, if you’re more constantly in conversation with people, then you’re checking in and sharing experiences, aren’t you?

00:04:18 Maria
And it also is a really good trigger for cognitive decline too. So if you’re having those regular conversations, someone can go, “oh, you’re becoming a little bit forgetful, have you gone and spoken to your doctor?” Things like that. There are those checks and balances that happen very naturally in our relationships that we take for granted that don’t happen or that needed to be manufactured in an environment where we’re noticing a social isolation.

00:04:38 Kate
Sure. And energetically, people generally feed off each other’s energy, don’t you? You have more activity, you might talk to someone like Tony and he’s doing some wonderful things and you get inspired and you want to do more. But the more you retreat to yourself, it can become more and more of almost habitual to not go out, can’t it?

00:04:53 Maria
Can be, but there’s also a really close relationship between the physical health and mental health. We can argue that one comes before the other, but there is such an interconnectedness. And a lot of the times when we’re feeling lonely, there’s been a lead up to when we recognise that we feel lonely. And before we recognise that, we look around and we’re alone, and generally we stop seeing our doctor as well and we stop seeing our dentist, and so all of that starts to decline before we even know it.

00:05:23 Kate
So who is eligible for Social Connections Programs through aged care providers such as Helping Hand? And if someone was interested in tapping into one of these programs, how do they go about getting started?

00:05:33 Maria
So we have funding – so providers have funding from the Commonwealth Home Support Programme and also from the Support at Home Program, so there is an ability to tap into that level of funding. So what people can do is either contact My Aged Care or they can contact us and we have a navigator service that can provide that walk alongside service to support people to connect with My Aged Care to get the relevant funding in order to connect with our programs.

00:05:58 Kate
Excellent. We’ll make sure that we have links for those websites and phone numbers, et cetera, in our show notes. So what’s Helping Hands’ approach to building social connections and what kind of programs do we offer?

00:06:08 Maria
So our programs are very much client driven, so we do have a base of programs that are tried and tested – we do know that clients enjoy a game of bingo, so we try and do that. But what we tend to do is we collect a lot of feedback from clients around what they would love to see happen in their programs and then challenge a little bit, considering that we’re sitting from a social isolation perspective: what did you like to do that you would love to do again? And so our most successful groups at the moment are the Lunch Out and About groups where “we used to go to this cafe all the time” – great, let’s create a group that we can do that once a week. And they’re our most successful groups at the moment. We started with one, we now have two and we’re about to create a third. So we allow our people to direct the development of the program and we evaluate the success of that program and asking clients what they would like to see happen. So that’s our approach from a program design perspective.

00:07:04 Kate
It seems like you love what you do. What is it that you love most about it?

00:07:08 Maria
I like to remain connected with outcomes that we’re trying to achieve. So I love hearing the stories around, we had a Christmas party last year and someone connected with a lifelong friend from school that they hadn’t seen in 60 years, and yep, job done! That’s exactly what we’re looking for, and that connection has thrived. We’re creating connections between people who are attending groups that now have friendships and they’re educating each other.

00:07:31 Maria
So there’s hobbies that are being shared amongst the group attendees that wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have these groups. There are contacts now happening outside of the groups. There are phone calls happening on a regular basis that weren’t happening before. So it’s the beginning of that village network that we’re building slowly and the group just happens to be the catalyst for that.

00:07:53 Kate
That’s so great. And that sharing of hobbies, I mean, you read articles all the time about how all of us should try and learn a new skill each year, and so if that means people are sharing ideas and sharing hobbies, they’re going to keep on being stimulated all the time, aren’t they?

00:08:04 Maria
Absolutely.

00:08:04 Kate
Now, Tony, turning to you, what does feeling connected mean to you? How important is it for you to feel connected to other people?

00:08:11 Tony
Well, I look forward to those two hours when I go on Tuesday.

00:08:15 Kate
And what do you do when you go in on a Tuesday?

00:08:17 Tony
Sometimes we watch videos, we watch a documentary. Last week we watched the old story of the Ford and the Alden, which was very interesting because I worked at Alden for 28 years. And I look forward because since I’ve been there, I think it’s about two years now, I made so many friends. And we have a joke, we talk about this, about that.

00:08:40 Tony
We play balls, we play bingo, they always organize something. So we had a BBQ a couple of times already at the park. and the Christmas lunch last year, we already booked for this year. And I really look forward because all these people, more or less all on the same age bracket, and we talk about so many things. And I really look forward to go there every Tuesday for those two hours, because to me it’s something different, you know, getting out of the house and also meeting people and doing things for two hours.

00:09:13 Kate
What made you make the decision to find out about it? Were you starting to feel lonely or noticing you weren’t going out much?

00:09:19 Tony
Getting older, you never know what’s around the corner, you never know what happens. It did happen, so I fell from the step ladder and I broke my femur so I had to have a hip replacement. I’m still lucky that I can drive and it doesn’t really bother me but, I said down the road, if something happens and I can’t do the things that I’m doing now, so I would need help. So that’s why I registered.

00:09:41 Kate
And is this a men’s own group is it?

00:09:43 Tony
Yeah, men’s own group.

00:09:44 Kate
And do you meet people from all sorts of backgrounds? Have they all got different stories?

00:09:48 Tony
Yes. I met Rob, which he was a guitar player, and he played even Channel Ten ABC, and we talk about, the old days, and he comes from Crystal Brook, and he tells all the stories of when he was young. And I grew up in a farm, so I know all about that. I really enjoy it because I’ve met so many different people. Some they left, some they come back. Two or three they left, they’re not turning up anymore. But still, knowing them, it was good.

00:10:18 Kate
You can see how much you enjoy it. What would you say to somebody else who’s a bit unsure, a bit nervous about starting something like this?

00:10:24 Tony
It’s a way of going out and meeting other people. We have a good laugh every Tuesday, everybody gets into it.

00:10:31 Kate
What do you think the spin-off effects have been in your life? Do you think it has made you happier and more rewarded in general?

00:10:36 Tony
I always like to talk to people or meet people, we interact and we talk. We know each other in here and been the same people for nearly two years. You know, it’s like going to school, to a class and you make friends, it’s like the same thing.

00:10:51 Kate
Well, that’s beautiful. Now, before we wrap Maria, what’s the key? Any piece of advice that you’d like someone who’s listening to this episode to take away?

00:10:58 Tony
Get out. Get out and have fun.

00:11:00 Maria
There you go. Get out and have fun. Absolutely.

00:11:02 Maria
But for me, it’s don’t wait until it’s too late. We do match like-minded people to groups. We are currently in a significant development phase where we’ve had, and Tony, you’ve experienced this, where we’ve had the same groups over the last couple of years.

00:11:17 Maria
There’s going to be quite a significant injection of brand new groups coming in 2026. Some things with IT where we’re connecting people to devices so they can connect with families overseas. Looking at photos and connecting with family and friends, we provide that. They can bring their devices and we can actually show them how to use their own device rather than a device they’re unfamiliar with.

00:11:37 Maria
We’re looking at museum visits, we’re looking at things that people weren’t doing before and we’re matching people who express a particular interest and hobby, matching them with those groups so those conversations ignite really easily without having to be very hard work.

00:11:52 Maria
I guess my advice would be don’t wait until it’s too late, bring your friends along and it just supports our wellbeing.

00:11:59 Kate
And tell other people about it.

00:12:00 Maria
Absolutely.

00:12:02 Tony
Well, last year we did the calendar. Everybody brought photos in and they did a calendar for us with all the photos and then we went to visit the Adelaide Gyro, which was very, very interesting. And everybody came that day, even if it was raining, but we all went and we had fun.

00:12:20 Maria
And it was the calendars that actually created that outcome where two people were sitting next to each other and didn’t realise that they were school friends because they saw the photos.

00:12:30 Tony
Well, I met this friend of mine, which we went to school together.

00:12:35 Maria
Oh, was it you? Oh, there you go.

00:12:37 Tony
He’s two years younger than me. And then he went to Switzerland and I went to France. After, I would say nearly 20 years, we met each other here in Australia.

00:12:50 Kate
There you go, connections lead to connections, hey.

00:12:51 Tony
And we’re from the same village, same area, really. We’re only about three kilometres away from each other when we used to be young.

00:12:58 Kate
That’s wonderful. Oh, look, thank you so much. I think you’ve both presented very good argument for getting involved in all of this, and it’s been lovely to talk to you and in person.

00:13:05 Maria
Thank you.

00:13:06 Tony
It’s a pleasure.

00:09:17 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services, please head to helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello, I’m your host Kate Holland. In this episode we’re going to learn more about allied health, and in particular, occupational therapy or OT as lots of people seem to call it. It seems to be an area of health that’s quite unfamiliar to many as well, but not to this episode’s guest Amanda Bailey, because she is Occupational Therapy Manager in Home Care at Helping Hand. Thanks for joining me.

00:00:43 Amanda
Thank you for having me.

00:00:44 Kate
Now OT sits under allied health, so I’m just wondering can you start by describing what allied health actually is. And I think Helping Hand has its own allied health team doesn’t it, maybe you can describe some of the things that Helping Hand offers?

00:00:54 Amanda
Yes, Helping Hand has a broad allied health team, so we have exercise physiologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, podiatrists, there’s even dieticians and speech pathologists and I think that covers everybody. We have nursing as well, but they don’t usually fall under the branch of allied health, that’s a bit more medical. But still, all part of the package, and all part of the things that Helping Hand offers.

00:01:22 Kate
And they’re all sourced through Helping Hand as well aren’t they?

00:01:23 Amanda
Yes. So we have all of those disciplines working for Helping Hand in home care, and I know that we also work across the residential sites as well with those disciplines.

00:01:32 Kate
So people are getting to see people that are part of Helping Hand team which must be very reassuring as they come to their homes.

00:01:38 Amanda
Yes, it’s really nice that we can have people that are from Helping Hand, to understand policies and procedures bigger than Helping Hand as well, so up to the more government levels. And make sure that when we make, when we get a referral, that we know who the coordinator is of the person, we know that little bit more about them. And we might get to see them a few times, so it’s bit about relationship building as well. More than just, you just pop in pop out, and then you go on. You can see people for several years.

00:02:00 Amanda
We just had a client this week who requested a specific occupational therapist that they’ve seen for about six or seven years now, said that ‘no I don’t want another team member, I want to see that person again’; so it just shows that relationship building is really important.

00:02:18 Kate
So how do people know that allied health is there, and that there are certain services that might help them reach their personal goals? As I said, allied health is not necessarily a description people know quite closely, so do you inform them that there are these things out there and what might align to their particular goals?

00:02:33 Amanda
So it comes back to the admission team, and so then the Home Care Package Coordinators or the Client Engagement Officers, or there’s a few other roles, but the ones who service the Commonwealth Home Support Package clients. And so they will talk through what the client’s needs are, and then they might be able to say ‘oh yes that sounds like something that an OT can help with’ or ‘that might be more physio or speech pathology’, whichever discipline that it relates to. And then it also comes back to when the client has had that very first assessment from the government assessors, they might put in referrals to say ‘you need an occupational therapist’. So it’s quite broad, but we don’t see someone without a referral. So they need to kind of already know what we are before we see them, which can be a bit tricky.

00:03:20 Kate
Yeah I was going to say, in my mind, you might see a physio because you want to be able to walk your dog, or maybe a exercise physiologist might help you get better at watering the garden – but an OT, not everybody knows what that is. So maybe you could tell us how you became an OT and what an OT actually does.

00:03:34 Amanda
So I became an OT when I was looking to change from my nursing background. I was just wanting something that wasn’t quite the same shift work, still wanted to help people, and one day I woke up and thought ‘hmm, OT, I could do that, I’ve got a rough idea of what they do’, and then a few months later I was at uni studying my four year degree to become an OT! So it just sort of progressed quite quickly there, I didn’t have much time to change my mind I guess. I’ve always thought it was the best choice that I’ve made, I’m really happy that I’ve become an OT.

00:04:02 Kate
How long have you been doing that for now?

00:04:03 Amanda
So I’ve been with Helping Hand now for a bit over three years, and then maybe four or five years before that, and then including my nursing and I was also a carer in residential care beforehand – I’ve been in for around 20-odd years now, so seen all sorts of bits and pieces over the years. And all of those roles have really complemented each other, to be able to look at the bigger picture and get to know people.

00:04:24 Kate
So what are some of the reasons that people would typically seek out help from an OT?

00:04:27 Amanda
One thing that I always try to explain to people is the word occupation in occupational therapy is what occupies your time during the day. So it’s not a workplace thing, ’cause sometimes people will say to me ‘oh I’m retired I don’t need an occupational therapist’, or sometimes people will answer the phone during our visit and they’ll say ‘I’ve got the occupational health and safety girl here with me’. It’s like – no it’s not quite like that! It’s what occupies your time during the day – so everything from getting out of bed, getting dressed, walking the dog, making something to eat – anything that occupies your time. Hobbies, sewing, doing a puzzle, socialising with family, getting out and about – it really covers so much.

00:05:11 Kate
So you are assisting them to be able to live a meaningful life doing those things that they want to keep doing.

00:05:15 Amanda
Absolutely. So that’s why we really need to, when we meet somebody, work out what their needs are. So part of what an occupational therapist does is we look at the person, we look at the occupation that they want to do, and then we also need to look at the environment that they’re doing it in. So if you have become less mobile and you can’t walk up and down stairs as easily now, but you live in a home that has several steps – what can we do to help make that safer, so you can achieve living at home for as long as possible and still doing the things that you enjoy.

00:05:52 Amanda
Sometimes people say ‘I don’t want to grab rail that means I’m giving up’, it’s like – no, it’s something that’s helping keep you safe. And if this rail stops you having a fall, and possibly having a significant injury such as fracturing your hip, or anything else – or then sometimes you might be then fearful of having a fall, and start withdrawing from doing the things that you enjoy doing – that rail isn’t really taking away from your independence is actually probably increasing your independence. So sometimes just reframing, or helping people just really look at how they see some of these assistive technologies, is a big part of what we do.

00:06:25 Kate
I know it sounds like a small thing, but I’ll never forget in England, it was a very long time ago, I met a lady over there – and they package everything in England, like to the hilt, with plastic. And she could barely open anything, and even jars and things like that were really frustrating for her. Do you help with little things like that which sounds small but are actually pretty big?

00:06:40 Amanda
Yes. So like I said, we cover anything that occupies your day. So we’ve got small kitchen aids that can even be as simple as, you know, the little like ring pulls on a tin of tuna, or like dog food cans, things like that. It’s really hard to actually open those if you have something like arthritis, or anything that’s limiting the function in your hands. And so, we’ve got devices where people are able to open those cans again. And so we have people that’ll be like ‘oh I’m able to feed my dog still, or my cat still’. And yes they could have someone come in and help feed the cat, but it’s just nice to be able to not have to ask for someone to open that jar, or open that bottle for them. It just gives them the extra little bit of independence.

00:07:16 Kate
Absolutely, that’s important. So if someone’s coming to see you for the very first time, what are the sort of things you would run through with them as they get started?

00:07:25 Amanda
So we always just start with a bit of an initial assessment and it’s really just to get to know the person – what their home environment’s like, the sort of things that they do during the day, ’cause sometimes people will say ‘oh I don’t know what I need to tell me, what you can do for me’. It’s like, well, I need to know more about you so I can make those suggestions. And I always explain to people that anything I suggest is a recommendation – it’s not that you have to do it, it’s just these are some ideas based on my clinical judgement. But you’re the expert in yourself and your body, and you might have tried some of these things before, or I’m not going to tell you have to change everything in your life. I had several people tell me that before I came, they knew that OTs often tell people to remove rugs ’cause they’re tripping hazards, and so they went and hid all their rugs before I turned up. And I’m like ‘oh thank you for sharing that with me, but even if I recommended you remove them, it’s still your choice, you just need to understand there’s a risk in having rugs.’ And quite often if a rug is large and heavy and not sliding around when you step on it, the edges aren’t curling up, it’s not really an unsafe thing, it’s just something that you want in the house.

00:08:30 Kate
So I mentioned, none of us really want to admit that we’re not capable of things. Do you have to sometimes tease out of people their needs?

00:08:38 Amanda
Yes, so quite often during that first visit, it’s a bit of relationship building and rapport building as well so I’ll have some people who, when we first talked with them, ‘oh no no, I’m fine with that. I’m fine with that. No worries there.’ And then after you talk a little bit more, they’ll happen to just mention something and you’ll be like ‘oh, are you sure that that you’re alright with that?’ If there’s something I can help you with, and then maybe just explain some of the interventions we might put in place. For example, the little steps over the tracking of the door to get in and out the house. That might be a trip hazard. Your walker might have got caught on there, or just might have stumbled cause it was a bit dark and you didn’t see it. And so I can talk about maybe a little small ramp to go there could just make life a little bit easier and without that relationship building and having those conversations. People just be like, I don’t know. I’m fine with everything. You don’t need to be here, which is sometimes what people say as well.

00:09:32 Kate
Are there common questions that people seem to ask about accessing both OT but allied health in general?

00:09:39 Amanda
I don’t know if there’s really any common questions. It’s more just understanding what we do and sometimes just clarifying that like, ‘oh, my friend got told this a few years ago from an OT. Is that true?’ And it’s like, well, that might have suited them. But legislation’s changed now or that’s not really quite what an OT would do, or maybe that suited their individual situation, but it’s not what you need.

00:10:03 Kate
It needs to be personalised doesn’t it.

00:10:05 Amanda
That’s right, it’s very personalised. If it wasn’t a personalised thing, anyone could do this and just throw 3 or 4 pieces of common equipment at you and be like ‘OK, see you, bye.’ And that’s, you know, not everyone needs those pieces of equipment, so let’s, you know, step back and work out what you need to support you.

00:10:18 Kate
People want to know how this can be funded. Have you got some information about that for us?

00:10:23 Amanda
So allied health services can be funded through someone’s Home Care Package, or through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme. Just with the Commonwealth Home Support Programme. They will need to have the My Aged Care codes in place. And if they don’t have them, they can just ask for them. Usually there’s just a bit of a phone call to My Aged Care.

00:10:39 Kate
So if someone was listening to this today and they wanted to, you want them to know one piece of advice about accessing allied health services or understanding what OT is and how they might utilise it. What would that piece of information be?

00:10:52 Amanda
So if they already with Helping Hand, I’d recommend that they have a chat with their coordinator or whoever a contact person is a helping hand, or even just to call Helping Hand and say ‘I’m having these problems. Is there somebody that can help me?’ Because the people who work at Helping Hand will be able to say, ‘Oh yes, that sounds like it might be an occupational therapist or that might be a speech pathologist, or maybe that’s a physio’ and direct them to the right referrals rather than just being stuck at, ‘I don’t know where to ask’ because sometimes just knowing who to ask the questions to is the biggest barrier, because we all have questions in ourselves, but not everybody knows the answers to the questions we have, so just being able to ask that right person. So I think that would be my advice.

00:11:33 Kate
And we will make sure that we have links to phone numbers and websites and all of those bits and pieces in the show notes for this episode, and I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise.

00:11:42 Amanda
Thank you so much for having me.

00:11:43 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au. You can also call their home care number 1300 444 663.

00:12:04 Kate
Please remember you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:23 Kate
Hello I’m your host, Kate Holland. And I’m so glad you’re listening to this episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, as it’s a really important one about advanced care planning. So this means planning for the future care of you or your loved one in line with personal wishes and desires. Not always an easy thing to bring up, this kind of planning is a very valuable thing to discuss with family. Joining me to discuss this topic is Zara Freeman, who’s a Palliative Care Nurse with Helping Hand, and it’s a subject that she’s very passionate about. Welcome Zara.

00:00:50 Zara
Thank you so much.

00:00:51 Kate
So firstly, for people that have no idea – and I myself knew what an advance care directive was, but didn’t know there was a umbrella term, advanced care planning – can you explain what that is?

00:01:00 Zara
So basically advanced care planning is just sharing about a person’s healthcare and how they would like to live their life. So how they’d like to live their life now, and into the future. So it’s about looking at if their health deteriorates, what type of care that they would like, where they would like to live, and what things are important to them. It’s a really important process and it’s also a fun and exciting process and gives people a lot of agency for their health.

00:01:30 Kate
So what’s your role in supporting residents and their families in this process of advanced care planning?

00:01:35 Zara
My role is that when a resident enters our residential care home, we like to get together with the family and the resident in the early stages of their admission and just to have a comfortable, friendly chat with them about what their care needs are and what they would like into the future. And this can either be the starting of discussions around completing advance care directive. Or for those residents that have a cognition deficit, we also complete another form which is called my life decisions, which is the same as an advance care directive, but it’s for residents that need supported decision making.

00:02:16 Kate
So what is an advance care directive? I don’t think everyone knows what that is.

00:02:19 Zara
Yeah, sure. So an advance care directive is a legal form. It’s actually for people over the age of 18. Anyone can have an advance care directive, so if you haven’t got one and you’re over the age of 18 would be really good for you to start one. And basically what it is, it just records your wishes and your values and also your present and future healthcare. So it’s what would you like now and what would you like into the future if something should happen to you.

00:02:47 Kate
Now I remember this coming up with my father in law and we thought we should have this discussion and everybody got very strange about it. But actually when we started the discussion, it was quite a healthy thing because as you say, particularly as you age – although life is unpredictable and, you know, I’m not quite aged care yet, but I do have one myself – it is about making decisions around what might happen if you can’t make decisions for yourself, if your health deteriorates significantly, that sort of thing, doesn’t it? And it can include things like if you were going to make funeral planning, the sort of elements that you might want to include in that.

00:03:18 Zara
Exactly, exactly the form is a fantastic form, it’s really easy to fill out. You can basically download it online through SA Health. But the important thing to acknowledge is that even though it is an easy form to fill out, it can be confronting for some people to talk about their life, thinking about their life and what things they would like in the future. And sometimes people may not be speaking about it to other family members as well. So you may think that, you know you want to speak to your dad about it or any loved one about it, but they might not want to talk to you about it. So it could also be that you have a chat about it with your friend as well. You don’t have to be the substitute decision maker to have these discussions. It can be an initial discussion with just a family or just a loved one and you could talk about it down the beach or at the park. It can just be a relaxed conversation. It doesn’t need to be scary or intense.

00:04:15 Kate
So you mentioned a substitute decision maker. What is that?

00:04:18 Zara
Yeah, so substitute decision maker is the person who we’re doing the advance care directive form, who they would like to be their decision maker. So it’s their legal decision maker. So in the event that the person that has the advance care directive, that they may become unwell, may not be able to make their own decisions, they can appoint the substitute decision maker to make decisions on their behalf. So either you can have one substitute decision maker, you could have two or three or four. But it’s really important to have someone that you trust and that you’re looking through their eyes and stepping into the shoes of the person the advance care directive is for, and that’s the most important thing – that you’re acknowledging their wishes and you’re following through and honouring that.

00:05:06 Kate
So you mentioned that the person you discuss a directive with doesn’t necessarily have to be the substitute decision maker, but would it make more sense if you did do it with them, because they’re gonna be the ones making those decisions on your behalf?

00:05:16 Zara
Exactly. So sometimes with the advance care directive, you might wanna have lots of different discussions with lots of different people, so maybe that you may start initial discussions with your friends and people that you love. And then when you have an idea about what you want, then you may make it more formalised and then start discussing with your substitute decision maker. I think the really interesting thing that I found in my job is that some family members think that they are definitely going to be the substitute decision makers because they’re the people that have been most involved in their mum and dad’s care, and sometimes they’re actually not, so that can be a really interesting family dynamic issue that we need to work through. But it’s an amazing, wonderful process, because not only do the substitute decision makers learn things about their mum and dad, that they’ve never ever known before, which is so beautiful, but it also gives them such an honest space that they can really value and work through what their mum or dad would want and just honour their wishes. And it’s a really beautiful thing to do and it’s quite humbling as well for the whole family.

00:06:26 Kate
So what are the sort of wishes that come into this? Obviously there’s things like if your health deteriorates. But as I mentioned with my own, it might be things like having music playing at your funeral. Is it that spectrum of things?

00:06:36 Zara
The form start off with ‘What are your values and your wishes’ so that can be anything like: I’d like to get my hair done every week, or I’d like to have makeup on, or make sure I wear high heels, or it can be anything that is important to that person. It could be that I want my dog with me all the time. So you’ve got all those beautiful soft things that make us to be human, so that’s the first thing. And through all those values and wishes what your main focus is that you’re looking at is quality of life and what makes up someone’s quality of life. So for me I could say if I was in a wheelchair I wouldn’t want any treatment. But you Kate may say, oh if I’m in a wheelchair, that’s fine. I can still continue my life. So it’s really, really important to look at what people’s quality of life is and what that means to them. So really delving in to that does take time, and it can take hours and hours to work out what people’s quality of life means to them, because we never think about these things.

00:07:36 Zara
From there – which is such an honour and a beautiful conversation to have – but then we then delve into, once the resident and once the person and the community starts feeling comfortable, then we can go into things that may be a little bit challenging, talking about what healthcare they would like. That could be things like if they were in a car accident, would they want to be in intensive care? Would they want resuscitation if they deteriorate, what type of healthcare they would like? So at Helping Hand what we do is we talk about how they are presenting when they arrive on admission. And we go through the whole journey of their life with us, which is such an honour all the way up until past their death, into the memorial service we have, so that when residents in our facility start the pathway of their new life with us, they understand exactly the healthcare they want, the healthcare they don’t want. And then of course, that gives them agency to understand the quality of life they want and then the quality of life and care we’re giving them.

00:08:42 Kate
You mentioned that you have to sometimes work with a family dynamic when the decision maker isn’t necessarily the person that they imagined it to be. Is this why a plan like this is so important? Because when you do reach a point here, for lack of a better word, the decision is there by the individual, and the family are not left maybe in conflict about that.

00:09:00 Zara
Yes, exactly. And it’s really, really important for the family to be all on the same page because you may have a brother or sister who may have never spoken for ten years, or have different ideas about what’s good for their mum or dad. It’s a wonderful time for the family to either be connected or share an understanding that they’re there for their mum and dad and it’s about their mum and dad. It’s not about them and that they are just valuing exactly what their mum or dad want and it gives them peace of mind. And of course it gives the resident or anyone out in the community peace of mind that people are gonna follow their wishes.

00:09:40 Kate
So this is a legal document, an advance care directive. Does this mean people have to then go and get it signed off by a lawyer?

00:09:45 Zara
So what we do here at Helping Hand, and what you can do out in the community as well, is all you need is a Justice of the Peace to sign. So we have our own Justice of the Peace here. And she will come in and sign it with the resident and the family, the substitute decision makers. And if you’re out in the community, you definitely just need to go to a Justice of the Peace and get that signed. I think the most important thing – because we do receive quite a few advance care directives that people have done out in the community – I think it’s really important that you write as much as you can in the advance care directive, even if you do extra pages.

00:10:22 Kate
It’s a downloadable document, isn’t it?

00:10:23 Zara
It’s a downloadable document, yes, and you just type in the browser advance care directive and it’ll come up. All you need to do is print it off. And I would always suggest go to somewhere beautiful that you love, like a park and just sit and relax, have a nice picnic, but just enjoy yourself and just get it started. Just start talking about it. You don’t need to do it all in one hit. I think people think it’s a form. It needs to be filled out. It’s a question and answer. It’s certainly not. It’s about your whole life and what’s important.

00:10:54 Kate
It’s about living the best life you can, right throughout your life.

00:10:58 Zara
Exactly. Living your best life. Living the life you want. Some things you’ll say. Yes, I OK. I will do that, or I won’t do that. But it really gives you that knowledge and that power to live how you wanna live, not how other people want you to live.

00:11:15 Kate
That’s beautiful. Now we often end the episode with, like, one piece of advice that you’d like people to take away with them. I think you’ve probably just given it. Don’t be scared of the process. Sure. And find a nice place to do it, would that be right?

00:11:24 Zara
Yeah, I would say don’t be afraid to do it. And you have to be over 18 years old. But I think if we all can just do it, get it done and then not only is it valuable that you have a document at the end, but you have created a beautiful relationship with a person you’ve done it with.

00:11:41 Kate
That’s great. Well, I think you would be a wonderful person to talk to about this stuff. So thank you so much for explaining that to us today.

00:11:45 Zara
No worries. Thanks a lot, Kate.

00:11:54 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:12:10 Kate
Please remember – you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello and thank you for listening to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care. I’m your host, Kate Holland. In this episode, we’re discussing grief and bereavement. What they are, some of the ways that people can respond to loss, and how you can support yourself or a loved one through the process. No one should ever feel alone. There are places that you can go to for help and people that you can speak to and at Helping Hand one of those people is Paul Hodgson, the Coordinating Chaplain. He joins me to share his wisdom on the topic. Welcome, Paul.

00:00:48 Paul
Thank you, Kate.

00:00:49 Kate
So can you start by telling us about your role at Helping Hand?

00:00:51 Paul
So as you said I am the Helping Hand Coordinating Chaplain. What that role entails is offering and providing support for residents in our residential care homes with regards to their social and emotional wellbeing and to, where appropriate, offering specifically spiritual care and support. And what that looks like is offering the opportunity for residents to talk about whatever is going on for them in their world at that moment. Whether that’s something that’s troubling them, or worrying them or they’re experiencing anxiety, or it might be that they have had a fantastic weekend and want to talk about catching up with their family or some happy or joyous experience that they had.

00:01:38 Kate
So even though your title has the word ‘chaplain’, it’s important that people can get support from you that doesn’t have to be in the religious space.

00:01:46 Paul
Sometimes it is more spiritual, like the big questions of life and purpose and hope and that sort of thing. But no, that’s right. It’s around whatever the starting point for the person is, what’s right in front of you? What’s going on in your world? What are you reflecting on? What are your emotions right now? And sometimes simply to be heard, to have those emotions and feelings validated can make a huge difference to the sense of well being for that person.

00:02:12 Kate
So one of the conversations you must deal with a bit working in aged care is around grief and bereavement, and I believe these terms refer to two different things.

00:02:22 Paul
My understanding, or my own personal definition, would be the so that grief is the emotional, cognitive, and even physiological response to change. Even when change that we experience is positive, we still can have the grief response and incorporate those different aspects of who we are. Most often, we associate grief with the difficult and challenging emotions to do with loss and loss can come in so many different shapes and forms.

00:02:55 Paul
Bereavement is, in my understanding, probably in reference specifically to the sense of loss and grief and even the societal and cultural norms around the processes that we go through when someone close to us dies. So bereavement might be a, you know, a narrow, thin edge of a much bigger topic that grief is.

00:03:17 Kate
You mentioned physiological reactions. I found that quite interesting, looking into this idea of grief and bereavement. There are some quite common responses that people have when they’re grieving and they’re not all in the mind, are they?

00:03:29 Paul
Well, no, that’s right. And grief isn’t one emotion or one experience. So our brain will react and respond with different chemicals that give us physiological responses. So we literally feel it in our body, not just as an emotion or a feeling.

00:03:47 Kate
So when someone is starting to go through this process, I guess in conversations with them you might pick that they’re starting to feel some of these feelings or even experience it physically. I mean, I’ve read things even like almost gastrointestinal kind of responses can be there. Do you try and talk to them about the fact that these are quite normal? Because I think when you’re already grieving something, you can start to worry that you’re too sad or you’re grieving in the wrong way, which there is no wrong way is there.

00:04:14 Paul
There’s no right or wrong way to grieve, apart from perhaps the decision to not grieve or to try to push it away. Grief isn’t bad or negative. Grief isn’t something to be avoided. If we can grief it’s a necessary response for us. In fact, one of the quotes that I think it’s quite helpful for me: grief is the price you pay for love. So if you love anyone ever at any point, then it’s likely that you’ll experience grief. We all want to love. We all want to be loved. But when we lose someone that we love, in particular, grief is the price you pay for that love. And I would want to couch with the people that I talk with, who would have experienced loss and or change and are going through a grief process, is where appropriate to try to normalise it and to encourage people to understand and then embrace the process. We do experience emotions and feelings that are the ones that we would probably choose not to have, that are difficult and challenging emotions.

00:05:23 Paul
Not only is grief not a negative or a bad thing or something to be avoided, I would suggest that it’s actually a helpful and healthy thing that can lead us to a point where ultimately instead of those hard to have, or negative feelings that we don’t like – sadness, separation, you know, those sorts of things – that ultimately it can lead us to peace, to acceptance and ultimately even to hope.

00:05:47 Paul
Because grief is often linked to love, going through the grief process can help us to live on in the new normal – whatever normal means – so grief isn’t about just getting over the loss that we’ve had. It is about the adapting, adjusting and finding a new life beyond our loss that still incorporates the love for the person who is no longer with us, and I think it enhances our memory and honouring of them if we grieve well.

00:06:15 Kate
So do you have suggestions for things that might help people through that grieving process?

00:06:20 Paul
Don’t do it on your own. It’s important to recognise that sometimes there are needs to be on your own for personal processing, but not to hide away, and that can be a really difficult thing because sometimes people will have their ideas about how you should grieve. We’ve already acknowledged that grief is personal and unique to each individual who’s experienced it, not just the circumstances of it, but our experience and response to it. And so sometimes we need to find people who are going to be helpful for us that they will just listen. They won’t want to urge us to hurry or rush through it or just get over it or hasn’t it been long enough now or you should be further down the track than you are? Those sorts of thoughts or comments that others offer and sometimes in our self talk we will tell ourselves can we really unhelpful and unhealthy.

00:07:14 Kate
Paul what are some of the things that people can do to take care of themselves as they go through the grieving process?

00:07:19 Paul
It might sound really simple and basic, but it is really helpful and vital to focus on things like looking after yourself physically. Eating well, getting good sleep, not dropping off any exercise, even if that’s simply going for a 20 minute walk. You know, our physiology and our emotions are all interconnected, so to go for a walk and allow our unconsciousness to work on what it’s working on and dealing with our emotions is a really helpful thing and also not to deny yourself the opportunity to do things that you enjoy. Sometimes you always say, oh, you know, I’ve lost my loved one, I’m not allowed to be happy or to have positive and enjoyable experiences. In fact, it’s the reverse. We need to be filling our buckets at that time more than any other time. And so whether it’s gardening, or spending time with the pets, or going off and seeing a good movie, or things like that. It’s important to continue to intentionally build those positive experiences into our life to give us the emotional capacity to be resilient and deal with the aspects of grief that are hard.

00:08:21 Kate
So what services does Helping Hand have to support residents and clients with grief and bereavement?

00:08:27 Paul
Certainly the chaplains that we have across all of our metropolitan care homes and some of our country sites now too are available to support residents who are experiencing grief and loss and their families. But we also have social workers and other staff who will be able to be specifically involved to help and support. In my experience, what I’ve noticed is that our care staff, our lifestyle staff who get to know people and spend time with our residents on a day to day basis, they’re very aware when a resident has gone through some sort of grief or loss experience, and are genuinely and sincerely caring, compassionate and sympathetic. They mightn’t always have time to sit for a long period of time, but I think the community that is Helping Hand that surrounds our residents is caring and responsive to people in care in grief and loss, generally not just the people that you can call in who are sort of more the people you’d expect to be able to be offering their supports and services.

00:09:25 Paul
With our home care clients, there are grief and loss groups run by social workers where people who have experienced those things can come together in a safe space and be supported, to become a support group for each other and to receive the direction of input from professional people and social work.

00:10:13 Paul
And most if not all, of our care homes also offer support groups specifically for family members and loved ones of residents who might be living with dementia. And the journey of loved ones and family members of those who have dementia is a journey with grief. Those groups bring people together who can talk about their unique aspects. The grieving before the person has actually died. Their sense of ‘I’m grieving, but others don’t get it. They’re going: well, your mum’s still alive, why are you grieving? Why are you sad?’ But of course, the experience of those closest is well, it’s not the one that I used to have. She’s not the same person exactly that I used to know. She’s still in there somewhere. That’s sort of the support group to be able to reflect on those issues and for people to share their stories and go, oh, that person gets what I’m going through because they’re facing the same sort of thing is a really valuable thing that is offered by Helping Hand as well.

00:10:51 Kate
I was thinking too, do you deal when people have come from living at home for most of their life and then they move into a residential care home, for example. Do you sometimes have to help them through grieving the life that they’ve left behind to now be in this new phase of life?

00:11:06 Paul
One of the things I hope I always address when I meet somebody who’s just moved into one of our care homes is to acknowledge with them that they’ve been through a big change. And I said earlier on that grief is our response to change, and there are people who come in to live in their care homes even where they have recognised it’s the best decision for them – it’s a big challenge. And so yes, there is a grief response to what they’ve lost, and they’re looking forward to things that are now available to them that weren’t previously. Family members also go through the whole range of emotions. Am I doing the right thing? Am I letting my mum and dad down? Am I being a bad son or daughter because we’ve made this decision? And so ideally to be able to support them and say that you’ve made the best possible decision for your loved one. But there is a change, you know, in the way that you’ll see them and interact with them, so there’s definitely grief associated with that change.

00:12:02 Kate
So can families make arrangements to talk with you as well? Not just the residents?

00:12:05 Paul
Yeah, we’re definitely available for that. We try to provide information in the information pack as each new resident arrives, that describes what chaplaincy services are for the residents, but also for the family members. That’s not just when they first arrive, but potentially as the different changes that happen as the resident stays with us over those remaining years of their life. There are other aspects of grief that will become a normal part of that journey as well. There are ways that Helping Hand can assist in directing people to support, which includes a long list of a whole range of different resources that people can reach out to and access themselves, including some that are available online, if that’s easy for people rather than thinking about talking to somebody, face to face, and they are also 24/7. So if it’s a crisis too, that there is support available.

00:12:58 Kate
And we will make sure that we include a list of all of those available services on the show notes for this podcast. Paul, if you were going to give one piece of advice about grief and bereavement that you’d like listeners to take away from this episode, what would that be?

00:13:11 Paul
Grief isn’t a bad or negative thing. It will not be an easy thing, but it’s necessary. It’s probably unavoidable. It’s personal, and it’s about helping us to live with peace, acceptance and hope on the other side of the loss that we have experienced.

00:13:30 Kate
Thank you so much, Paul. It’s been a really great discussion.

00:13:32 Paul
Thank you.

00:13:37 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello I’m your host, Kate Holland. Did you know that at home nursing services are available via Home Care Packages? This means you can skip a trip to the GP and have plenty of services delivered at home instead. In this episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, I’m joined by Jess Bryant, Clinical Manager with Helping Hand who is highly knowledgeable on what’s available to whom and how to access it. Welcome Jess.

00:00:43 Jess
Hi.

00:00:44 Kate
So Jess tell me about your role at Helping Hand. What does that involve?

00:00:46 Jess
I’m the Clinical Manager for Home Care Services, and that involves looking after all the nursing services for home care clients.

00:00:51 Kate
So those nursing services include at home nursing services as well, don’t they?

00:00:58 Jess
Yes.

00:00:59 Kate
Are you able to tell me a little bit about the areas in which Helping Hand offers at home nursing services?

00:01:04 Jess
So our nurses come out to your home, and they can assist you with things like wound care, medication assistance, whether that just be from prompting to actual administration, insulin administration and diabetes management, continence assessments, assessments to help get dementia supplements through their packages, we do skin checks, general wellbeing – which can involve your blood pressure monitoring, pulse, and all those types of things that you would normally go to the doctor for – we can do them at home to prevent you having to go that extra trip to the doctor.

00:01:34 Kate
They sound like excellent services. So who is eligible to receive these services?

00:01:40 Jess
So any client that’s on a Home Care Package with Helping Hand, any Commonwealth Home Support Programme participants, and the general public can pay a fee for service as well.

00:01:50 Kate
So do you find that many people are aware that at home nursing services are available to them?

00:01:56 Jess
No, I don’t believe many of our clients are either. Our Home Care Coordinators will actually liaise with us to refer them through to nursing services.

00:02:05 Kate
The services that are given to people, do they then liaise with their GP as well? Is there kind of a crossover between the two?

00:02:07 Jess
Yep. So if it’s anything like wound care, medication management, the nursing team can also assist with that. We can come out to the doctor with the clients, or we can just phone them or email them to let them know what we require to help their clients stay in their home longer.

00:02:23 Kate
And unlike some other organisations, the nursing staff that work with clients at Helping Hand, they are all Helping Hand staff themselves, aren’t they?

00:02:30 Jess
Yes, we have a team of nurses across metro, Whyalla, Port Pirie and Clare, and they’re all Helping Hand employees.

00:02:37 Kate
Obviously people will still have their own GP. Are the services that are provided through the nurses, is that information then coordinated and sent through to their GP?

00:02:44 Jess
Yes. So we will email through to GPs, call GPs, or sometimes go with clients to their GP. This is so that we can have that continuity of care for our clients.

00:02:54 Kate
So when you have a first appointment with a client, what would you generally run through with them when they’re going to start accessing these services?

00:02:59 Jess
So we would go in and we would do an initial assessment, depending on the service type, you know could be a medication assessment, or a skin assessment if it’s a wound, and, you know, many other types of assessments that we have. We introduce ourselves, we go through what they would like out of their care, what their goals are, and then we work with them to achieve those goals.

00:03:17 Kate
Will they have a continuity of nursing staff coming to them? Do they have someone allocated to them or does that change?

00:03:23 Jess
Yep, in metro we have a small team of nurses that you will generally get, either one or two or three of the same nurses. Obviously that can change when staff have leave, but you will see the same faces and hear the same names when we’re coming out to see you.

00:03:36 Kate
Yeah, which would make people feel very comfortable, I’m sure. What are some of the other benefits of having Helping Hand come to you and having it at home as opposed to having to go out to a GP?

00:03:45 Jess
You don’t have to run around and make times to get appointments, or lifts if you’re not able to drive. We come out to see you and we can talk with the GP so that we still get that continuity of care. If we think you need to see the GP, we do refer you in to the GP as well. So it’s just easier.

00:04:05 Kate
So I’m sure you have lots of good examples of things that you’ve offered, but do you have a particular story that stands out where you’ve helped a family in a way that perhaps they would not have expected that they could have improved through at home nursing?

00:04:13 Jess
Yeah. So we see a lot of carer stress as nurses when we’re going in, whether it be husbands or children of, you know, their mother – looking after them, helping them with simple tasks, just feeling like it’s too much for them. So we had a particular lady who her daughter was looking after her. A lot of carer stress happening. We discussed with the daughter around, you know, what is it that’s causing you this stress and how can we help? And we found out that it was just the medication that she was having a lot of issue with about making sure it was correct, making sure it was the right time, making sure she was there for her mum. So we offered nursing support. We did a medication assessment. We spoke with the GP, got the list of medications and set that up to do twice daily medication so the daughter could actually just go in and be a daughter and not have to go in and worry about medications and managing this for mum as well.

00:05:01 Kate
So it’s not always actually medical help on the person, it’s also providing support. I’m guessing that maybe some people don’t know that nurses actually have this broader skill set, and sort of permission to do what they can do, would that be right?

00:05:13 Jess
Yeah. So the GP’s will tell us exactly what they’re needing for their client once we set a goal plan up, and then we just work with them and we feedback to them if there’s anything that’s outside of the norm for the client.

00:05:24 Kate
So what changes are on the way for nursing? I get the impression that some things are changing. Where do you see it heading in the future, particularly nursing at home?

00:05:34 Jess
So nursing with the new Support At Home that’s coming through will be growing. There’s a big clinical aspect on there, where Helping Hand are currently looking at getting AINs, which Assistant in Nursing, so it will be an upskilled worker that can do basic nursing skills, to be able to streamline the process and minimise wait times. We’re also looking at getting more involved in the palliative care area because there is grants that are coming through for Support At Home, and that will be helping to keep people in their homes longer, which is what the community is telling us that they need.

00:06:09 Kate
And Support At Home, that’s a government initiative?

00:06:11 Jess
Yes.

00:06:12 Kate
And the information of that is continuing to roll out.

00:06:13 Jess
Yes.

00:06:14 Kate
So would you suggest for people to find out more about that, or just to keep on top of it, to visit both the Helping Hand website and perhaps the government websites?

00:06:22 Jess
Definitely. We’re getting new news every day.

00:06:24 Kate
we’ll make sure we have links to that as well. And obviously if people would prefer to talk to somebody, they can call Helping Hand and get information from a person?

00:06:29 Jess
Yep.

00:06:31 Kate
For somebody who is thinking about getting at home nursing, what would be a piece of advice that you would give them? What would be their starting point, and what would be the key reason you’d suggest they might pick it up?

00:06:40 Jess
If you’ve got any concerns around your health, if you are wanting to promote your health and stay at home longer, we can come out and just assist you in those things that you might normally go to the doctor for, or that you know families can sometimes say that you know you shouldn’t be at home anymore. But we can actually help stabilise things and keep you at home for that little bit longer than what the normal trajectory might have been.

00:07:02 Kate
So obviously, if somebody has an issue arise, they would call their GP and try and make an appointment. Is it the same sort of thing? If they have something that suddenly appears and they need help, can they then contact their at home nursing staff to come and attend to them?

00:07:11 Jess
Yep. So anyone with a Home Care Package can contact their coordinator, request to have nursing in place. The coordinator will then send a referral through and we will call to contact you, make an appointment, set that up. If we have a Commonwealth Home Support Programme client, they can get the codes from My Aged Care and then they can contact Helping Hand and we can set them up for a visit as soon as possible as well.
00:07:38 Kate
Sounds incredibly beneficial and I think I would like home nursing to come to my house so I didn’t have to try and get in the queue for an appointment too! Thank you so much for talking to us about it.

00:07:50 Jess
Thank you.

00:07:51 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600./s

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello and welcome to another episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care. I’m your host, Kate Holland. Did you know that it’s estimated that in Australia there are more than 433,000 people living with dementia? So with this knowledge at hand, we’ve decided to devote three episodes to understanding it better. And this one’s the first.

00:00:40 Kate
Dementia is not a normal part of getting older. Instead, it’s a broad term that describes a collection of symptoms caused by disorders affecting the brain. And while everyone’s experience is unique, there are some early warning signs that you can look out for. Joining me to help you understand all of this a bit better is Tanya McIver, who is Group Manager of Residential Services at Helping Hand. Welcome Tanya.

00:01:00 Tanya
Thank you Kate.

00:01:01 Kate
So can you start by telling me a little bit about your role at Helping Hand. What does that involve?

00:01:05 Tanya
My background is clinical and a registered nurse, and currently I oversee and support four of our residential aged care homes at Helping Hand. And that’s supporting them with their clinical care, operational care, family and staff care.

00:01:18 Kate
Great. So how does that tie into understanding dementia? Can you talk me through your background and your experience in working with people with dementia?

00:01:25 Tanya
Sure. I was at university and worked as a carer while I was doing my registered nurse training. I moved into acute for a while, but always had an absolute love and passion for delivering respectful, dignified care to our older Australians, so I’ve been back in aged care for over 20 years, managing homes, and am very passionate about supporting staff involvement to ensure that there’s respect and dignity at all times.

00:01:49 Kate
And you did mention to me before we started this, you were drawn to work in aged care and with other people, why was that?

00:01:54 Tanya
The older people have created this country that we live in, and people deserve care, and they deserve the absolute best care after all the work that they’ve done to create this beautiful place that we live in. Staff need to respect, understand, and then make sure that we’re giving them the best experience possible in aged care, which is their final home.

00:02:15 Kate
So dementia, which unfortunately does impact a lot of people. So it’s not just one disease. How can you define dementia and what are some of the diseases that are linked with it?

00:02:23 Tanya
So there are a lot of different variants of dementia. There’s some that are diagnosed as part of another condition, like a Parkinson’s can lead to a dementia. There’s different parts of the brain that can be impacted which develop like a frontal lobe dementia, which will give different signs and symptoms. So there’s lots of early signs that people will pick up at home across that variety of disease diagnoses.

00:02:46 Kate
So is that why it appears quite differently in different people because of the condition leading towards it?

00:02:51 Tanya
It does. Because of different areas of the brain that it can affect, because different parts of our brain control different parts of our emotion, personality and behaviours. So there are different ways that signs and symptoms can come, and also people are individuals. So it impacts individuals differently and sometimes because of their life experience and lived experience, it will impact someone differently.

00:03:13 Kate
The differences aside and what leads to it aside, what are some of the common early signs of dementia that people might be able to look out for?

00:03:20 Tanya
You see, there’s the forgetting things, but it’s not just where’s my car keys. It’s actually. I don’t know where my bathroom is. I’m at my front door and I haven’t just forgotten my keys. I’m not sure if I know where my car is, so there’s the small forgetful things. People can also become very repetitive, so you might start to see someone ask the same thing over and over again, and no matter how many times you give the answer, that person is not able to retain it. Real changes in routine, often people are awake a lot at night, so that can change. And there’s also the fear of security, so people might go out their front door and not be sure where they are, so that’s when safety becomes a concern. And changes in someone’s personality, you might start to look and go, well, that’s just not like mum. She doesn’t do that. So things that are really out of character. It’s sort of a myth that it’s just, I’ll just start to forget things – there’s some critical personality changes that might start to get you worried that something’s going on.

00:04:18 Kate
I have heard, actually through personal experience, that not being able to deal with basic numbers and things like that, is that another indicator?

00:04:23 Tanya
Definitely. Something that’s always been familiar to a person, and you just forget your sequencing, so things no longer make sense and, you know, I’ve looked after people who are, say, school teachers that no longer can process putting prose and language together. Mathematicians, doctors, that just lose those real basic things that have been part of their life, and that has been what makes them who they are.

00:04:50 Kate
Can you sense their frustration with that?

00:04:52 Tanya
The early signs of dementia, and living with dementia early in life, is incredibly frustrating. Because you have moments of absolute clarity where you think, ‘what on earth am I doing?’ and that’s confronting and embarrassing for some people, especially people that have had very high pride in what they do. It can become very embarrassing trying to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.

00:05:15 Kate
It must be a bit frightening for them if they start to be suspicious that this is something that’s becoming a problem. And then for family members, if they start to detect some things like these, where’s the best place for them to turn for help or advice? If they’re suspicious that maybe some of this forgetting is a bit more significant than the rest of us losing our keys, which we all do?

00:05:33 Tanya
Yes, there’s some really good starting points. Often people find that if they’ve got a family GP, it’s a really good place to start, because if you’ve got that relationship, they will also support understanding. There’s organisations such as Dementia Support Australia, there’s dementia hotlines that you can call. There are really great external supports, and also your own friends and family. So it’s, you know, opening up and just saying, look, I think this is what’s happening and asking for help. But absolutely the first starting point is your GP.

00:06:05 Kate
Great. Well, we’ll make sure we put some links in the show notes for Dementia Australia, etcetera. So people know where to turn to. What about broaching the recognition of these signs with the loved one that you think might be behaving differently than you’ve seen before? How’s what’s the best way to broach that?

00:06:18 Tanya
Again, it’s very individual. Some people will be really open to it. A diagnosis of dementia is absolutely life changing. And if the person’s living with dementia, their ability to process that may be very varied, so it’s gauging where they’re at as far as coping, and at that point, sometimes the real care has to go to the caregivers themselves to support them with it. Because sometimes you have to explain over and over again, so it’s not just saying on one occasion you’ve got dementia. It may be a daily and hourly recurrence of that person having no insight into that diagnosis.

00:06:59 Kate
What about anger or frustration that you’re saying to somebody you think this might be the situation? Do some people push back and just not want to hear it?

00:07:05 Tanya
Absolutely, because it is confronting and it’s uncomfortable to think that you might have that. Plus in the early stages, you know, you do come in and out of understanding. So when you are able to process it, it’s really scary. When you’re not able to process it, you don’t understand why people are saying that to you. That’s when you could become quite upset and agitated about it, and that’s not fun.

00:07:27 Kate
You don’t want to see your loved one upset. But am I right in thinking that the earlier that you address this situation, the better?

00:07:34 Tanya
Yeah, absolutely. If possible, that is the best way to get the help. There are medications in very early stages and that’s why it’s important to get that medical support from a GP who may then refer on to a geriatrician who specialises, so there are people that specialise in looking after people with dementia. So the sooner you can get to it, the better. And it also allows you to start changing your environment at home to support. So if you start to understand and get help for the symptoms, you may be able to then change your environment to support their wellbeing even longer.

00:08:06 Kate
And those support lines you talked about before, do they also provide support and advice for the carer as they’re trying to deal with this?

00:08:11 Tanya
Yes, there’s incredible support for carers because it’s a 24 hour job when you start caring for someone. So places like Dementia Support Australia have incredible hotlines. They have a whole series of training and podcasts and courses that you can actually do, that will support you to understand what’s happening, and give you some tips and some help, and also keep showing you different places to go for that help, and also allows you to connect with the community that’s going through the same thing as you are.

00:08:41 Kate
Which is really, really helpful, isn’t it, when you can relate – because not everybody can understand if they’re not going through it themselves. So is it possible for people living with dementia to remain at home?

00:08:52 Tanya
Yes, for a period of time, it absolutely can be. And there there’s ways of supporting that to happen. It may be decluttering your home, it may be putting some signage up, using different colours, ensuring familiar items are around, getting some help, bringing people in to help you, some home care so that you can have a break yourself. Because home is such a familiar environment, so if someone can stay at home for a longer period of time, it’s just so important. So there are people that can come in and do that, so home care is a great way to bring carers in if that helps out, because there may be times where the person living with dementia is now struggling to even sequence a shower, so you bring someone in to do that and get support for the caregiver as well.

00:09:38 Kate
But the familiarity for them living at home, that’s very reassuring, isn’t.

00:09:42 Tanya
Oh it is. It’s all the familiar things. It’s where the memories are. It’s, you know, where the photos are. That may help them orientate themselves to time and place again. And all those familiar items that are really important.

00:09:54 Kate
Now I imagine the answer to this question is varied, because we’ve already talked about the fact that everyone experiences this differently. But how long can people with dementia, or people living with dementia, usually stay at home?

00:10:04 Tanya
Totally varied. It depends on what signs and symptoms become more prevalent, when safety becomes an issue, that’s usually the trick. The two real triggers to have to come into care are safety of the person living with dementia, or carer fatigue for the person caring for someone with dementia. When someone is at risk of leaving the home in the middle of the night and getting lost, it’s time to think about do we need a more secure environment? If someone’s unable to even get the just general personal care and they’re at risk of other things like infection or skin breakdown, it’s really time to think about coming into care. Home services are great, but ultimately we have to look after the people looking after people with dementia as well. And if it gets to the point, you know, sometimes we call it the breaking point or the crisis point. It’s important to know that there’s incredible services available that can pick your loved one up, like residential aged care, and bring them into a safe place to land.

00:11:05 Kate
Now we’re going to do a whole other episode about residential aged care and why that’s very beneficial for both the person who’s living with dementia and their family. But before we wrap this one, if someone was going to reflect on listening to this episode, what would be sort of key advice or key things you’d like them to remember? Maybe in terms of what they should really look out for, and how they should broach it with a loved one if they think that maybe there’s some signs happening?

00:11:29 Tanya
The most important thing to remember is you know your person the best. You are gonna pick up the signs sooner than anyone else, because of your relationship with your person. That is really hard to do, but there’s so many services to help and the sooner you can open up, discuss it, bring that help in the sooner you’ll actually feel you can get the support and wrap around that person and give them all the care and support that they need.

00:11:53 Kate
That’s great. That’s a really good insight and understanding and while we know that it is going to affect people differently, there are some really key things people can look out for there. So thank you so much for joining us, and we’ll speak to you again soon.

00:12:04 Tanya
Thanks, Kate.

00:12:11 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:00:42 Lisa
Thank you

00:00:43 Kate
I was just thinking, in case people have not even heard of respite before, the word’s definition gives a little bit of clue really: it’s a short period of rest or relief from something difficult. Do you think that sums it up?

00:00:55 Lisa
Yes, that would be exactly right. We classify respite as more for the carer than the actual customer that comes in, so that’s a pretty good summation of it.

00:01:00 Kate
I thought too – and I know it has the potential to sound a bit like an ad – but we’ve got a testimonial which is sort of the perfect way to highlight the benefits of respite. So, I thought I’d read that out to you both. So, it comes from Ali, who is a carer who has accessed respite care for her mother.

00:01:20 Kate
‘I have been my mum’s main carer over the last five years. Throughout these years, I’ve had some challenging medical conditions requiring a few surgeries and recoveries. Helping Hand has been an absolute lifesaver, not only for myself, but also for my mum. Knowing mum would be well cared for, in a safe, happy environment, meant the world to me. If considering options for alternative care arrangements for a loved one’s care – whether it’s to give yourself a well-deserved break or holiday, or requiring care for your own wellbeing – I would absolutely recommend Helping Hand respite. Mum has spent time in four of Helping Hand’s respite facilities over the last five years, with all of the locations being excellent experiences for mum and myself. The staff are caring, compassionate, and helped mum settle in quickly. Mum always felt safe and well looked after. When there was a need of medical assistance she was given appropriate treatment.’

00:02:06 Kate
It must make you feel pretty proud of your services hearing that.

00:02:10 Kerry
Yes definitely. It is also wonderful way for families to try out aged care when that transition from respite to permanent for example – if you’re going in on respite, you get a chance to meet the staff, find out if you like the facility, so it’s a wonderful opportunity. And as Lisa said, it’s good for carers and the families to have that break as well.

00:02:33 Kate
So, Lisa, you deal with pre-admissions, so perhaps we can start with you as we delve into some of the nuts and bolts of getting respite. You assist with the applications and the questions ahead of someone checking in, is that right?

00:02:44 Lisa
Yes, that’s correct. So, the first initial inquiry, whether it be an online submission – so you can actually go onto our website and make an inquiry about respite, and I’ll then pick it up from there (or my work colleague) and we’ll make contact with the person who made the inquiry, and explain the whole process from there.

00:03:04 Kate
And can you describe what exactly is residential respite care?

00:03:10 Lisa
So residential respite care is having respite within a nursing home or a care facility. There is some processes that have to be done first, and you need to have My Aged Care approval for residential respite in order to come in and receive that service.

00:03:23 Kate
And how long could a respite placement be?

00:03:25 Lisa
At Helping Hand, we take a minimum booking of two weeks, we don’t have anyone coming any shorter than that stay, but can be longer. A person is actually eligible under their My Aged Care plan for up to 63 days of respite in a financial year.

00:03:40 Kate
And do all Helping Hand residential care homes have respite rooms?

00:03:42 Lisa
Yes, we do, except for two of our country facilities, but we are able to receive respite in all of them. But we have dedicated rooms in all of our metropolitan and also at Whyalla and Port Pirie, and those rooms are booked in advance. We kind of describe it a bit like a motel system, where you make a booking. We’re running it off a calendar, so we can look up when the next vacancy is and book the person in from that time on.

00:04:00 Kate
Now you mentioned My Aged Care, so who can be eligible for residential respite, and is the process that they start with My Aged Care and take it from there?

00:04:11 Lisa
Yes, it is. So, anybody who’s over the age of 65 – I think there is some criteria that you can be under that age but it’s a medical -based thing – and once you’ve been approved by My Aged Care, and it’s a process of getting the Home Care Package and residential respite, also permanent care approval. Anybody I think, just makes an application through their website, or discussing it with their doctor.

00:04:39 Kate
Sometimes there could be confusion around why people might access respite, can you explain some of the different reasons that people might apply for a respite break?

00:04:35 Lisa
Yes certainly. We get referrals from all different areas: hospital-based referrals where somebody’s in hospital, there care has come to the point where they ready for discharge but maybe not well enough to return home, respite is suitable for that sort of thing; families going on holidays, where they’re wanting to make sure their mum, dad or loved one is safe – they may have been living independently in their own home with some support, but the family’s a little bit worried that, you know, if something happens in the night, you know, what will happen to mum or dad, so respite is good for that sort of thing; and also as Kerry has explained some families like to trial the respite – it’s a good ‘try before you buy’, where you can find out what happens in a care facility, but not staying there permanently – you can return home.

00:05:34 Kate
So, when people are coming in, accessing respite for the first time, are there some common questions that they like to ask you to get their heads around how it might work?

00:05:40 Lisa
Yes, the first things are ‘is mum going to be in a room by themselves?’ or ‘can they join in all the activities?’, ‘will they be getting medical care, is there a nurse available?’. Cost comes into it, because there is a cost involved in respite care – it is government partially supported, but there is a cost involved. And yeah, ‘what can they bring, can they bring, you know, things from home?’. All of those sort of things.

00:06:00 Kate
And no question’s a silly question is it, you’re happy to answer all those questions for people.

00:06:05 Lisa
Absolutely yes, you know, and we try to put people at ease by saying that. And look, feel free to ring back, because it’s a very daunting process and a lot of people feel very guilty about putting somebody in respite, especially if it’s a partner that they’ve always said “I’m never going to put you in a home” and then suddenly the circumstances change, or they’re having care burnout, and doctor’s recommended you have a break, those sort of things. So yeah, we try and put people at ease with all those.

00:06:33 Kate
I guess given people feel quite guilty at times, part of your role is to help put them at ease about that decision, and comfort them that this is an important thing for them to do both for themselves and for their partners or their family.

00:06:45 Lisa
Yes, that is the key factor I think, is encouraging the person who’s making the inquiry, whether it be the husband, the wife, the family member, to not feel guilty about it, and remember that their health and wellbeing is the most important. Because without them being well, and be that physically or mentally, they can’t continue that carer role.

00:07:00 Kate
So, this is an opportune time also for you to maybe share some feedback that you get, because, you know, at one end people are feeling guilty about putting people in, but you’ve told me already that you also get some wonderful feedback about people’s experiences once they have been using respite.

00:07:15 Lisa
Yes, we do, which is the great part about it. We often get what we call the frequent flyers, who keep coming back, booking it again and again, because, you know, mum or dad’s had such a wonderful experience. But I can remember one vivid conversation I had with somebody, and she could not believe the change in her mother. Her mother had been at home, very withdrawn, not wanting to participate in anything, not eating much, all that. She was terribly worried, but she wanted to go to Melbourne to look after her grandchild. And she put her mum in, and she rang when she got back and said ‘I cannot believe the change of my mum! She eats food I’ve never been able to get her to eat, she’s smiling all the time.’ So they are the things that I think help encourage families to know, that it’s not that scary or bad experience that they perceive it may be.

00:08:06 Kate
Kerry is Resident Liaison Coordinator. You come to the floor from the point of admissions, so helping to welcome and settle in all the guests for the duration of their stay, is that right?

00:08:14 Kerry
That’s right, yep.

00:08:15 Kate
So, tell me a little bit about your role.

00:08:16 Kerry
So, I will be the first person that they meet in reception, and depending on if they’ve come from hospital, or home – sometimes if the resident’s been in hospital, they don’t do the initial tour – so I’ll ask them if they’re feeling up to it. I’ll take them for a little brief tour, and show them the facility on the way through: show them where the café is, the salon, and then take them up to the room to settle in. I get them a tea or coffee, get them all settled, and then I sort of go through with the family, and we work out things like laundry, and we go through just a little bit of that information. And then I have a bit of a chat, a little brief sort of information about what they like, if they want to come to activities, if they would like to be invited to church, and I’ll just take a little brief summary to put in our assessments. And then hand over to the clinical team, and then they’ll come up and do all the medical side of things.

00:09:06 Kate
Providing information but also establishing a bit of a connection.

00:09:07 Kerry
A connection, absolutely. And it’s good I’ve got the both roles, I do Lifestyle Assistant as well. So, I get to see them through the activities as well, and encourage them to come along.

00:09:19 Kate
Do respite residents have access to all of the facilities and activities that are in the home?

00:09:22 Kerry
Absolutely. So on day two, they’ll get a welcome pack from our Lifestyle Team, and that includes the monthly program showing them all the activities that we have on, and so yes, they are invited, encouraged, to come to all of our activities. And they can access the café, the salon, everything that the permanent residents receive.

00:09:38 Kate
Now I know Lisa obviously deals with some of the concerns and questions before people come in, but do you find that there are still some common concerns that come up when you’re dealing with them on that day of arrival?

00:09:55 Kerry
Some of them when they’re in the room they might be worried – they’ll look at the bed and say ‘I’m worried about, you know, my mom or dad falling out’, so I’ll just say, you know, that’s something you can speak to the nurse to – any concerns that you’ve got, speak with the clinical nurse. They ask about food, what sort of food they’re going to get, but as Lisa said there’s no sort of question that’s not, you know we can answer and point them in the right direction if they’ve got any queries or concerns.

00:10:07 Kate
So, the family sometimes have questions and concerns, but what about the resident – are they usually OK or do they have some?

00:10:23 Kerry
The residents are usually OK – I mean, sometimes there might be some that don’t want to be there ’cause they wanna be home – but I sort of try and draw on my personal experience with my mum. When she went into care and we did the respite, and say ‘just go in have a bit of a holiday, and see what you like, see what you think of the place’. And so I sort of bring that up sometimes. And so, you know, she liked she didn’t have to cook, she didn’t have to do any washing, and I sort of try and put that sort of, you know, treat it like a bit of a holiday. As Lisa said we do have one particular frequent flyer who’s here at the moment, and he’s been here since 2021 several times, and he just loves being here. His family go on holidays, and he comes in and has, yeah, his time with us. And he loves having the support, and people to look after him.

00:11:08 Kate
And you get positive feedback from the families as well.

00:11:10 Kerry
Absolutely and they’re very happy with their stay. We had a gentleman leaving today, they said ‘wish we could live here’.

00:11:22 Kate
Before we finish, Lisa, if there was somebody out there that was going to listen to this episode, what do you think would be the key piece of information about respite that you’d like them to hear, what would you like them to take away?

00:11:28 Lisa
Not to be scared about it – to make that initial inquiry. You’re not bound to anything; you just give us a call. We’re happy to help you with information, we can post things out to you. You can also have general tours of the facility which we sort of advocate for a lot of people who are a little apprehensive. Bring mum, put her in the car, say we’re going out, we’re going to have a coffee in the café, we’re going to have a general tour – show them the facility. And that really helps a lot of the time to ease their fears, that it’s not, you know, six beds lined up. They’ve got lovely rooms, TV, ensuites, able to go and have coffee in the café, have their hair done, all sorts of things that I don’t think they quite realise until they get there.

00:12:09 Kate
That’s a great suggestion. What about you Kerry?

00:12:11 Kerry
The same. I think seeing the room gives them that visual, that they know that there’s lots of room and lots of activities to do, and the fact that they’re being looked after while you’re away, it just takes that ease of mind I suppose you would say, ease of mind that your family member is being well looked after while you’re away and you don’t worry as much. Especially the 24 hour care because it’s overnight as well so that takes the pressure off.

00:12:38 Kate
Absolutely. Well, sounds like you’re both doing a wonderful job, thank you so much for describing it for us.

00:12:44 Lisa
You’re welcome, thank you.

00:12:44 Kerry
Thank you for having us.

00:12:49 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600. Please remember – you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:23 Kate
Hello and thanks for listening in to our podcast. I’m your host, Kate Holland, and in this episode we’re going to focus on volunteering. Not only are they incredibly valuable to the organisations they support, but being a volunteer can bring valuable life experiences too. So joining me for this chat is Rachel Carson, Lifestyle Coordinator for Helping Hand in Golden Grove, and Kaye, who volunteers here herself. Welcome, ladies.

00:00:40 Kaye
Hello.

00:00:41 Rachel
Hello. Thank you for having us.

00:00:41 Kate
So, Rachel, let’s start with you. Can you explain a little bit about your role and your involvement with the volunteers here for helping hand?

00:00:56 Rachel
So I’m a Lifestyle Coordinator, so my main role here is implementing and coordinating activities for the residents here at Golden Grove. But also a huge part of my role is the management and training and recruitment of volunteers. So I’m their number one contact. So they are basically, they travel the journey of volunteering with me and my team.

00:01:11 Kate
How important are volunteers in the day-to-day running of the care home?

00:01:14 Rachel
The importance honestly can’t be measured. It sounds a bit cliche, but it really can’t. Because our Lifestyle teams here are somewhat small, volunteers are pivotal for our day to day. They allow us to be able to offer more activities to residents and also do the really important one-on-one social visits for residents who don’t want to come out to activities – they still get that opportunity to be social and have visits from people as well, so they are a pivotal role every day.

00:01:40 Kate
And what kind of things are they doing? What sort of activities?

00:01:41 Rachel
So we have volunteers that help like Kaye, with activities. And they also do one-on-one visits, we have volunteers that help in our cafe, they help with admin work as well. So they can actually help with other areas, not just lifestyles, but the main volunteers we have here are our lifestyle volunteers. So they help run activities from craft, to exercise class, to church, to birthday special celebrations.

00:02:06 Kate
Are there services that Helping Hand provide that you just simply couldn’t do if you didn’t have the support of volunteers?

00:02:11 Rachel
Literally all of them. Volunteers are absolutely pivotal because they are an extension of us. So yeah, I couldn’t speak highly of them and we couldn’t do what we could do without them.

00:02:19 Kate
Is there a particular activity or person or exchange that you’ve seen with the volunteer in action that springs to mind as a very special example?

00:02:27 Rachel
This sounds very cliche, but she’s sitting next to me. OK, so Kaye has been volunteering for four years and Kaye is part of the furniture, part of the family. There are people that volunteer and they volunteer because they feel they need to, and there are some people that volunteer because they were made to do it, if that doesn’t sound weird. She is the most friendly, outgoing person. The residents, every Monday and Tuesday here, they look out and look forward to seeing her. If she’s not there one day they notice, which is a big thing, and she’s just perfect for the role. She just brings this warmth, this passion. It’s not forced. It’s so natural. And she really is part of the team here. We couldn’t imagine not having her here. And every day she’s here is like, a very a special time for her. She does wonderful things.

00:03:14 Kate
We can’t not come and talk to you now Kaye, that’s so wonderful. Can you tell us about how you came to Helping Hand and sort of what you’re involved with now?

00:03:20 Kaye
I was actually caring for my mum and dad who were in their 90s, and they both passed away within about six months of each other and I feel a bit lost. And I was told that I either had to get a job or do volunteering to keep getting my pension, my carers pension. And I hadn’t worked for such a long time that I thought I don’t think I could do that. So they told me to go into the op shop or something like the hospital. You can volunteer in the hospital. And because I cared for my mum and dad, I just loved being around them. So that came to mind. My family said to me, are you crazy? And I said no. I think I could do it. So I got in touch with Golden Grove and came in, and that was four years ago and I just love it. The people here just make me feel so welcome. The team are fantastic to me. They treat me like part of their team. And the residents – I get hugs and they’re all saying to me all the time ‘Ohh, you do so much for us.’ They do so much for me. I just love it. I look forward to Mondays and Tuesdays.

00:04:36 Kate
So yeah, every Monday and Tuesday.

00:04:39 Kaye
Yes all day. I find that easier because once I get into something, it’s better to just stay here and finish it, than say a few hours here or a few hours there. I just prefer to be here all day, and it’s like my getaway from my home life and my family and enjoying my time for a couple of days.

00:04:58 Kate
And do you do a variety of activities?

00:05:00 Kaye
Yes, whatever needs to be done, some days are different, but my main thing is we go walking on a Monday morning, we take the residents out, and that is great. They love getting out into the sunshine and we chitchat, which we do a lot of. Then on Monday afternoons, we do carpet bowls. And during that time, I help bring the residents down. That’s a big thing. We go up and remind them of what the activity is, and assist them to come down to the hall. Then I do books. I take around some library books to make sure everyone’s got something to do if they don’t come down to an activity. Tuesdays, we do Jeopardy in the morning and we do bingo in the afternoon. And bingo is a very popular activity with lots of laughs, and we have a great time in bingo.

00:06:01 Kate
Now obviously there was specific reasons for why you came and were a volunteer, and I know Rachel, it’s getting harder and harder to get people to volunteer.

00:06:15 Rachel
Yes, for various reasons.

00:06:16 Kate
I remember hearing the radio story about the fact that, you know, sometimes a lot of people just can’t retire as early as they want. So it’s trickier for them to then give their time. But when people do have this space, it’s a really purposeful thing for people to do, isn’t it?

00:06:24 Rachel
It is. I mean, there’s no minimum or maximum amount of hours for volunteering, especially here. Any little bit of time anyone can give is really appreciated. And especially with our residents, they know everyone’s very time poor, so it’s probably – out of a lot of industries – you volunteer in aged care, probably they are the most appreciative of just a little bit of time. So anything someone can give is what we love, and we will openly take. And as I said some people aren’t group type people either. So we have some volunteers here that they prefer the one-on-one volunteering. They’re not big for group activities like residents, and we understand that. So they’re more than happy just to do visiting for a few hours a day, visiting multiple residents. Not so much joining in the activities. Or we’ve got some, as I said, that are very admin focused, so they prefer to be in the back of the office, not really people people, which is totally fine, but there’s always a role for them as well. So we’re very lucky. We’re sort of open to a lot of areas.

00:07:14 Kate
Within our industry, do you find that people can bring skills from their working life and then apply them here? Do you have any examples of that?

00:07:21 Rachel
Yes certainly. So we’ve got a lot of people that have worked in aged care or nursing before, so they’ve done it before. They might have retired or close to retirement, so they use those transferable skills over. So they’ve already got that basic empathy and understanding of the elderly. So that’s a big thing. But anyone you know, customer service role. Same thing dealing with people. Anything really.

00:07:39 Kate
What about things like, if you’re a carpenter or a musician?

00:07:43 Rachel
I think, well, we have a men’s shed. So they actually have a lot of volunteers as well, they love to build things, so we have people that come from a building, cabinetry background that come and help our gentleman with the men’s shed. We have artists who do painting with our residents as well. We’ve got beauticians that come and do our nails every Thursday and hand pampering, so many areas that you can use and transfer over to aged care because what we do is so diverse. Anyone from any background, because we basically do every activity you could imagine. Literally everyone has a skill to bring here. There’s not one that you’d go ‘oh no’, we use everything. Truck drivers, they love to share their one-on-one time on the road with other truck drivers here, because residents here as well come from such diverse backgrounds in their lives, anything could be made transferable here.

00:08:29 Kate
And that’s the great thing about aged care as well, and I just want to make the point, if you don’t have specific qualifications or a skill, you’re still welcome, aren’t you, you can adapt?

00:08:36 Rachel
The only thing really that volunteers need is what we call an NDIS clearance, because we’re working with vulnerable people, so that clearance is for, you know, children and the elderly. But other than that? That’s all they need. So if you have no qualifications whatsoever, you’re just as valuable as someone that has university qualifications. You’re exactly the same. You’re an even keel here.

00:08:52 Kate
Do you get the sense that the people that choose to volunteer have similar values? Do they tend to align?

00:08:59 Rachel
They do. They’re either a bit like Kaye, they’ve either looked after their family members or they’ve worked in the industry, or they just have, I guess, that simple empathy and understanding of elderly people and just want to make their lives brighter. As we kind of say working here, you’re sort of getting back towards the end of someone’s life and it’s such a rewarding experience. So most of those people have either experienced it themselves, and they want to give back in some sort of way. So they definitely all match our values perfectly.

00:09:27 Kate
And Kaye, it sounds like you enjoy every second that you’re here, which is wonderful for you and the residents, but is there a standout moment that you’ve had in your experience over the last four years?

00:09:35 Kaye
There has been lots. At the moment there’s a lady that never left her room, and I would go in and visit her and we would talk and she would tell me all her stories. Some of the people here have got amazing stories. So in the end, I convinced her to come to bingo with me – only for half the bingo. So I would leave at half time and go and get her, and she’d be sitting on her bed waiting for me, and I would bring her down. And now she laughs and she’s waiting for me to come and get her for bingo. And now I take her on walks as well. And yeah, she’s a special person, I think she’s a lovely, lovely lady. But I just noticed that she is a lot happier now. It really made me feel good to know that I got her out to an activity, and yeah, she loves it.

00:10:30 Kate
Would I be right in saying that you’re much happier in your life too for this experience?

00:10:34 Kaye
Most definitely. At home, my family say there’s work Kaye and there’s home Kaye. And work Kaye is much happier.

00:10:43 Kate
They get the best do they?

00:10:46 Kaye
I give my best here, and my family get the rest.

00:10:50 Kate
Well, I think you’re a pretty fabulous example of why volunteering is a really good thing to do and make sure – I’m hoping people, whether it’s at Helping Hand or anywhere else – listen to this and thank volunteering sounds like a great idea. If they want to volunteer at Helping Hand what should they do?

00:11:02 Rachel
So there is a website you can go onto, the Helping Hand website, through the career section; or you can pop on to Seek website as well, which is where all our vacancies are advertised; and there will be a number as well, you can call for people who don’t like online.

00:11:13 Kate
That’s fine. We will have the number at the end of this podcast and we’ll have all these details in our show notes as well. Now I like to finish the episodes where we can with a piece of advice that you’d like someone who’d listen to this, to take away and maybe to share at home. Is there something in particular that you think is really valuable for people to know about volunteering, Rachel?

00:11:32 Rachel
It is for everyone and when I mean everyone, I mean everyone and anyone. Please don’t undervalue your skills or your background. A lot of people going into any job or volunteering think ‘oh I’m not good enough’ or ‘I don’t have enough to offer’ that is completely incorrect and especially with aged care, everyone has anything to offer. And as I said, there is nothing – you’re not too boring, or your life is not exciting enough – trust me, it is. Because the residents appreciate everything, and so do we as staff. So no one can be undervalued here. It’s great. So whatever you think, please think the opposite and know that volunteering can definitely be for you, wherever you come from.

00:12:05 Kate
That’s wonderful. What about you Kaye?

00:12:07 Kaye
I certainly do not regret the day that I walked in here. I was really nervous when I was standing outside and I thought I’ve never done anything like this before, but I came in, and it’s just been so wonderful. And it just makes you feel good. It really does. And I would tell anybody, please just give it a go. You’ll find that you will absolutely love it.

00:12:31 Kate
That’s great. Well, you’re clearly both doing a wonderful job and enjoying it. And thank you so much for joining us to explain the benefits of volunteering.

00:12:38 Rachel
Thank you for having us.

00:12:44 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:23 Kate
Hello I’m your host, Kate Holland. And I’m so glad you’re listening to this episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, as it’s a really important one about advanced care planning. So this means planning for the future care of you or your loved one in line with personal wishes and desires. Not always an easy thing to bring up, this kind of planning is a very valuable thing to discuss with family. Joining me to discuss this topic is Zara Freeman, who’s a Palliative Care Nurse with Helping Hand, and it’s a subject that she’s very passionate about. Welcome Zara.

00:00:50 Zara
Thank you so much.

00:00:51 Kate
So firstly, for people that have no idea – and I myself knew what an advance care directive was, but didn’t know there was a umbrella term, advanced care planning – can you explain what that is?

00:01:00 Zara
So basically advanced care planning is just sharing about a person’s healthcare and how they would like to live their life. So how they’d like to live their life now, and into the future. So it’s about looking at if their health deteriorates, what type of care that they would like, where they would like to live, and what things are important to them. It’s a really important process and it’s also a fun and exciting process and gives people a lot of agency for their health.

00:01:30 Kate
So what’s your role in supporting residents and their families in this process of advanced care planning?

00:01:35 Zara
My role is that when a resident enters our residential care home, we like to get together with the family and the resident in the early stages of their admission and just to have a comfortable, friendly chat with them about what their care needs are and what they would like into the future. And this can either be the starting of discussions around completing advance care directive. Or for those residents that have a cognition deficit, we also complete another form which is called my life decisions, which is the same as an advance care directive, but it’s for residents that need supported decision making.

00:02:16 Kate
So what is an advance care directive? I don’t think everyone knows what that is.

00:02:19 Zara
Yeah, sure. So an advance care directive is a legal form. It’s actually for people over the age of 18. Anyone can have an advance care directive, so if you haven’t got one and you’re over the age of 18 would be really good for you to start one. And basically what it is, it just records your wishes and your values and also your present and future healthcare. So it’s what would you like now and what would you like into the future if something should happen to you.

00:02:47 Kate
Now I remember this coming up with my father in law and we thought we should have this discussion and everybody got very strange about it. But actually when we started the discussion, it was quite a healthy thing because as you say, particularly as you age – although life is unpredictable and, you know, I’m not quite aged care yet, but I do have one myself – it is about making decisions around what might happen if you can’t make decisions for yourself, if your health deteriorates significantly, that sort of thing, doesn’t it? And it can include things like if you were going to make funeral planning, the sort of elements that you might want to include in that.

00:03:18 Zara
Exactly, exactly the form is a fantastic form, it’s really easy to fill out. You can basically download it online through SA Health. But the important thing to acknowledge is that even though it is an easy form to fill out, it can be confronting for some people to talk about their life, thinking about their life and what things they would like in the future. And sometimes people may not be speaking about it to other family members as well. So you may think that, you know you want to speak to your dad about it or any loved one about it, but they might not want to talk to you about it. So it could also be that you have a chat about it with your friend as well. You don’t have to be the substitute decision maker to have these discussions. It can be an initial discussion with just a family or just a loved one and you could talk about it down the beach or at the park. It can just be a relaxed conversation. It doesn’t need to be scary or intense.

00:04:15 Kate
So you mentioned a substitute decision maker. What is that?

00:04:18 Zara
Yeah, so substitute decision maker is the person who we’re doing the advance care directive form, who they would like to be their decision maker. So it’s their legal decision maker. So in the event that the person that has the advance care directive, that they may become unwell, may not be able to make their own decisions, they can appoint the substitute decision maker to make decisions on their behalf. So either you can have one substitute decision maker, you could have two or three or four. But it’s really important to have someone that you trust and that you’re looking through their eyes and stepping into the shoes of the person the advance care directive is for, and that’s the most important thing – that you’re acknowledging their wishes and you’re following through and honouring that.

00:05:06 Kate
So you mentioned that the person you discuss a directive with doesn’t necessarily have to be the substitute decision maker, but would it make more sense if you did do it with them, because they’re gonna be the ones making those decisions on your behalf?

00:05:16 Zara
Exactly. So sometimes with the advance care directive, you might wanna have lots of different discussions with lots of different people, so maybe that you may start initial discussions with your friends and people that you love. And then when you have an idea about what you want, then you may make it more formalised and then start discussing with your substitute decision maker. I think the really interesting thing that I found in my job is that some family members think that they are definitely going to be the substitute decision makers because they’re the people that have been most involved in their mum and dad’s care, and sometimes they’re actually not, so that can be a really interesting family dynamic issue that we need to work through. But it’s an amazing, wonderful process, because not only do the substitute decision makers learn things about their mum and dad, that they’ve never ever known before, which is so beautiful, but it also gives them such an honest space that they can really value and work through what their mum or dad would want and just honour their wishes. And it’s a really beautiful thing to do and it’s quite humbling as well for the whole family.

00:06:26 Kate
So what are the sort of wishes that come into this? Obviously there’s things like if your health deteriorates. But as I mentioned with my own, it might be things like having music playing at your funeral. Is it that spectrum of things?

00:06:36 Zara
The form start off with ‘What are your values and your wishes’ so that can be anything like: I’d like to get my hair done every week, or I’d like to have makeup on, or make sure I wear high heels, or it can be anything that is important to that person. It could be that I want my dog with me all the time. So you’ve got all those beautiful soft things that make us to be human, so that’s the first thing. And through all those values and wishes what your main focus is that you’re looking at is quality of life and what makes up someone’s quality of life. So for me I could say if I was in a wheelchair I wouldn’t want any treatment. But you Kate may say, oh if I’m in a wheelchair, that’s fine. I can still continue my life. So it’s really, really important to look at what people’s quality of life is and what that means to them. So really delving in to that does take time, and it can take hours and hours to work out what people’s quality of life means to them, because we never think about these things.

00:07:36 Zara
From there – which is such an honour and a beautiful conversation to have – but then we then delve into, once the resident and once the person and the community starts feeling comfortable, then we can go into things that may be a little bit challenging, talking about what healthcare they would like. That could be things like if they were in a car accident, would they want to be in intensive care? Would they want resuscitation if they deteriorate, what type of healthcare they would like? So at Helping Hand what we do is we talk about how they are presenting when they arrive on admission. And we go through the whole journey of their life with us, which is such an honour all the way up until past their death, into the memorial service we have, so that when residents in our facility start the pathway of their new life with us, they understand exactly the healthcare they want, the healthcare they don’t want. And then of course, that gives them agency to understand the quality of life they want and then the quality of life and care we’re giving them.

00:08:42 Kate
You mentioned that you have to sometimes work with a family dynamic when the decision maker isn’t necessarily the person that they imagined it to be. Is this why a plan like this is so important? Because when you do reach a point here, for lack of a better word, the decision is there by the individual, and the family are not left maybe in conflict about that.

00:09:00 Zara
Yes, exactly. And it’s really, really important for the family to be all on the same page because you may have a brother or sister who may have never spoken for ten years, or have different ideas about what’s good for their mum or dad. It’s a wonderful time for the family to either be connected or share an understanding that they’re there for their mum and dad and it’s about their mum and dad. It’s not about them and that they are just valuing exactly what their mum or dad want and it gives them peace of mind. And of course it gives the resident or anyone out in the community peace of mind that people are gonna follow their wishes.

00:09:40 Kate
So this is a legal document, an advance care directive. Does this mean people have to then go and get it signed off by a lawyer?

00:09:45 Zara
So what we do here at Helping Hand, and what you can do out in the community as well, is all you need is a Justice of the Peace to sign. So we have our own Justice of the Peace here. And she will come in and sign it with the resident and the family, the substitute decision makers. And if you’re out in the community, you definitely just need to go to a Justice of the Peace and get that signed. I think the most important thing – because we do receive quite a few advance care directives that people have done out in the community – I think it’s really important that you write as much as you can in the advance care directive, even if you do extra pages.

00:10:22 Kate
It’s a downloadable document, isn’t it?

00:10:23 Zara
It’s a downloadable document, yes, and you just type in the browser advance care directive and it’ll come up. All you need to do is print it off. And I would always suggest go to somewhere beautiful that you love, like a park and just sit and relax, have a nice picnic, but just enjoy yourself and just get it started. Just start talking about it. You don’t need to do it all in one hit. I think people think it’s a form. It needs to be filled out. It’s a question and answer. It’s certainly not. It’s about your whole life and what’s important.

00:10:54 Kate
It’s about living the best life you can, right throughout your life.

00:10:58 Zara
Exactly. Living your best life. Living the life you want. Some things you’ll say. Yes, I OK. I will do that, or I won’t do that. But it really gives you that knowledge and that power to live how you wanna live, not how other people want you to live.

00:11:15 Kate
That’s beautiful. Now we often end the episode with, like, one piece of advice that you’d like people to take away with them. I think you’ve probably just given it. Don’t be scared of the process. Sure. And find a nice place to do it, would that be right?

00:11:24 Zara
Yeah, I would say don’t be afraid to do it. And you have to be over 18 years old. But I think if we all can just do it, get it done and then not only is it valuable that you have a document at the end, but you have created a beautiful relationship with a person you’ve done it with.

00:11:41 Kate
That’s great. Well, I think you would be a wonderful person to talk to about this stuff. So thank you so much for explaining that to us today.

00:11:45 Zara
No worries. Thanks a lot, Kate.

00:11:54 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:12:10 Kate
Please remember – you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna Land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello and welcome to another episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care. I’m your host, Kate Holland. This episode is one of three that we are devoting to dementia, a condition that an estimated 433,000 Australians currently live with. Joining me back on the podcast is Tanya McIver, who is Group Manager of Residential Services at Helping Hand. Together we’re going to explore the reasons why someone living with dementia may need to enter a residential care home and how care homes enable people living with dementia to live their best lives. Welcome back Tanya.

00:00:52 Tanya
Thank you Kate.

00:00:53 Kate
So for those who haven’t listened to the previous episode, can you just briefly describe what your role is at Helping Hand and what that involves?

00:01:00 Tanya
I work in residential services and my background is clinical and operational leadership in aged care. I’ve been in aged care for about 20 years and my current role is to oversee and support four of our residential aged care homes, and the staff, to provide high quality care and safe care to our residents.

00:01:17 Kate
In this previous episode we spoke about the different ways that you can keep someone living with dementia safe in their home and how you can make life easier for them and there are some great tips around that. But in most cases there comes a point when living at home is no longer the best option. Can you run through the types of reasons why someone might need to go into care?

00:01:34 Tanya
Sure, it does get to a point where there are some real trigger points that do require that supportive residential care. It can be the safety of the person living with dementia. If you’re unable to maintain them within the home, there may be risk of wandering, not being able to find their way home. Increased care needs, that’s when you might need a lot more assistance with your showering and with that general support, because it can become quite difficult to provide that care, and it’s sometimes very difficult for the person providing the care to be doing those tasks. Increased clinical needs, such as need for medication, support to take medications. Sometimes it’s a falls risk. So overall, the really big one also is carer fatigue. So often a carer has just spent so much time, it’s a 24 hour job, which one person can’t do. So the main trigger is, there’s going to need to be some help to look after the person with dementia and also really importantly for the caregivers that have just given so much to their person.

00:02:34 Kate
And I imagine if there’s a safety risk and there’s a worry that comes, you know, all of us worry about leaving the iron on or the stove top, but if that’s actually happening more frequently, that’s going to be a real concern both for the person living and the person caring for them.

00:02:47 Tanya
It’s an absolute concern. That safety, that potential for harm just for the person with dementia or for someone living with that person, it becomes a real concern from the safety and then a real concern for the other members of the family that want to look after both the people. So if it’s a couple living at home and one’s doing all the care, family and friends are going to be really worried about both of them.

00:03:10 Kate
So what are the benefits of a care home? Obviously it’s going to alleviate some of the issues, but what are some of the other benefits of a care home for someone living with dementia?

00:03:18 Tanya
It’s the 24-hour clinical and care at all times. It’s the support in the middle of the night that’s needed. It’s the opportunity for the carer to be able to step back and also look after themselves. We often say you need to trust us to do the care so you can go back to being the loved person and re-establish that relationship with your loved one. You know, let us worry about getting your person, your loved one into the shower, you worry about coming and having a coffee with them.

00:03:49 Kate
Yeah, you’ve got more space just to be back having that relationship again, don’t you? And you mentioned 24-7. Now again, if someone missed earlier episodes about dementia, and I didn’t know this either, that sometimes the body clock changes and people are up a lot later at night, so that is an interesting fact for people to understand. That’s why the 24-7 is really important, isn’t it?

00:04:09 Tanya
Absolutely. So if you think about someone living at home that’s having trouble with their time, which can happen with dementia, so the middle of the night is suddenly the middle of the day. As a carer, you’re having to be on task 24 hours a day. If it happens here at our care homes, we’ve got registered nurses and care staff there to guide, redirect, support. What it also means is the caregiver at home is getting a good night’s sleep and can come in and give themselves back again.

00:04:37 Kate
So the benefits to family members of residential care for someone living with that, that’s a really big part of it, isn’t it? It’s letting them rest, it’s letting them return to their original relationship and just be partner or daughter or son.

00:04:49 Tanya
The partnering is so important and when someone comes into care, the most important relationship is the staff and of course the person living in our care, the resident, but also a partnership with the family members that know this person better than anyone. So they’re the ones that need to support and guide the way we deliver care to their loved one because we vary it for each person. So it’s making sure we really partner with loved ones and that helps build the way we deliver care.

00:05:17 Kate
So does that mean you have quite an in-depth intake conversation with the person who cares?

00:05:22 Tanya
We do. It’s quite a detailed process and we want to set the person that’s coming into our care up to succeed. We want to set the staff up to succeed and give the right care to the right people. And we want to set up the family. They’re trusting us with their most important person in the world to them. So we need to make sure they’re part of that care planning. So there are assessments and planning. There’s opportunities to get to know the resident, who they are now and who they have always been.

00:05:52 Kate
Yeah, is that an important part of it, understanding who they may have been and what their life was and maybe what their career was and how that might show up in some of their behaviours?

00:06:00 Tanya
It’s vital because people present in very different ways. They’ll often present on different timelines. So they may on certain days think they’re back as a 25 year old school teacher. There’s no arguing that, it’s supporting where they are and how they’re feeling. It’s understanding what some experiences might be. I’ve looked after people that have even served in wars or been prisoner of wars. Their experience and the way we have to interact with them is very different. Someone that has been a stay at home mum is going to be busily looking for the kids at 4 o’clock. So it’s really important that our staff know all of those things about each resident and adapt. They have to meet them in their world and adapt to each person.

00:06:44 Kate
That’s great. That’s a very deep dedication you have. And I assume that part of your process is reassuring the carer that all the people who are assigned to looking after their loved one are going to have this deep understanding.

00:06:55 Tanya
It is. It’s about the staff training. It’s about the reassurance and building the trust. It’s also about them understanding that they’re coming into care because they do have very high care needs. Things will still happen. Falls may still happen because we’re encouraging some independence. So some of the things that were still happening at home will still happen in care. There’s someone there 24 hours a day to support, pick up, treat and assess. So that’s why it’s so important to be able to have that reassurance that if something happens tonight, someone’s going to be there.

00:07:28 Kate
And obviously people will come in with slightly different levels of needs. Helping Hand has 11 care homes with dedicated memory support units, or otherwise known as MSUs, I think, aren’t they, within the system?

00:07:40 Tanya
Yes.

00:07:41 Kate
Does somebody living with dementia necessarily always need an MSU?

00:07:45 Tanya
Not always. So over half of our residents in Helping Hand have got a diagnosis of dementia. It’s what brings them into care. For others, it’s in conjunction with other illnesses. The demand is huge. As we go through it, not everyone is going to present in the same way. And that’s one of the real challenges of dementia. It’s not a predictable way of presenting. It’s not a predictable timeline of how you’re going to deteriorate. Some people can live in our open areas quite safely. It’s when it’s again a risk of potentially exit seeking or leaving and getting lost. And the other real reason that we see people needing memory support is to go into a smaller, more contained unit.

00:08:27 Tanya
The world becomes very overwhelming when you’re living with dementia. You know, you think about young people travel the world. With dementia, you start to see the world needs to get smaller and smaller to cope. Often we might say to a family member, we think they’ll do really well in a more contained unit where they can cope, they can familiarise themselves. And then, you know, they find that they’re more comfortable with a smaller room, a smaller area, it’s not so overwhelming. So sometimes it’s that emotional need to go into a smaller unit, where it’s got those real specialised staff members as well.

00:09:01 Kate
And are there particular activities that are undertaken within those units as well?

00:09:06 Tanya
We try and give a really varied lifestyle program. We’ve got some incredible technology coming in as well. So obviously company, social support, chatting, engaging – everyone needs social engagement and company. But there’s also ways of supporting it. We’ve got Tovertafel tables, and I never say that correctly, but…

00:09:24 Kate
And you need to explain what they are.

00:09:26 Tanya
I like to call them a magic table. There’s some AI, it’s like a computer program. It’s a tabletop, and there’s some incredible interactive games that can stimulate cognitive and also physical capability.

00:09:38 Kate
They have music too, don’t they?

00:09:39 Tanya
Music’s a massive thing. Bubbles that go pop, but there’s also other people, they’re not able to use those. So we have to adapt to different stages, because there are different stages for people living with dementia. Some people remain really mobile, other people may lose their mobility and need a lifestyle program that’s still able to be provided. Even if they’re not able to get out of their chair anymore, we still provide the right level of lifestyle engagement to keep their social and emotional content going.

00:10:08 Kate
So that remains an ongoing focus. There are always activities that are designed and aligned to someone’s situation.

00:10:14 Tanya
Yes, we certainly adapt. We’ve got lifestyle programs, we’ve got some incredible staff. But the other thing in a memory support unit is all of our staff, whether you’re the nurse, the carer, working in hotel services, has an understanding of people living with dementia because our residents don’t know who we are. They just know how we make them feel and they know who their people are.

00:10:37 Kate
And I’ve met several people since doing some activities with Helping Hand who genuinely enjoy their time at the memory support unit. So maybe that outside perspective that dealing with people who are living with dementia is all hard work. That’s not actually true, isn’t it? There’s some real moments of joy and happiness.

00:10:51 Tanya
It’s a beautiful place to work. The staff that go in there give their heart and soul for 8 hours a day to people that they genuinely care about. We really try and put people in there that have this as their passion. We know our residents so well, we really care for them. I’ve seen care staff that treat them like family and provide the care as if they would for their own family. And I know if I had to put my person into aged care, I’d want a group of people that genuinely care and love my person. And that’s how I’m going to get respect and dignity and trust.

00:11:24 Kate
And seek out moments of joy with those people.

00:11:26 Tanya
The moments are so important. And someone living with dementia can have a really great day, can have a really great hour or a really great 5 minutes. And if we can grab that 5 minutes and a family can get that 5 minutes back of clarity with their person, that’s why we do it.

00:11:44 Kate
So can family members come and visit within the memory support unit?

00:11:46 Tanya
At any time. We absolutely support that. We like to partner with people, they can get involved in activities. So just because you live in a memory support unit, you can still come out, be in the other areas of the home, come for coffee at the cafes, come to other concerts and activities. So there’s life within an aged care home. It’s a really lively, beautiful place. It’s a community.

00:12:09 Kate
I know the government is pushing harder and harder for person-centered care, which is actually something Helping Hand has been doing for a very long time. But is there something that you can provide as an example about how you have delivered person-centered care to someone living with dementia? I think you sort of have alluded to it anyway, but is there a sort of a standout thing that you might do?

00:12:26 Tanya
It’s the life history is how we actually can deliver it. I was walking through a memory support unit last week and the first lady spoke to me about her country town. So it was important that I knew which country town that was. She thought she was there. So rather than saying, no, you’re not, it was, tell me about the main street. The next person I knew was a farmer. And he actually said to me, let’s get out there and shoot the rabbits. We encourage staff to change for each person. So it’s knowing that’s what’s important to that person. The next lady presents beautifully with bright red lipstick. First thing she said is, when are you going to get your hair done? So we can do really big projects, but it’s those small things that make a difference.

00:13:08 Kate
And understanding that about those people, is that part of that early gathering of information with their carers?

00:13:13 Tanya
Yes, it is. I’ve had ex-nurses that have come in and because I’m a nurse, I remember having one lady sitting in doing the rosters with me. She just was looking and looking for something to do. And she said, you look like you’re really busy. And I said, I need help with my rosters. She said, leave it with me. And it was beautiful.

00:13:29 Kate
So she sat side by side with you.

00:13:30 Tanya
She sat there and we did the rosters.

00:13:32 Kate
I’ve heard a similar story of a previous GP who got really agitated at the end of the day. And eventually somebody understood that was his previous life and they set him up a table in the corner and he would sit there writing scripts for hours and was really happy.

00:13:45 Tanya
So it’s meaningful engagement. So we can do wonderful activities. But it’s those meaningful moments and that meaningful engagement. Not everyone wants to sit and do rosters or write the scripts, but it meant something that person felt and the GP example would have felt they were adding value again.

00:14:02 Kate
There’s lots of reasons why it makes sense to me having chatted to you about why a residential care home would be a really valuable next step for people. But for anybody that is listening to this episode, what would be the top three reasons you would say they should start thinking about a residential care home and what are the key benefits?

00:14:19 Tanya
The top three reasons would be safety, getting the right level of care that every person deserves, and looking after the carers. And the benefits are that everyone can step back. There’s a reason why we have 24-hour care. It’s because people have care needs that require that. And it’s about supporting the carers to know it’s okay to say it’s time, it’s actually okay, and that that’s what we’re here for.

00:14:46 Kate
That would be a moment for people, wouldn’t it? There’s a sense of guilt sometimes that they are saying, this is what we need. Is that part of your role to actually assure them that that’s okay?

00:14:54 Tanya
Absolutely. The guilt when someone feels that it’s time to put someone into care is huge. I should have been able to look after them. I’ve failed them. I promised them I’d never do this. But sometimes that just has to happen. And that’s why we’re here and the conversations are very much about – you have done an amazing job, you have got your person to this point, we are really here to look after your person and we’re here to look after you. And so it is okay for it to be time.

00:15:24 Kate
We’re going to talk further about tips for somebody coping with looking after a loved one. And we’ve alluded to this now. And like you said before, by you helping them out, they can return to their previous role as a family member or a loved one and they can have the energy and attention to grab hold of those glimmers, those 5 minutes where they might get their person back. And that’s really, really important, isn’t it?

00:15:45 Tanya
It’s so important. Sometimes I’ll have a family come and say, we’ve had a great morning. And I’ll say, what a gift. What a gift you’ve got back today. Grab today. Can’t promise what tomorrow will look like, but grab what happened today.

00:15:57 Kate
That’s beautiful, Tanya. Thank you so much again for your invaluable knowledge on this area.

00:16:02 Tanya
Thank you.

00:16:06 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services, please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:23 Kate
Hello I’m your host, Kate Holland. And I’m so glad you’re listening to this episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, as it’s a really important one about advanced care planning. So this means planning for the future care of you or your loved one in line with personal wishes and desires. Not always an easy thing to bring up, this kind of planning is a very valuable thing to discuss with family. Joining me to discuss this topic is Zara Freeman, who’s a Palliative Care Nurse with Helping Hand, and it’s a subject that she’s very passionate about. Welcome Zara.

00:00:50 Zara
Thank you so much.

00:00:51 Kate
So firstly, for people that have no idea – and I myself knew what an advance care directive was, but didn’t know there was a umbrella term, advanced care planning – can you explain what that is?

00:01:00 Zara
So basically advanced care planning is just sharing about a person’s healthcare and how they would like to live their life. So how they’d like to live their life now, and into the future. So it’s about looking at if their health deteriorates, what type of care that they would like, where they would like to live, and what things are important to them. It’s a really important process and it’s also a fun and exciting process and gives people a lot of agency for their health.

00:01:30 Kate
So what’s your role in supporting residents and their families in this process of advanced care planning?

00:01:35 Zara
My role is that when a resident enters our residential care home, we like to get together with the family and the resident in the early stages of their admission and just to have a comfortable, friendly chat with them about what their care needs are and what they would like into the future. And this can either be the starting of discussions around completing advance care directive. Or for those residents that have a cognition deficit, we also complete another form which is called my life decisions, which is the same as an advance care directive, but it’s for residents that need supported decision making.

00:02:16 Kate
So what is an advance care directive? I don’t think everyone knows what that is.

00:02:19 Zara
Yeah, sure. So an advance care directive is a legal form. It’s actually for people over the age of 18. Anyone can have an advance care directive, so if you haven’t got one and you’re over the age of 18 would be really good for you to start one. And basically what it is, it just records your wishes and your values and also your present and future healthcare. So it’s what would you like now and what would you like into the future if something should happen to you.

00:02:47 Kate
Now I remember this coming up with my father in law and we thought we should have this discussion and everybody got very strange about it. But actually when we started the discussion, it was quite a healthy thing because as you say, particularly as you age – although life is unpredictable and, you know, I’m not quite aged care yet, but I do have one myself – it is about making decisions around what might happen if you can’t make decisions for yourself, if your health deteriorates significantly, that sort of thing, doesn’t it? And it can include things like if you were going to make funeral planning, the sort of elements that you might want to include in that.

00:03:18 Zara
Exactly, exactly the form is a fantastic form, it’s really easy to fill out. You can basically download it online through SA Health. But the important thing to acknowledge is that even though it is an easy form to fill out, it can be confronting for some people to talk about their life, thinking about their life and what things they would like in the future. And sometimes people may not be speaking about it to other family members as well. So you may think that, you know you want to speak to your dad about it or any loved one about it, but they might not want to talk to you about it. So it could also be that you have a chat about it with your friend as well. You don’t have to be the substitute decision maker to have these discussions. It can be an initial discussion with just a family or just a loved one and you could talk about it down the beach or at the park. It can just be a relaxed conversation. It doesn’t need to be scary or intense.

00:04:15 Kate
So you mentioned a substitute decision maker. What is that?

00:04:18 Zara
Yeah, so substitute decision maker is the person who we’re doing the advance care directive form, who they would like to be their decision maker. So it’s their legal decision maker. So in the event that the person that has the advance care directive, that they may become unwell, may not be able to make their own decisions, they can appoint the substitute decision maker to make decisions on their behalf. So either you can have one substitute decision maker, you could have two or three or four. But it’s really important to have someone that you trust and that you’re looking through their eyes and stepping into the shoes of the person the advance care directive is for, and that’s the most important thing – that you’re acknowledging their wishes and you’re following through and honouring that.

00:05:06 Kate
So you mentioned that the person you discuss a directive with doesn’t necessarily have to be the substitute decision maker, but would it make more sense if you did do it with them, because they’re gonna be the ones making those decisions on your behalf?

00:05:16 Zara
Exactly. So sometimes with the advance care directive, you might wanna have lots of different discussions with lots of different people, so maybe that you may start initial discussions with your friends and people that you love. And then when you have an idea about what you want, then you may make it more formalised and then start discussing with your substitute decision maker. I think the really interesting thing that I found in my job is that some family members think that they are definitely going to be the substitute decision makers because they’re the people that have been most involved in their mum and dad’s care, and sometimes they’re actually not, so that can be a really interesting family dynamic issue that we need to work through. But it’s an amazing, wonderful process, because not only do the substitute decision makers learn things about their mum and dad, that they’ve never ever known before, which is so beautiful, but it also gives them such an honest space that they can really value and work through what their mum or dad would want and just honour their wishes. And it’s a really beautiful thing to do and it’s quite humbling as well for the whole family.

00:06:26 Kate
So what are the sort of wishes that come into this? Obviously there’s things like if your health deteriorates. But as I mentioned with my own, it might be things like having music playing at your funeral. Is it that spectrum of things?

00:06:36 Zara
The form start off with ‘What are your values and your wishes’ so that can be anything like: I’d like to get my hair done every week, or I’d like to have makeup on, or make sure I wear high heels, or it can be anything that is important to that person. It could be that I want my dog with me all the time. So you’ve got all those beautiful soft things that make us to be human, so that’s the first thing. And through all those values and wishes what your main focus is that you’re looking at is quality of life and what makes up someone’s quality of life. So for me I could say if I was in a wheelchair I wouldn’t want any treatment. But you Kate may say, oh if I’m in a wheelchair, that’s fine. I can still continue my life. So it’s really, really important to look at what people’s quality of life is and what that means to them. So really delving in to that does take time, and it can take hours and hours to work out what people’s quality of life means to them, because we never think about these things.

00:07:36 Zara
From there – which is such an honour and a beautiful conversation to have – but then we then delve into, once the resident and once the person and the community starts feeling comfortable, then we can go into things that may be a little bit challenging, talking about what healthcare they would like. That could be things like if they were in a car accident, would they want to be in intensive care? Would they want resuscitation if they deteriorate, what type of healthcare they would like? So at Helping Hand what we do is we talk about how they are presenting when they arrive on admission. And we go through the whole journey of their life with us, which is such an honour all the way up until past their death, into the memorial service we have, so that when residents in our facility start the pathway of their new life with us, they understand exactly the healthcare they want, the healthcare they don’t want. And then of course, that gives them agency to understand the quality of life they want and then the quality of life and care we’re giving them.

00:08:42 Kate
You mentioned that you have to sometimes work with a family dynamic when the decision maker isn’t necessarily the person that they imagined it to be. Is this why a plan like this is so important? Because when you do reach a point here, for lack of a better word, the decision is there by the individual, and the family are not left maybe in conflict about that.

00:09:00 Zara
Yes, exactly. And it’s really, really important for the family to be all on the same page because you may have a brother or sister who may have never spoken for ten years, or have different ideas about what’s good for their mum or dad. It’s a wonderful time for the family to either be connected or share an understanding that they’re there for their mum and dad and it’s about their mum and dad. It’s not about them and that they are just valuing exactly what their mum or dad want and it gives them peace of mind. And of course it gives the resident or anyone out in the community peace of mind that people are gonna follow their wishes.

00:09:40 Kate
So this is a legal document, an advance care directive. Does this mean people have to then go and get it signed off by a lawyer?

00:09:45 Zara
So what we do here at Helping Hand, and what you can do out in the community as well, is all you need is a Justice of the Peace to sign. So we have our own Justice of the Peace here. And she will come in and sign it with the resident and the family, the substitute decision makers. And if you’re out in the community, you definitely just need to go to a Justice of the Peace and get that signed. I think the most important thing – because we do receive quite a few advance care directives that people have done out in the community – I think it’s really important that you write as much as you can in the advance care directive, even if you do extra pages.

00:10:22 Kate
It’s a downloadable document, isn’t it?

00:10:23 Zara
It’s a downloadable document, yes, and you just type in the browser advance care directive and it’ll come up. All you need to do is print it off. And I would always suggest go to somewhere beautiful that you love, like a park and just sit and relax, have a nice picnic, but just enjoy yourself and just get it started. Just start talking about it. You don’t need to do it all in one hit. I think people think it’s a form. It needs to be filled out. It’s a question and answer. It’s certainly not. It’s about your whole life and what’s important.

00:10:54 Kate
It’s about living the best life you can, right throughout your life.

00:10:58 Zara
Exactly. Living your best life. Living the life you want. Some things you’ll say. Yes, I OK. I will do that, or I won’t do that. But it really gives you that knowledge and that power to live how you wanna live, not how other people want you to live.

00:11:15 Kate
That’s beautiful. Now we often end the episode with, like, one piece of advice that you’d like people to take away with them. I think you’ve probably just given it. Don’t be scared of the process. Sure. And find a nice place to do it, would that be right?

00:11:24 Zara
Yeah, I would say don’t be afraid to do it. And you have to be over 18 years old. But I think if we all can just do it, get it done and then not only is it valuable that you have a document at the end, but you have created a beautiful relationship with a person you’ve done it with.

00:11:41 Kate
That’s great. Well, I think you would be a wonderful person to talk to about this stuff. So thank you so much for explaining that to us today.

00:11:45 Zara
No worries. Thanks a lot, Kate.

00:11:54 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:12:10 Kate
Please remember – you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello, I’m your host Kate Holland. In this episode, our very first, we’re going to learn all about home care: how the system works, how to access it, what’s on offer, and the right questions to ask in order to have your needs met. Joining me to uncover all that information is Jo Carter-Jones, Group Manager of Retirement Living and Housing at Helping Hand, and one of our lovely home care clients Rex. Thank you both for joining us.

00:00:46 Rex
Thank you

00:00:46 Jo
Thank you

00:00:48 Kate
Now before we start getting into the finer details, I’d just like to briefly explain the different type of government funding for help at home services. The Commonwealth Home Support Programme and Home Care Packages are both Australian government initiatives designed to support older Australians to stay living independently at home, however they cater to different levels of need and operate differently.

00:01:10 Kate
The Commonwealth Home Support Programme is designed for older people who need some assistance with daily tasks to make to maintain their independence – it provides entry level support services on a short term or ongoing basis. Typical services include basic help at home such as gardening, cleaning, and social support. Home Care Packages are for older people with more complex care needs – they provide a higher level of support and more comprehensive care, such as nursing, and allied health services. So with those definitions in mind Jo, perhaps you can begin by explaining who is eligible for Home Care Services and whether they need an assessment.

00:01:49 Jo
So there are different types of assessment based on your needs, so the eligibility criteria really refers to two parts. So the first part is age-related – essentially you need to be either 65 years or older to access and be eligible for services, or 50 years or older if you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. The second part to the criteria is based on your needs, so you might be that you’ve noticed that you can’t do things as easily as you used to, for example hanging out the washing, or changing the bed. It might be that you’ve had a recent fall, or a trip to hospital, or had a recent medical diagnosis that has impacted your health, and you’re not feeling as well as you used to.

00:02:31 Kate
Now I know there are a lot of different types of services available, we can’t run through all of them, but can you give us an overview of the sort of things people might seek out?

00:02:38 Jo
Yes, you’re right there are lots and lots of services available to help support people remain living safely at home. It’s easy to put them in categories I find, so if we look at assistance with home tasks – you can get some assistance with some cleaning, or some shopping. If we look at personal care – you can get some assistance with your showering, and your dressing. You can have a whole range of services to help you remain well and look after your wellbeing – and those things include access to podiatry services, attending exercise groups to improve your strength and balance.

00:03:15 Jo
And there are also a range of services that can help you to get out of the home, such as transport assistance, and attending social groups, which are really good to help support you talk to people and keep in touch with your community.

00:03:29 Kate
So there are some really great things that people can access, but sometimes starting the process can feel a bit intimidating to people. Do you have some key suggestions for the things that they should keep in mind when they first start?

00:03:49 Jo
Yes, I can make a few recommendations that will make it a bit easier as you commence the process of accessing some services. The first thing I would recommend is, before you phone My Aged Care, if you decide to give them a call to talk about a need for services, is make sure you have a pen and paper handy and you have your Medicare card ready to go. They will ask you for that information and it’s really helpful if you’ve got that ready to go so you don’t have to jump up and grab things as they ask the questions.

00:04:13 Jo
Part of that process will be them giving you what’s called your AC number, your Aged Care number, and it’s helpful if you have that pen and paper ready so you can write it down, because when you ring them again they might ask you for that number, so it’s helpful to have that ready. The other key things I would suggest is, have a think about who you would nominate as a representative who can talk to My Aged Care on your behalf. It’s really great if you can do it yourself, but it is helpful to have someone else that can call and talk about you. Because, for example, if you’re in hospital, or something happens, and you’re not able to make that call yourself, then a family member or a neighbour or a loved one can make that call. And that definitely helps to make the process smoother and easier, especially if things go wrong.

00:05:05 Jo
I would also say, if you are waiting for a phone call from My Aged Care, or from the assessment team or from a service provider, don’t wait too long. If you think you’ve waited a week or two and you haven’t received a call, and you’re wondering what’s happening, don’t just assume that there’s other people in the queue and they’ll get to you eventually – pick up the phone, call My Aged Care, ask for an update. Sometimes things can take a while, but it’s really good to check in and just see what’s happening to make sure things keep moving along.

00:05:34 Kate
And I assume when you do make those phone calls, it’s OK to ask questions and really probe what would suit you best to meet your needs?

00:05:41 Jo
Absolutely. Ask lots of questions, don’t hesitate to ask questions. I would also recommend having a look at the My Aged Care website if you have access to that. It does have lots of information. But phoning the My Aged Care contact centre and asking questions is also really helpful. You should have someone there that is really well briefed with the information and can answer all of your questions.

00:06:04 Kate
And we will have the website details and those phone number details in our show notes so we can make it easy for people to go and look that up after listening to the podcast. Now Reg, I think it’s important we come to you now, because you’re someone who has dealt with this process, and it wasn’t too intimidating for you.

00:06:20 Reg
No, as a matter fact, I had no expectations of the process – I didn’t even know it existed two years ago. I had a conversation with other people in the retirement village that I was in – we were having a little bit of difficulty at home, or I was having difficulty at home, and it was suggested that I ring Aged Care and look to get an assessment, which is exactly what I did, exactly as you’ve just heard. Initially I thought it was going to be daunting, whilst the process is longer than I anticipated – I was told the process may take five to six months to get an aged care assessment – it turned out that it was shorter than that, and I found that dealing with the Aged Care people was quite easy, I found them all approachable. As a matter fact I haven’t got a complaint in two years of dealing with the Aged Care people. With Helping Hand I have no complaint at all, I found the process easy.

00:07:21 Kate
And what services are you accessing?

00:07:23 Reg
I’m actually accessing domestic help, I’m accessing physio, I have a falls alarm. We’ve been provided the cards for transport if needed. Although my wife still drives, I no longer drive, I gave up my licence earlier on this year.

00:07:42 Kate
Can I ask the delay in you accessing these kinds of services, is that because you thought it wasn’t something that you will be given access to, or that you thought you didn’t need, or you just didn’t know about it full stop?

00:07:53 Reg
I suppose you get tied up in other programs that you get through your GP, through specialists, etc, and I found that that process rarely mentioned the Aged Care Packages that are available, and rarely mentioned the services that are provided through those that work within those packages like Helping Hand. I found the knowledge I got was sitting back and listening to those who are doing the assessments about what’s available, was more important than listening to other people’s advice about those processes – other people being people who had nothing to do with the services that are being provided. So I found the process excellent.

00:08:37 Kate
Do you think some people are resistant to accessing these services due to pride, and maybe being worried about people coming into their home?

00:08:44 Reg
I think both of those play a part. I think gender and history, given the age of people, plays a part. Males are reticent to give up their independence, to look at people helping them, because they see it as impacting upon their male ego. So I found it difficult in the initial stage to seek an assessment, but when I did, I suddenly realised there are a lot of people out there who can help you, and those people have helped myself and my wife immensely. I think it’s an ego thing, but I think it’s a gender thing, especially for men. The other thing is I think a lot of people listen to their families a little bit too much. I think sometimes it’s nice to go to somebody who is independent of the family to get the right advice.

00:09:36 Kate
And what has the process and help meant for your life, and would you recommend Helping Hand home care to other people?

00:09:42 Reg
What I found is that I get a lot of support through Helping Hand. The physio – I’ve had two physios with Helping Hand since I’ve been on the plan, and both of them have been excellent. If I can say it this way – I used to get headaches on a regular basis, and I had numbness throughout most of my body on numerous occasions. Through the MS Society and through Aged Care I now get my back physio-treated regularly. And because of the treatment on my spine, I rarely have headaches now – I have numbness, but I rarely have headaches.

00:10:19 Reg
Without Helping Hand I wouldn’t have known that that was an avenue available to me. I really do believe that at the moment my wife and I am much happier in the home environment, than what we were when we were living away from the help that you get from Helping Hand and from Aged Care. Both areas have been fabulous. I can’t believe that the response I got to some of my questions were so quick, and it cleared up a lot of problems.

00:10:50 Kate
So if people were going to take away one thing from listening to this podcast, one really solid piece of advice, as a recap, what would your one takeaway be? Jo?

00:10:59 Jo
Be patient, the process can take a while before you get to the commencement of your services, but the vital and important role that those services can play, as Reg has described, in keeping you safe and well and happy at home are so important, and so critical to helping you remain living at home, which in my experience is what the majority of people wanna do. There is no place like home. So if you need a little bit of help to help you remain living at home, then I think that’s a really great option and I would certainly advise you go ahead and start the process.

00:11:35 Kate
What about you Reg, what do you think they should take away?

00:11:40 Reg
I think most people should listen to the experts, and sit down, relax, and let the process take its course. Nothing’s ever done overnight, and I think just waiting, pausing, seeking advice, and letting the process take its course, is the only way to go. It’s been effective for us and it’s made our life a lot happier.

00:12:02 Kate
That’s wonderful, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your experience.

00:12:07 Reg
No worries, thanks very much.

00:12:08 Kate
Thank you. For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au. You can also call their home care number 1300 444 663.

00:12:23 Kate
Please remember – you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello, I’m your host Kate Holland. In this episode we’re going to learn more about allied health, and in particular, occupational therapy or OT as lots of people seem to call it. It seems to be an area of health that’s quite unfamiliar to many as well, but not to this episode’s guest Amanda Bailey, because she is Occupational Therapy Manager in Home Care at Helping Hand. Thanks for joining me.

00:00:43 Amanda
Thank you for having me.

00:00:44 Kate
Now OT sits under allied health, so I’m just wondering can you start by describing what allied health actually is. And I think Helping Hand has its own allied health team doesn’t it, maybe you can describe some of the things that Helping Hand offers?

00:00:54 Amanda
Yes, Helping Hand has a broad allied health team, so we have exercise physiologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, podiatrists, there’s even dieticians and speech pathologists and I think that covers everybody. We have nursing as well, but they don’t usually fall under the branch of allied health, that’s a bit more medical. But still, all part of the package, and all part of the things that Helping Hand offers.

00:01:22 Kate
And they’re all sourced through Helping Hand as well aren’t they?

00:01:23 Amanda
Yes. So we have all of those disciplines working for Helping Hand in home care, and I know that we also work across the residential sites as well with those disciplines.

00:01:32 Kate
So people are getting to see people that are part of Helping Hand team which must be very reassuring as they come to their homes.

00:01:38 Amanda
Yes, it’s really nice that we can have people that are from Helping Hand, to understand policies and procedures bigger than Helping Hand as well, so up to the more government levels. And make sure that when we make, when we get a referral, that we know who the coordinator is of the person, we know that little bit more about them. And we might get to see them a few times, so it’s bit about relationship building as well. More than just, you just pop in pop out, and then you go on. You can see people for several years.

00:02:00 Amanda
We just had a client this week who requested a specific occupational therapist that they’ve seen for about six or seven years now, said that ‘no I don’t want another team member, I want to see that person again’; so it just shows that relationship building is really important.

00:02:18 Kate
So how do people know that allied health is there, and that there are certain services that might help them reach their personal goals? As I said, allied health is not necessarily a description people know quite closely, so do you inform them that there are these things out there and what might align to their particular goals?

00:02:33 Amanda
So it comes back to the admission team, and so then the Home Care Package Coordinators or the Client Engagement Officers, or there’s a few other roles, but the ones who service the Commonwealth Home Support Package clients. And so they will talk through what the client’s needs are, and then they might be able to say ‘oh yes that sounds like something that an OT can help with’ or ‘that might be more physio or speech pathology’, whichever discipline that it relates to. And then it also comes back to when the client has had that very first assessment from the government assessors, they might put in referrals to say ‘you need an occupational therapist’. So it’s quite broad, but we don’t see someone without a referral. So they need to kind of already know what we are before we see them, which can be a bit tricky.

00:03:20 Kate
Yeah I was going to say, in my mind, you might see a physio because you want to be able to walk your dog, or maybe a exercise physiologist might help you get better at watering the garden – but an OT, not everybody knows what that is. So maybe you could tell us how you became an OT and what an OT actually does.

00:03:34 Amanda
So I became an OT when I was looking to change from my nursing background. I was just wanting something that wasn’t quite the same shift work, still wanted to help people, and one day I woke up and thought ‘hmm, OT, I could do that, I’ve got a rough idea of what they do’, and then a few months later I was at uni studying my four year degree to become an OT! So it just sort of progressed quite quickly there, I didn’t have much time to change my mind I guess. I’ve always thought it was the best choice that I’ve made, I’m really happy that I’ve become an OT.

00:04:02 Kate
How long have you been doing that for now?

00:04:03 Amanda
So I’ve been with Helping Hand now for a bit over three years, and then maybe four or five years before that, and then including my nursing and I was also a carer in residential care beforehand – I’ve been in for around 20-odd years now, so seen all sorts of bits and pieces over the years. And all of those roles have really complemented each other, to be able to look at the bigger picture and get to know people.

00:04:24 Kate
So what are some of the reasons that people would typically seek out help from an OT?

00:04:27 Amanda
One thing that I always try to explain to people is the word occupation in occupational therapy is what occupies your time during the day. So it’s not a workplace thing, ’cause sometimes people will say to me ‘oh I’m retired I don’t need an occupational therapist’, or sometimes people will answer the phone during our visit and they’ll say ‘I’ve got the occupational health and safety girl here with me’. It’s like – no it’s not quite like that! It’s what occupies your time during the day – so everything from getting out of bed, getting dressed, walking the dog, making something to eat – anything that occupies your time. Hobbies, sewing, doing a puzzle, socialising with family, getting out and about – it really covers so much.

00:05:11 Kate
So you are assisting them to be able to live a meaningful life doing those things that they want to keep doing.

00:05:15 Amanda
Absolutely. So that’s why we really need to, when we meet somebody, work out what their needs are. So part of what an occupational therapist does is we look at the person, we look at the occupation that they want to do, and then we also need to look at the environment that they’re doing it in. So if you have become less mobile and you can’t walk up and down stairs as easily now, but you live in a home that has several steps – what can we do to help make that safer, so you can achieve living at home for as long as possible and still doing the things that you enjoy.

00:05:52 Amanda
Sometimes people say ‘I don’t want to grab rail that means I’m giving up’, it’s like – no, it’s something that’s helping keep you safe. And if this rail stops you having a fall, and possibly having a significant injury such as fracturing your hip, or anything else – or then sometimes you might be then fearful of having a fall, and start withdrawing from doing the things that you enjoy doing – that rail isn’t really taking away from your independence is actually probably increasing your independence. So sometimes just reframing, or helping people just really look at how they see some of these assistive technologies, is a big part of what we do.

00:06:25 Kate
I know it sounds like a small thing, but I’ll never forget in England, it was a very long time ago, I met a lady over there – and they package everything in England, like to the hilt, with plastic. And she could barely open anything, and even jars and things like that were really frustrating for her. Do you help with little things like that which sounds small but are actually pretty big?

00:06:40 Amanda
Yes. So like I said, we cover anything that occupies your day. So we’ve got small kitchen aids that can even be as simple as, you know, the little like ring pulls on a tin of tuna, or like dog food cans, things like that. It’s really hard to actually open those if you have something like arthritis, or anything that’s limiting the function in your hands. And so, we’ve got devices where people are able to open those cans again. And so we have people that’ll be like ‘oh I’m able to feed my dog still, or my cat still’. And yes they could have someone come in and help feed the cat, but it’s just nice to be able to not have to ask for someone to open that jar, or open that bottle for them. It just gives them the extra little bit of independence.

00:07:16 Kate
Absolutely, that’s important. So if someone’s coming to see you for the very first time, what are the sort of things you would run through with them as they get started?

00:07:25 Amanda
So we always just start with a bit of an initial assessment and it’s really just to get to know the person – what their home environment’s like, the sort of things that they do during the day, ’cause sometimes people will say ‘oh I don’t know what I need to tell me, what you can do for me’. It’s like, well, I need to know more about you so I can make those suggestions. And I always explain to people that anything I suggest is a recommendation – it’s not that you have to do it, it’s just these are some ideas based on my clinical judgement. But you’re the expert in yourself and your body, and you might have tried some of these things before, or I’m not going to tell you have to change everything in your life. I had several people tell me that before I came, they knew that OTs often tell people to remove rugs ’cause they’re tripping hazards, and so they went and hid all their rugs before I turned up. And I’m like ‘oh thank you for sharing that with me, but even if I recommended you remove them, it’s still your choice, you just need to understand there’s a risk in having rugs.’ And quite often if a rug is large and heavy and not sliding around when you step on it, the edges aren’t curling up, it’s not really an unsafe thing, it’s just something that you want in the house.

00:08:30 Kate
So I mentioned, none of us really want to admit that we’re not capable of things. Do you have to sometimes tease out of people their needs?

00:08:38 Amanda
Yes, so quite often during that first visit, it’s a bit of relationship building and rapport building as well so I’ll have some people who, when we first talked with them, ‘oh no no, I’m fine with that. I’m fine with that. No worries there.’ And then after you talk a little bit more, they’ll happen to just mention something and you’ll be like ‘oh, are you sure that that you’re alright with that?’ If there’s something I can help you with, and then maybe just explain some of the interventions we might put in place. For example, the little steps over the tracking of the door to get in and out the house. That might be a trip hazard. Your walker might have got caught on there, or just might have stumbled cause it was a bit dark and you didn’t see it. And so I can talk about maybe a little small ramp to go there could just make life a little bit easier and without that relationship building and having those conversations. People just be like, I don’t know. I’m fine with everything. You don’t need to be here, which is sometimes what people say as well.

00:09:32 Kate
Are there common questions that people seem to ask about accessing both OT but allied health in general?

00:09:39 Amanda
I don’t know if there’s really any common questions. It’s more just understanding what we do and sometimes just clarifying that like, ‘oh, my friend got told this a few years ago from an OT. Is that true?’ And it’s like, well, that might have suited them. But legislation’s changed now or that’s not really quite what an OT would do, or maybe that suited their individual situation, but it’s not what you need.

00:10:03 Kate
It needs to be personalised doesn’t it.

00:10:05 Amanda
That’s right, it’s very personalised. If it wasn’t a personalised thing, anyone could do this and just throw 3 or 4 pieces of common equipment at you and be like ‘OK, see you, bye.’ And that’s, you know, not everyone needs those pieces of equipment, so let’s, you know, step back and work out what you need to support you.

00:10:18 Kate
People want to know how this can be funded. Have you got some information about that for us?

00:10:23 Amanda
So allied health services can be funded through someone’s Home Care Package, or through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme. Just with the Commonwealth Home Support Programme. They will need to have the My Aged Care codes in place. And if they don’t have them, they can just ask for them. Usually there’s just a bit of a phone call to My Aged Care.

00:10:39 Kate
So if someone was listening to this today and they wanted to, you want them to know one piece of advice about accessing allied health services or understanding what OT is and how they might utilise it. What would that piece of information be?

00:10:52 Amanda
So if they already with Helping Hand, I’d recommend that they have a chat with their coordinator or whoever a contact person is a helping hand, or even just to call Helping Hand and say ‘I’m having these problems. Is there somebody that can help me?’ Because the people who work at Helping Hand will be able to say, ‘Oh yes, that sounds like it might be an occupational therapist or that might be a speech pathologist, or maybe that’s a physio’ and direct them to the right referrals rather than just being stuck at, ‘I don’t know where to ask’ because sometimes just knowing who to ask the questions to is the biggest barrier, because we all have questions in ourselves, but not everybody knows the answers to the questions we have, so just being able to ask that right person. So I think that would be my advice.

00:11:33 Kate
And we will make sure that we have links to phone numbers and websites and all of those bits and pieces in the show notes for this episode, and I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise.

00:11:42 Amanda
Thank you so much for having me.

00:11:43 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au. You can also call their home care number 1300 444 663.

00:12:04 Kate
Please remember you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:23 Kate
Hello I’m your host, Kate Holland. And I’m so glad you’re listening to this episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, as it’s a really important one about advanced care planning. So this means planning for the future care of you or your loved one in line with personal wishes and desires. Not always an easy thing to bring up, this kind of planning is a very valuable thing to discuss with family. Joining me to discuss this topic is Zara Freeman, who’s a Palliative Care Nurse with Helping Hand, and it’s a subject that she’s very passionate about. Welcome Zara.

00:00:50 Zara
Thank you so much.

00:00:51 Kate
So firstly, for people that have no idea – and I myself knew what an advance care directive was, but didn’t know there was a umbrella term, advanced care planning – can you explain what that is?

00:01:00 Zara
So basically advanced care planning is just sharing about a person’s healthcare and how they would like to live their life. So how they’d like to live their life now, and into the future. So it’s about looking at if their health deteriorates, what type of care that they would like, where they would like to live, and what things are important to them. It’s a really important process and it’s also a fun and exciting process and gives people a lot of agency for their health.

00:01:30 Kate
So what’s your role in supporting residents and their families in this process of advanced care planning?

00:01:35 Zara
My role is that when a resident enters our residential care home, we like to get together with the family and the resident in the early stages of their admission and just to have a comfortable, friendly chat with them about what their care needs are and what they would like into the future. And this can either be the starting of discussions around completing advance care directive. Or for those residents that have a cognition deficit, we also complete another form which is called my life decisions, which is the same as an advance care directive, but it’s for residents that need supported decision making.

00:02:16 Kate
So what is an advance care directive? I don’t think everyone knows what that is.

00:02:19 Zara
Yeah, sure. So an advance care directive is a legal form. It’s actually for people over the age of 18. Anyone can have an advance care directive, so if you haven’t got one and you’re over the age of 18 would be really good for you to start one. And basically what it is, it just records your wishes and your values and also your present and future healthcare. So it’s what would you like now and what would you like into the future if something should happen to you.

00:02:47 Kate
Now I remember this coming up with my father in law and we thought we should have this discussion and everybody got very strange about it. But actually when we started the discussion, it was quite a healthy thing because as you say, particularly as you age – although life is unpredictable and, you know, I’m not quite aged care yet, but I do have one myself – it is about making decisions around what might happen if you can’t make decisions for yourself, if your health deteriorates significantly, that sort of thing, doesn’t it? And it can include things like if you were going to make funeral planning, the sort of elements that you might want to include in that.

00:03:18 Zara
Exactly, exactly the form is a fantastic form, it’s really easy to fill out. You can basically download it online through SA Health. But the important thing to acknowledge is that even though it is an easy form to fill out, it can be confronting for some people to talk about their life, thinking about their life and what things they would like in the future. And sometimes people may not be speaking about it to other family members as well. So you may think that, you know you want to speak to your dad about it or any loved one about it, but they might not want to talk to you about it. So it could also be that you have a chat about it with your friend as well. You don’t have to be the substitute decision maker to have these discussions. It can be an initial discussion with just a family or just a loved one and you could talk about it down the beach or at the park. It can just be a relaxed conversation. It doesn’t need to be scary or intense.

00:04:15 Kate
So you mentioned a substitute decision maker. What is that?

00:04:18 Zara
Yeah, so substitute decision maker is the person who we’re doing the advance care directive form, who they would like to be their decision maker. So it’s their legal decision maker. So in the event that the person that has the advance care directive, that they may become unwell, may not be able to make their own decisions, they can appoint the substitute decision maker to make decisions on their behalf. So either you can have one substitute decision maker, you could have two or three or four. But it’s really important to have someone that you trust and that you’re looking through their eyes and stepping into the shoes of the person the advance care directive is for, and that’s the most important thing – that you’re acknowledging their wishes and you’re following through and honouring that.

00:05:06 Kate
So you mentioned that the person you discuss a directive with doesn’t necessarily have to be the substitute decision maker, but would it make more sense if you did do it with them, because they’re gonna be the ones making those decisions on your behalf?

00:05:16 Zara
Exactly. So sometimes with the advance care directive, you might wanna have lots of different discussions with lots of different people, so maybe that you may start initial discussions with your friends and people that you love. And then when you have an idea about what you want, then you may make it more formalised and then start discussing with your substitute decision maker. I think the really interesting thing that I found in my job is that some family members think that they are definitely going to be the substitute decision makers because they’re the people that have been most involved in their mum and dad’s care, and sometimes they’re actually not, so that can be a really interesting family dynamic issue that we need to work through. But it’s an amazing, wonderful process, because not only do the substitute decision makers learn things about their mum and dad, that they’ve never ever known before, which is so beautiful, but it also gives them such an honest space that they can really value and work through what their mum or dad would want and just honour their wishes. And it’s a really beautiful thing to do and it’s quite humbling as well for the whole family.

00:06:26 Kate
So what are the sort of wishes that come into this? Obviously there’s things like if your health deteriorates. But as I mentioned with my own, it might be things like having music playing at your funeral. Is it that spectrum of things?

00:06:36 Zara
The form start off with ‘What are your values and your wishes’ so that can be anything like: I’d like to get my hair done every week, or I’d like to have makeup on, or make sure I wear high heels, or it can be anything that is important to that person. It could be that I want my dog with me all the time. So you’ve got all those beautiful soft things that make us to be human, so that’s the first thing. And through all those values and wishes what your main focus is that you’re looking at is quality of life and what makes up someone’s quality of life. So for me I could say if I was in a wheelchair I wouldn’t want any treatment. But you Kate may say, oh if I’m in a wheelchair, that’s fine. I can still continue my life. So it’s really, really important to look at what people’s quality of life is and what that means to them. So really delving in to that does take time, and it can take hours and hours to work out what people’s quality of life means to them, because we never think about these things.

00:07:36 Zara
From there – which is such an honour and a beautiful conversation to have – but then we then delve into, once the resident and once the person and the community starts feeling comfortable, then we can go into things that may be a little bit challenging, talking about what healthcare they would like. That could be things like if they were in a car accident, would they want to be in intensive care? Would they want resuscitation if they deteriorate, what type of healthcare they would like? So at Helping Hand what we do is we talk about how they are presenting when they arrive on admission. And we go through the whole journey of their life with us, which is such an honour all the way up until past their death, into the memorial service we have, so that when residents in our facility start the pathway of their new life with us, they understand exactly the healthcare they want, the healthcare they don’t want. And then of course, that gives them agency to understand the quality of life they want and then the quality of life and care we’re giving them.

00:08:42 Kate
You mentioned that you have to sometimes work with a family dynamic when the decision maker isn’t necessarily the person that they imagined it to be. Is this why a plan like this is so important? Because when you do reach a point here, for lack of a better word, the decision is there by the individual, and the family are not left maybe in conflict about that.

00:09:00 Zara
Yes, exactly. And it’s really, really important for the family to be all on the same page because you may have a brother or sister who may have never spoken for ten years, or have different ideas about what’s good for their mum or dad. It’s a wonderful time for the family to either be connected or share an understanding that they’re there for their mum and dad and it’s about their mum and dad. It’s not about them and that they are just valuing exactly what their mum or dad want and it gives them peace of mind. And of course it gives the resident or anyone out in the community peace of mind that people are gonna follow their wishes.

00:09:40 Kate
So this is a legal document, an advance care directive. Does this mean people have to then go and get it signed off by a lawyer?

00:09:45 Zara
So what we do here at Helping Hand, and what you can do out in the community as well, is all you need is a Justice of the Peace to sign. So we have our own Justice of the Peace here. And she will come in and sign it with the resident and the family, the substitute decision makers. And if you’re out in the community, you definitely just need to go to a Justice of the Peace and get that signed. I think the most important thing – because we do receive quite a few advance care directives that people have done out in the community – I think it’s really important that you write as much as you can in the advance care directive, even if you do extra pages.

00:10:22 Kate
It’s a downloadable document, isn’t it?

00:10:23 Zara
It’s a downloadable document, yes, and you just type in the browser advance care directive and it’ll come up. All you need to do is print it off. And I would always suggest go to somewhere beautiful that you love, like a park and just sit and relax, have a nice picnic, but just enjoy yourself and just get it started. Just start talking about it. You don’t need to do it all in one hit. I think people think it’s a form. It needs to be filled out. It’s a question and answer. It’s certainly not. It’s about your whole life and what’s important.

00:10:54 Kate
It’s about living the best life you can, right throughout your life.

00:10:58 Zara
Exactly. Living your best life. Living the life you want. Some things you’ll say. Yes, I OK. I will do that, or I won’t do that. But it really gives you that knowledge and that power to live how you wanna live, not how other people want you to live.

00:11:15 Kate
That’s beautiful. Now we often end the episode with, like, one piece of advice that you’d like people to take away with them. I think you’ve probably just given it. Don’t be scared of the process. Sure. And find a nice place to do it, would that be right?

00:11:24 Zara
Yeah, I would say don’t be afraid to do it. And you have to be over 18 years old. But I think if we all can just do it, get it done and then not only is it valuable that you have a document at the end, but you have created a beautiful relationship with a person you’ve done it with.

00:11:41 Kate
That’s great. Well, I think you would be a wonderful person to talk to about this stuff. So thank you so much for explaining that to us today.

00:11:45 Zara
No worries. Thanks a lot, Kate.

00:11:54 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:12:10 Kate
Please remember – you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello I’m your host, Kate Holland. Did you know that at home nursing services are available via Home Care Packages? This means you can skip a trip to the GP and have plenty of services delivered at home instead. In this episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, I’m joined by Jess Bryant, Clinical Manager with Helping Hand who is highly knowledgeable on what’s available to whom and how to access it. Welcome Jess.

00:00:43 Jess
Hi.

00:00:44 Kate
So Jess tell me about your role at Helping Hand. What does that involve?

00:00:46 Jess
I’m the Clinical Manager for Home Care Services, and that involves looking after all the nursing services for home care clients.

00:00:51 Kate
So those nursing services include at home nursing services as well, don’t they?

00:00:58 Jess
Yes.

00:00:59 Kate
Are you able to tell me a little bit about the areas in which Helping Hand offers at home nursing services?

00:01:04 Jess
So our nurses come out to your home, and they can assist you with things like wound care, medication assistance, whether that just be from prompting to actual administration, insulin administration and diabetes management, continence assessments, assessments to help get dementia supplements through their packages, we do skin checks, general wellbeing – which can involve your blood pressure monitoring, pulse, and all those types of things that you would normally go to the doctor for – we can do them at home to prevent you having to go that extra trip to the doctor.

00:01:34 Kate
They sound like excellent services. So who is eligible to receive these services?

00:01:40 Jess
So any client that’s on a Home Care Package with Helping Hand, any Commonwealth Home Support Programme participants, and the general public can pay a fee for service as well.

00:01:50 Kate
So do you find that many people are aware that at home nursing services are available to them?

00:01:56 Jess
No, I don’t believe many of our clients are either. Our Home Care Coordinators will actually liaise with us to refer them through to nursing services.

00:02:05 Kate
The services that are given to people, do they then liaise with their GP as well? Is there kind of a crossover between the two?

00:02:07 Jess
Yep. So if it’s anything like wound care, medication management, the nursing team can also assist with that. We can come out to the doctor with the clients, or we can just phone them or email them to let them know what we require to help their clients stay in their home longer.

00:02:23 Kate
And unlike some other organisations, the nursing staff that work with clients at Helping Hand, they are all Helping Hand staff themselves, aren’t they?

00:02:30 Jess
Yes, we have a team of nurses across metro, Whyalla, Port Pirie and Clare, and they’re all Helping Hand employees.

00:02:37 Kate
Obviously people will still have their own GP. Are the services that are provided through the nurses, is that information then coordinated and sent through to their GP?

00:02:44 Jess
Yes. So we will email through to GPs, call GPs, or sometimes go with clients to their GP. This is so that we can have that continuity of care for our clients.

00:02:54 Kate
So when you have a first appointment with a client, what would you generally run through with them when they’re going to start accessing these services?

00:02:59 Jess
So we would go in and we would do an initial assessment, depending on the service type, you know could be a medication assessment, or a skin assessment if it’s a wound, and, you know, many other types of assessments that we have. We introduce ourselves, we go through what they would like out of their care, what their goals are, and then we work with them to achieve those goals.

00:03:17 Kate
Will they have a continuity of nursing staff coming to them? Do they have someone allocated to them or does that change?

00:03:23 Jess
Yep, in metro we have a small team of nurses that you will generally get, either one or two or three of the same nurses. Obviously that can change when staff have leave, but you will see the same faces and hear the same names when we’re coming out to see you.

00:03:36 Kate
Yeah, which would make people feel very comfortable, I’m sure. What are some of the other benefits of having Helping Hand come to you and having it at home as opposed to having to go out to a GP?

00:03:45 Jess
You don’t have to run around and make times to get appointments, or lifts if you’re not able to drive. We come out to see you and we can talk with the GP so that we still get that continuity of care. If we think you need to see the GP, we do refer you in to the GP as well. So it’s just easier.

00:04:05 Kate
So I’m sure you have lots of good examples of things that you’ve offered, but do you have a particular story that stands out where you’ve helped a family in a way that perhaps they would not have expected that they could have improved through at home nursing?

00:04:13 Jess
Yeah. So we see a lot of carer stress as nurses when we’re going in, whether it be husbands or children of, you know, their mother – looking after them, helping them with simple tasks, just feeling like it’s too much for them. So we had a particular lady who her daughter was looking after her. A lot of carer stress happening. We discussed with the daughter around, you know, what is it that’s causing you this stress and how can we help? And we found out that it was just the medication that she was having a lot of issue with about making sure it was correct, making sure it was the right time, making sure she was there for her mum. So we offered nursing support. We did a medication assessment. We spoke with the GP, got the list of medications and set that up to do twice daily medication so the daughter could actually just go in and be a daughter and not have to go in and worry about medications and managing this for mum as well.

00:05:01 Kate
So it’s not always actually medical help on the person, it’s also providing support. I’m guessing that maybe some people don’t know that nurses actually have this broader skill set, and sort of permission to do what they can do, would that be right?

00:05:13 Jess
Yeah. So the GP’s will tell us exactly what they’re needing for their client once we set a goal plan up, and then we just work with them and we feedback to them if there’s anything that’s outside of the norm for the client.

00:05:24 Kate
So what changes are on the way for nursing? I get the impression that some things are changing. Where do you see it heading in the future, particularly nursing at home?

00:05:34 Jess
So nursing with the new Support At Home that’s coming through will be growing. There’s a big clinical aspect on there, where Helping Hand are currently looking at getting AINs, which Assistant in Nursing, so it will be an upskilled worker that can do basic nursing skills, to be able to streamline the process and minimise wait times. We’re also looking at getting more involved in the palliative care area because there is grants that are coming through for Support At Home, and that will be helping to keep people in their homes longer, which is what the community is telling us that they need.

00:06:09 Kate
And Support At Home, that’s a government initiative?

00:06:11 Jess
Yes.

00:06:12 Kate
And the information of that is continuing to roll out.

00:06:13 Jess
Yes.

00:06:14 Kate
So would you suggest for people to find out more about that, or just to keep on top of it, to visit both the Helping Hand website and perhaps the government websites?

00:06:22 Jess
Definitely. We’re getting new news every day.

00:06:24 Kate
we’ll make sure we have links to that as well. And obviously if people would prefer to talk to somebody, they can call Helping Hand and get information from a person?

00:06:29 Jess
Yep.

00:06:31 Kate
For somebody who is thinking about getting at home nursing, what would be a piece of advice that you would give them? What would be their starting point, and what would be the key reason you’d suggest they might pick it up?

00:06:40 Jess
If you’ve got any concerns around your health, if you are wanting to promote your health and stay at home longer, we can come out and just assist you in those things that you might normally go to the doctor for, or that you know families can sometimes say that you know you shouldn’t be at home anymore. But we can actually help stabilise things and keep you at home for that little bit longer than what the normal trajectory might have been.

00:07:02 Kate
So obviously, if somebody has an issue arise, they would call their GP and try and make an appointment. Is it the same sort of thing? If they have something that suddenly appears and they need help, can they then contact their at home nursing staff to come and attend to them?

00:07:11 Jess
Yep. So anyone with a Home Care Package can contact their coordinator, request to have nursing in place. The coordinator will then send a referral through and we will call to contact you, make an appointment, set that up. If we have a Commonwealth Home Support Programme client, they can get the codes from My Aged Care and then they can contact Helping Hand and we can set them up for a visit as soon as possible as well.
00:07:38 Kate
Sounds incredibly beneficial and I think I would like home nursing to come to my house so I didn’t have to try and get in the queue for an appointment too! Thank you so much for talking to us about it.

00:07:50 Jess
Thank you.

00:07:51 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600./s

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:23 Kate
Hello and thank you for listening to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care. I’m your host, Kate Holland. Now in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the government is introducing some changes with the aim of helping older Australians live independently at home for as long as possible. One of those is a new home care program called Support at Home, which will eventually replace Home Care Packages.

00:00:43 Kate
This change was expected to come in from the 1st of July this year, but the changeover has been pushed back until the 1st of November. Support at Home will eventually replace the Commonwealth Home Support Programme too, but no earlier than July 2027. Now we all know that with change comes many questions and Helping Hand has received many from those with existing home care packages. Someone who holds plenty of answers is the wonderful Mel Bassham. She is Aged Care Connector for Helping Hand and she joins me now to explain a few things before any changes take place. Welcome Mel.

00:01:13 Mel
Hello. Thank you.

00:01:14 Kate
Now let’s start with your role as Aged Care Connector. What exactly does that mean?

00:01:18 Mel
Many things. I can help people to register with My Aged Care and help them through the process to get access to supports at home. That could include anything from domestic assistance to social support to allied health therapies, it depends on what their need is. Do they have someone in their life that can support them but they’re feeling a bit overwhelmed as well and they need a bit of a nudge in the right direction? It can be a one on one support face to face, helping them through the assessment as well. So depending on what the person needs I can help them to get access to what they require.

00:01:53 Kate
And how do they reach out and make connection with you?

00:01:55 Mel
So they can call our 1300 number or there is an email connect@helpinghand.org.au?

00:02:01 Kate
Is that a free service through Helping Hand?

00:02:04 Mel
Yes, currently it is. Yes.

00:02:06 Kate
Now that the introduction of the new Aged Care Act is on hold, which also has an impact on Support at Home, we understand there’s still more information to come, but can you explain to the listeners exactly what Support at Home is and why it was going to be introduced?

00:02:18 Mel
It was introduced that Support at Home should be a fairer, user-friendly system to better meet the needs for older people. I do see how they have changed the way that it is structured, so it’s about the clinical need, your independence need, and then your everyday living. And then obviously the contribution towards that has changed as well. So in that regard, it is making that fairer, and I do think that they’re also looking at reducing the wait times to have access to those supports, as well as any goods and equipment or modifications to their home. Currently at the moment, you would need to accumulate your funds through the package, whereas with this new scheme there will be access to funding immediately. And also previously if you were waiting for a Home Care Level 4 for instance, which is the highest level at present, you could opt in to have a lower level. So a Level 2 and then you’d wait another time to get that extra funding. From what I understand, you will be allocated a higher level according to your needs and you will be able to access 60% of that funding after a small period of time, I think the aim is for three months that you would wait, which is significantly less where we’re looking at 12 to 18 months at present. When I first started in this role in another organisation six years ago, the wait time was blown out to two years. So it has come down. It’s just, for my liking, it’s not soon enough to access, and people are wanting help and don’t know what to do.

00:03:50 Kate
So when Support at Home comes in what will this mean for current and existing home care package holders?

00:03:59 Mel
So it depends on when their approvals are for their package that they have at the moment. And it all depends on one date which is the 12th of September. If you were approved and accessing, or on a wait list, prior to the 12th of September, you will transition, or in other terms grandfather, to Support at Home.

00:04:19 Kate
I see. So that’s for people who were approved prior to September 12th 2024.

00:04:24 Mel
After that date. So if you’re on the 13th of September and have an assessment and got approval, you will move in directly as being a new Support at Home customer.

00:04:32 Kate
OK, so there’s a lot of information for people to try and get their heads around. I believe with this in mind, Helping Hand has set up a dedicated hotline to answer these questions?

00:04:39 Mel
Sure, yes, they have that number is 1300 050 435. We have deep dived into the world of Support at Home and we kind of know the ins and outs of how it works and if we don’t know, we will look into it further and get back to that person if needed.

00:04:56 Kate
We’ll put that number in the show notes so people can go to it. Has it been busy?

00:04:59 Mel
There’s been times, yes, definitely. When Helping Hand has provided some information or when the government has sent out letters, we do get some concerns and worries, and by the end of the call, those people have been reassured and they understand that a bit more, so don’t be worried. Have a conversation before you start worrying. More often than not, it’s a better outcome of what they are actually seeing at the moment. There are some people that are better off, some people have had no change whatsoever. It’s just business as usual.

00:05:29 Kate
Are there any repeated questions that seem to be coming up, I think co-contributions was one of the ones?

00:05:30 Mel
Definitely. Co-contributions and rolling over of built up funds. They’ve been for a period where they’ve had to save everything, the new model will show that you’ll be able to reassess to get access to funding, to purchase goods and equipment and or have home modifications. At the moment it’s Home Care Packages Level 1 to 4; new world: Support at Home it is a classification of between 1 and 8, so there’s more higher levels of funding. So I think at present it’s close to around $60,000; new world: the highest level of packages is around $80,000. That’s kind of how I see it. The take away point is, don’t panic. There will be support to access the goods and equipment. You will be able to roll over funds in the Support at Home. It’s just not going to be as a higher level as what it was before because the government would like you to use your services, use that classification to ensure that you’re getting those services at home, whereas at this point, at the moment, is some people don’t use it for services and they go without certain things to save for equipment and that worries me because that can be a bad implication, that someone’s not having a personal care because they need to get a wheelchair. Well, we want someone in that home to support that person.

00:06:50 Kate
Now when it comes to crunching these numbers, I do think there’s a new tool that has just been released that might help people.

00:06:55 Mel
That is for the co-contribution. So it’s a fee estimator that the government, because they’re aligning that with the three areas of care: the clinical, the independence, and the everyday living – so that’s separate to the budget. The budget you would go through with your coordinator or in the new world, it’s called a care partner. So that’s another change that’s been implemented.

00:07:17 Kate
OK. So that co-contribution question that comes up, that calculator will help people to get their heads around that? And is that available online now?

00:07:23 Mel
Yes, that definitely is on the My Aged Care website. And then also you can have a conversation with Services Australia.

00:07:30 Kate
So if you were going to give a key piece of advice to someone in the process of transitioning from a Home Care Package to Support at Home, what would that advice be keeping in mind? And everybody needs to know that the changeover is no longer July 1st. It’s going to be the first November. So there’s a bit more time to play with which is good. But should they be getting prepared as soon as possible anyway?

00:07:49 Mel
Definitely. My key takeaway advice is to firstly work out what kind of support that you really require, and looking at the areas of clinical, that would range from any allied health therapies to nursing. Anything to help you be independent and keeping mobile, whether it be an exercise class or a balance class. Then looking at your independence, so the social support – you’re going to the shops, transport. And then everyday living is your gardening and domestic assistance, etcetera. Making sure that part of your assessment to get that, like so reaching out to My Aged Care for that assessment, and making sure that you share what you are wanting to access. What’s your goal, how do you want that to work for you? I don’t think you should discount the help that you might need.

00:08:42 Mel
Personally, from my experience, I’ve had grandparents that moved into residential aged care far too early, and knowing what I know now, if they’d had some more support at home, that would definitely have changed that outcome. So you know, it’s the case of what I know now, I wish I knew back then. So I think that’s what drove me to do what I do to today. I have had customers that I’ve helped before through an assessment process and it can be tricky, because the language isn’t what you would normally use. So I’ve been an interpreter at times. I had a gentleman that I assisted who was having some issues with his back and there’d be times where he would be laid in bed every day. The question was ‘how do you go about getting meals?’ And he actually said, ‘yep, I’m fine. I can cook and do all that.’ But I knew that there was times where he wouldn’t actually cook for himself. And so I just kind of steered the question of ‘what do you do on your bad day?’ ‘What happens when you’re bad?’ And he said, ‘well, I make a cup of tea, a piece of toast.’ And that’s not sustainable for a week in bed. So that changed the conversation to, ‘would you like to have some meals delivered or would you like to have someone to help you to prepare some meals at home?’ So very different outcome from that very first conversation of ‘I’m OK. I can cook.’ Yeah, he absolutely could cook on a good day, but not when he was having a bad back day.

00:10:02 Kate
So putting aside all of their complicated information around funding, all the rest of it, if somebody’s goal for themselves or for a loved one is for them to live at home independently as long as possible, would you recommend the best starting point is reaching out and talking to somebody like you, because obviously your talent and skillset is in drawing the important information out to help assist them live as best possible.

00:10:26 Mel
Definitely talk to family, talk to My Aged Care, reach out to us, start the conversation. Don’t be afraid to think that you need some help at home. It doesn’t mean that you failed as an older person. It just means that you’re gonna have some more people in your life to help you to support you be at home, be upright, reduce falls, whatever it might be that you need to keep being at home.

00:10:48 Kate
That’s right. And that benefits not only them, but also their carers and their loved ones.

00:10:52 Mel
Absolutely, yeah.

00:10:53 Kate
Look, I think we must reassure people that throughout this transition, which is now ongoing and extended through to November, all the services that they’re currently receiving will continue as normal and they’ll get the same level of care and support, and I’m sure you and your team will make sure that people get updated information as soon as it comes to light at your end as well.

00:11:09 Mel
Definitely. You continue to call our hotline for the Support at Home if you wish. The organisation is also providing information and newsletters and updates by email too.

00:11:20 Kate
Well, it’s a very, very busy time. All the people out there are lucky to have you with your passion and desire to want to help them. So thanks so much for helping to uncover some of the mystery around this for us today.

00:11:29 Mel
No problem, thanks for having me.

00:11:34 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:22 Kate
Hello and welcome to another episode of Age Old Problems: New Aged Care. I’m your host, Kate Holland. Did you know that it’s estimated that in Australia there are more than 433,000 people living with dementia? So with this knowledge at hand, we’ve decided to devote three episodes to understanding it better. And this one’s the first.

00:00:40 Kate
Dementia is not a normal part of getting older. Instead, it’s a broad term that describes a collection of symptoms caused by disorders affecting the brain. And while everyone’s experience is unique, there are some early warning signs that you can look out for. Joining me to help you understand all of this a bit better is Tanya McIver, who is Group Manager of Residential Services at Helping Hand. Welcome Tanya.

00:01:00 Tanya
Thank you Kate.

00:01:01 Kate
So can you start by telling me a little bit about your role at Helping Hand. What does that involve?

00:01:05 Tanya
My background is clinical and a registered nurse, and currently I oversee and support four of our residential aged care homes at Helping Hand. And that’s supporting them with their clinical care, operational care, family and staff care.

00:01:18 Kate
Great. So how does that tie into understanding dementia? Can you talk me through your background and your experience in working with people with dementia?

00:01:25 Tanya
Sure. I was at university and worked as a carer while I was doing my registered nurse training. I moved into acute for a while, but always had an absolute love and passion for delivering respectful, dignified care to our older Australians, so I’ve been back in aged care for over 20 years, managing homes, and am very passionate about supporting staff involvement to ensure that there’s respect and dignity at all times.

00:01:49 Kate
And you did mention to me before we started this, you were drawn to work in aged care and with other people, why was that?

00:01:54 Tanya
The older people have created this country that we live in, and people deserve care, and they deserve the absolute best care after all the work that they’ve done to create this beautiful place that we live in. Staff need to respect, understand, and then make sure that we’re giving them the best experience possible in aged care, which is their final home.

00:02:15 Kate
So dementia, which unfortunately does impact a lot of people. So it’s not just one disease. How can you define dementia and what are some of the diseases that are linked with it?

00:02:23 Tanya
So there are a lot of different variants of dementia. There’s some that are diagnosed as part of another condition, like a Parkinson’s can lead to a dementia. There’s different parts of the brain that can be impacted which develop like a frontal lobe dementia, which will give different signs and symptoms. So there’s lots of early signs that people will pick up at home across that variety of disease diagnoses.

00:02:46 Kate
So is that why it appears quite differently in different people because of the condition leading towards it?

00:02:51 Tanya
It does. Because of different areas of the brain that it can affect, because different parts of our brain control different parts of our emotion, personality and behaviours. So there are different ways that signs and symptoms can come, and also people are individuals. So it impacts individuals differently and sometimes because of their life experience and lived experience, it will impact someone differently.

00:03:13 Kate
The differences aside and what leads to it aside, what are some of the common early signs of dementia that people might be able to look out for?

00:03:20 Tanya
You see, there’s the forgetting things, but it’s not just where’s my car keys. It’s actually. I don’t know where my bathroom is. I’m at my front door and I haven’t just forgotten my keys. I’m not sure if I know where my car is, so there’s the small forgetful things. People can also become very repetitive, so you might start to see someone ask the same thing over and over again, and no matter how many times you give the answer, that person is not able to retain it. Real changes in routine, often people are awake a lot at night, so that can change. And there’s also the fear of security, so people might go out their front door and not be sure where they are, so that’s when safety becomes a concern. And changes in someone’s personality, you might start to look and go, well, that’s just not like mum. She doesn’t do that. So things that are really out of character. It’s sort of a myth that it’s just, I’ll just start to forget things – there’s some critical personality changes that might start to get you worried that something’s going on.

00:04:18 Kate
I have heard, actually through personal experience, that not being able to deal with basic numbers and things like that, is that another indicator?

00:04:23 Tanya
Definitely. Something that’s always been familiar to a person, and you just forget your sequencing, so things no longer make sense and, you know, I’ve looked after people who are, say, school teachers that no longer can process putting prose and language together. Mathematicians, doctors, that just lose those real basic things that have been part of their life, and that has been what makes them who they are.

00:04:50 Kate
Can you sense their frustration with that?

00:04:52 Tanya
The early signs of dementia, and living with dementia early in life, is incredibly frustrating. Because you have moments of absolute clarity where you think, ‘what on earth am I doing?’ and that’s confronting and embarrassing for some people, especially people that have had very high pride in what they do. It can become very embarrassing trying to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.

00:05:15 Kate
It must be a bit frightening for them if they start to be suspicious that this is something that’s becoming a problem. And then for family members, if they start to detect some things like these, where’s the best place for them to turn for help or advice? If they’re suspicious that maybe some of this forgetting is a bit more significant than the rest of us losing our keys, which we all do?

00:05:33 Tanya
Yes, there’s some really good starting points. Often people find that if they’ve got a family GP, it’s a really good place to start, because if you’ve got that relationship, they will also support understanding. There’s organisations such as Dementia Support Australia, there’s dementia hotlines that you can call. There are really great external supports, and also your own friends and family. So it’s, you know, opening up and just saying, look, I think this is what’s happening and asking for help. But absolutely the first starting point is your GP.

00:06:05 Kate
Great. Well, we’ll make sure we put some links in the show notes for Dementia Australia, etcetera. So people know where to turn to. What about broaching the recognition of these signs with the loved one that you think might be behaving differently than you’ve seen before? How’s what’s the best way to broach that?

00:06:18 Tanya
Again, it’s very individual. Some people will be really open to it. A diagnosis of dementia is absolutely life changing. And if the person’s living with dementia, their ability to process that may be very varied, so it’s gauging where they’re at as far as coping, and at that point, sometimes the real care has to go to the caregivers themselves to support them with it. Because sometimes you have to explain over and over again, so it’s not just saying on one occasion you’ve got dementia. It may be a daily and hourly recurrence of that person having no insight into that diagnosis.

00:06:59 Kate
What about anger or frustration that you’re saying to somebody you think this might be the situation? Do some people push back and just not want to hear it?

00:07:05 Tanya
Absolutely, because it is confronting and it’s uncomfortable to think that you might have that. Plus in the early stages, you know, you do come in and out of understanding. So when you are able to process it, it’s really scary. When you’re not able to process it, you don’t understand why people are saying that to you. That’s when you could become quite upset and agitated about it, and that’s not fun.

00:07:27 Kate
You don’t want to see your loved one upset. But am I right in thinking that the earlier that you address this situation, the better?

00:07:34 Tanya
Yeah, absolutely. If possible, that is the best way to get the help. There are medications in very early stages and that’s why it’s important to get that medical support from a GP who may then refer on to a geriatrician who specialises, so there are people that specialise in looking after people with dementia. So the sooner you can get to it, the better. And it also allows you to start changing your environment at home to support. So if you start to understand and get help for the symptoms, you may be able to then change your environment to support their wellbeing even longer.

00:08:06 Kate
And those support lines you talked about before, do they also provide support and advice for the carer as they’re trying to deal with this?

00:08:11 Tanya
Yes, there’s incredible support for carers because it’s a 24 hour job when you start caring for someone. So places like Dementia Support Australia have incredible hotlines. They have a whole series of training and podcasts and courses that you can actually do, that will support you to understand what’s happening, and give you some tips and some help, and also keep showing you different places to go for that help, and also allows you to connect with the community that’s going through the same thing as you are.

00:08:41 Kate
Which is really, really helpful, isn’t it, when you can relate – because not everybody can understand if they’re not going through it themselves. So is it possible for people living with dementia to remain at home?

00:08:52 Tanya
Yes, for a period of time, it absolutely can be. And there there’s ways of supporting that to happen. It may be decluttering your home, it may be putting some signage up, using different colours, ensuring familiar items are around, getting some help, bringing people in to help you, some home care so that you can have a break yourself. Because home is such a familiar environment, so if someone can stay at home for a longer period of time, it’s just so important. So there are people that can come in and do that, so home care is a great way to bring carers in if that helps out, because there may be times where the person living with dementia is now struggling to even sequence a shower, so you bring someone in to do that and get support for the caregiver as well.

00:09:38 Kate
But the familiarity for them living at home, that’s very reassuring, isn’t.

00:09:42 Tanya
Oh it is. It’s all the familiar things. It’s where the memories are. It’s, you know, where the photos are. That may help them orientate themselves to time and place again. And all those familiar items that are really important.

00:09:54 Kate
Now I imagine the answer to this question is varied, because we’ve already talked about the fact that everyone experiences this differently. But how long can people with dementia, or people living with dementia, usually stay at home?

00:10:04 Tanya
Totally varied. It depends on what signs and symptoms become more prevalent, when safety becomes an issue, that’s usually the trick. The two real triggers to have to come into care are safety of the person living with dementia, or carer fatigue for the person caring for someone with dementia. When someone is at risk of leaving the home in the middle of the night and getting lost, it’s time to think about do we need a more secure environment? If someone’s unable to even get the just general personal care and they’re at risk of other things like infection or skin breakdown, it’s really time to think about coming into care. Home services are great, but ultimately we have to look after the people looking after people with dementia as well. And if it gets to the point, you know, sometimes we call it the breaking point or the crisis point. It’s important to know that there’s incredible services available that can pick your loved one up, like residential aged care, and bring them into a safe place to land.

00:11:05 Kate
Now we’re going to do a whole other episode about residential aged care and why that’s very beneficial for both the person who’s living with dementia and their family. But before we wrap this one, if someone was going to reflect on listening to this episode, what would be sort of key advice or key things you’d like them to remember? Maybe in terms of what they should really look out for, and how they should broach it with a loved one if they think that maybe there’s some signs happening?

00:11:29 Tanya
The most important thing to remember is you know your person the best. You are gonna pick up the signs sooner than anyone else, because of your relationship with your person. That is really hard to do, but there’s so many services to help and the sooner you can open up, discuss it, bring that help in the sooner you’ll actually feel you can get the support and wrap around that person and give them all the care and support that they need.

00:11:53 Kate
That’s great. That’s a really good insight and understanding and while we know that it is going to affect people differently, there are some really key things people can look out for there. So thank you so much for joining us, and we’ll speak to you again soon.

00:12:04 Tanya
Thanks, Kate.

00:12:11 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.

00:00:42 Lisa
Thank you

00:00:43 Kate
I was just thinking, in case people have not even heard of respite before, the word’s definition gives a little bit of clue really: it’s a short period of rest or relief from something difficult. Do you think that sums it up?

00:00:55 Lisa
Yes, that would be exactly right. We classify respite as more for the carer than the actual customer that comes in, so that’s a pretty good summation of it.

00:01:00 Kate
I thought too – and I know it has the potential to sound a bit like an ad – but we’ve got a testimonial which is sort of the perfect way to highlight the benefits of respite. So, I thought I’d read that out to you both. So, it comes from Ali, who is a carer who has accessed respite care for her mother.

00:01:20 Kate
‘I have been my mum’s main carer over the last five years. Throughout these years, I’ve had some challenging medical conditions requiring a few surgeries and recoveries. Helping Hand has been an absolute lifesaver, not only for myself, but also for my mum. Knowing mum would be well cared for, in a safe, happy environment, meant the world to me. If considering options for alternative care arrangements for a loved one’s care – whether it’s to give yourself a well-deserved break or holiday, or requiring care for your own wellbeing – I would absolutely recommend Helping Hand respite. Mum has spent time in four of Helping Hand’s respite facilities over the last five years, with all of the locations being excellent experiences for mum and myself. The staff are caring, compassionate, and helped mum settle in quickly. Mum always felt safe and well looked after. When there was a need of medical assistance she was given appropriate treatment.’

00:02:06 Kate
It must make you feel pretty proud of your services hearing that.

00:02:10 Kerry
Yes definitely. It is also wonderful way for families to try out aged care when that transition from respite to permanent for example – if you’re going in on respite, you get a chance to meet the staff, find out if you like the facility, so it’s a wonderful opportunity. And as Lisa said, it’s good for carers and the families to have that break as well.

00:02:33 Kate
So, Lisa, you deal with pre-admissions, so perhaps we can start with you as we delve into some of the nuts and bolts of getting respite. You assist with the applications and the questions ahead of someone checking in, is that right?

00:02:44 Lisa
Yes, that’s correct. So, the first initial inquiry, whether it be an online submission – so you can actually go onto our website and make an inquiry about respite, and I’ll then pick it up from there (or my work colleague) and we’ll make contact with the person who made the inquiry, and explain the whole process from there.

00:03:04 Kate
And can you describe what exactly is residential respite care?

00:03:10 Lisa
So residential respite care is having respite within a nursing home or a care facility. There is some processes that have to be done first, and you need to have My Aged Care approval for residential respite in order to come in and receive that service.

00:03:23 Kate
And how long could a respite placement be?

00:03:25 Lisa
At Helping Hand, we take a minimum booking of two weeks, we don’t have anyone coming any shorter than that stay, but can be longer. A person is actually eligible under their My Aged Care plan for up to 63 days of respite in a financial year.

00:03:40 Kate
And do all Helping Hand residential care homes have respite rooms?

00:03:42 Lisa
Yes, we do, except for two of our country facilities, but we are able to receive respite in all of them. But we have dedicated rooms in all of our metropolitan and also at Whyalla and Port Pirie, and those rooms are booked in advance. We kind of describe it a bit like a motel system, where you make a booking. We’re running it off a calendar, so we can look up when the next vacancy is and book the person in from that time on.

00:04:00 Kate
Now you mentioned My Aged Care, so who can be eligible for residential respite, and is the process that they start with My Aged Care and take it from there?

00:04:11 Lisa
Yes, it is. So, anybody who’s over the age of 65 – I think there is some criteria that you can be under that age but it’s a medical -based thing – and once you’ve been approved by My Aged Care, and it’s a process of getting the Home Care Package and residential respite, also permanent care approval. Anybody I think, just makes an application through their website, or discussing it with their doctor.

00:04:39 Kate
Sometimes there could be confusion around why people might access respite, can you explain some of the different reasons that people might apply for a respite break?

00:04:35 Lisa
Yes certainly. We get referrals from all different areas: hospital-based referrals where somebody’s in hospital, there care has come to the point where they ready for discharge but maybe not well enough to return home, respite is suitable for that sort of thing; families going on holidays, where they’re wanting to make sure their mum, dad or loved one is safe – they may have been living independently in their own home with some support, but the family’s a little bit worried that, you know, if something happens in the night, you know, what will happen to mum or dad, so respite is good for that sort of thing; and also as Kerry has explained some families like to trial the respite – it’s a good ‘try before you buy’, where you can find out what happens in a care facility, but not staying there permanently – you can return home.

00:05:34 Kate
So, when people are coming in, accessing respite for the first time, are there some common questions that they like to ask you to get their heads around how it might work?

00:05:40 Lisa
Yes, the first things are ‘is mum going to be in a room by themselves?’ or ‘can they join in all the activities?’, ‘will they be getting medical care, is there a nurse available?’. Cost comes into it, because there is a cost involved in respite care – it is government partially supported, but there is a cost involved. And yeah, ‘what can they bring, can they bring, you know, things from home?’. All of those sort of things.

00:06:00 Kate
And no question’s a silly question is it, you’re happy to answer all those questions for people.

00:06:05 Lisa
Absolutely yes, you know, and we try to put people at ease by saying that. And look, feel free to ring back, because it’s a very daunting process and a lot of people feel very guilty about putting somebody in respite, especially if it’s a partner that they’ve always said “I’m never going to put you in a home” and then suddenly the circumstances change, or they’re having care burnout, and doctor’s recommended you have a break, those sort of things. So yeah, we try and put people at ease with all those.

00:06:33 Kate
I guess given people feel quite guilty at times, part of your role is to help put them at ease about that decision, and comfort them that this is an important thing for them to do both for themselves and for their partners or their family.

00:06:45 Lisa
Yes, that is the key factor I think, is encouraging the person who’s making the inquiry, whether it be the husband, the wife, the family member, to not feel guilty about it, and remember that their health and wellbeing is the most important. Because without them being well, and be that physically or mentally, they can’t continue that carer role.

00:07:00 Kate
So, this is an opportune time also for you to maybe share some feedback that you get, because, you know, at one end people are feeling guilty about putting people in, but you’ve told me already that you also get some wonderful feedback about people’s experiences once they have been using respite.

00:07:15 Lisa
Yes, we do, which is the great part about it. We often get what we call the frequent flyers, who keep coming back, booking it again and again, because, you know, mum or dad’s had such a wonderful experience. But I can remember one vivid conversation I had with somebody, and she could not believe the change in her mother. Her mother had been at home, very withdrawn, not wanting to participate in anything, not eating much, all that. She was terribly worried, but she wanted to go to Melbourne to look after her grandchild. And she put her mum in, and she rang when she got back and said ‘I cannot believe the change of my mum! She eats food I’ve never been able to get her to eat, she’s smiling all the time.’ So they are the things that I think help encourage families to know, that it’s not that scary or bad experience that they perceive it may be.

00:08:06 Kate
Kerry is Resident Liaison Coordinator. You come to the floor from the point of admissions, so helping to welcome and settle in all the guests for the duration of their stay, is that right?

00:08:14 Kerry
That’s right, yep.

00:08:15 Kate
So, tell me a little bit about your role.

00:08:16 Kerry
So, I will be the first person that they meet in reception, and depending on if they’ve come from hospital, or home – sometimes if the resident’s been in hospital, they don’t do the initial tour – so I’ll ask them if they’re feeling up to it. I’ll take them for a little brief tour, and show them the facility on the way through: show them where the café is, the salon, and then take them up to the room to settle in. I get them a tea or coffee, get them all settled, and then I sort of go through with the family, and we work out things like laundry, and we go through just a little bit of that information. And then I have a bit of a chat, a little brief sort of information about what they like, if they want to come to activities, if they would like to be invited to church, and I’ll just take a little brief summary to put in our assessments. And then hand over to the clinical team, and then they’ll come up and do all the medical side of things.

00:09:06 Kate
Providing information but also establishing a bit of a connection.

00:09:07 Kerry
A connection, absolutely. And it’s good I’ve got the both roles, I do Lifestyle Assistant as well. So, I get to see them through the activities as well, and encourage them to come along.

00:09:19 Kate
Do respite residents have access to all of the facilities and activities that are in the home?

00:09:22 Kerry
Absolutely. So on day two, they’ll get a welcome pack from our Lifestyle Team, and that includes the monthly program showing them all the activities that we have on, and so yes, they are invited, encouraged, to come to all of our activities. And they can access the café, the salon, everything that the permanent residents receive.

00:09:38 Kate
Now I know Lisa obviously deals with some of the concerns and questions before people come in, but do you find that there are still some common concerns that come up when you’re dealing with them on that day of arrival?

00:09:55 Kerry
Some of them when they’re in the room they might be worried – they’ll look at the bed and say ‘I’m worried about, you know, my mom or dad falling out’, so I’ll just say, you know, that’s something you can speak to the nurse to – any concerns that you’ve got, speak with the clinical nurse. They ask about food, what sort of food they’re going to get, but as Lisa said there’s no sort of question that’s not, you know we can answer and point them in the right direction if they’ve got any queries or concerns.

00:10:07 Kate
So, the family sometimes have questions and concerns, but what about the resident – are they usually OK or do they have some?

00:10:23 Kerry
The residents are usually OK – I mean, sometimes there might be some that don’t want to be there ’cause they wanna be home – but I sort of try and draw on my personal experience with my mum. When she went into care and we did the respite, and say ‘just go in have a bit of a holiday, and see what you like, see what you think of the place’. And so I sort of bring that up sometimes. And so, you know, she liked she didn’t have to cook, she didn’t have to do any washing, and I sort of try and put that sort of, you know, treat it like a bit of a holiday. As Lisa said we do have one particular frequent flyer who’s here at the moment, and he’s been here since 2021 several times, and he just loves being here. His family go on holidays, and he comes in and has, yeah, his time with us. And he loves having the support, and people to look after him.

00:11:08 Kate
And you get positive feedback from the families as well.

00:11:10 Kerry
Absolutely and they’re very happy with their stay. We had a gentleman leaving today, they said ‘wish we could live here’.

00:11:22 Kate
Before we finish, Lisa, if there was somebody out there that was going to listen to this episode, what do you think would be the key piece of information about respite that you’d like them to hear, what would you like them to take away?

00:11:28 Lisa
Not to be scared about it – to make that initial inquiry. You’re not bound to anything; you just give us a call. We’re happy to help you with information, we can post things out to you. You can also have general tours of the facility which we sort of advocate for a lot of people who are a little apprehensive. Bring mum, put her in the car, say we’re going out, we’re going to have a coffee in the café, we’re going to have a general tour – show them the facility. And that really helps a lot of the time to ease their fears, that it’s not, you know, six beds lined up. They’ve got lovely rooms, TV, ensuites, able to go and have coffee in the café, have their hair done, all sorts of things that I don’t think they quite realise until they get there.

00:12:09 Kate
That’s a great suggestion. What about you Kerry?

00:12:11 Kerry
The same. I think seeing the room gives them that visual, that they know that there’s lots of room and lots of activities to do, and the fact that they’re being looked after while you’re away, it just takes that ease of mind I suppose you would say, ease of mind that your family member is being well looked after while you’re away and you don’t worry as much. Especially the 24 hour care because it’s overnight as well so that takes the pressure off.

00:12:38 Kate
Absolutely. Well, sounds like you’re both doing a wonderful job, thank you so much for describing it for us.

00:12:44 Lisa
You’re welcome, thank you.

00:12:44 Kerry
Thank you for having us.

00:12:49 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600. Please remember – you understand your needs better than anyone. Take the time to contact one of our friendly team to find out how we can help.

00:00:00 Kate
Welcome to Age Old Problems: New Aged Care, a podcast by Helping Hand that offers information and advice to help you find and access the right aged care services. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land.

00:00:23 Kate
Hello and thanks for listening in to our podcast. I’m your host, Kate Holland, and in this episode we’re going to focus on volunteering. Not only are they incredibly valuable to the organisations they support, but being a volunteer can bring valuable life experiences too. So joining me for this chat is Rachel Carson, Lifestyle Coordinator for Helping Hand in Golden Grove, and Kaye, who volunteers here herself. Welcome, ladies.

00:00:40 Kaye
Hello.

00:00:41 Rachel
Hello. Thank you for having us.

00:00:41 Kate
So, Rachel, let’s start with you. Can you explain a little bit about your role and your involvement with the volunteers here for helping hand?

00:00:56 Rachel
So I’m a Lifestyle Coordinator, so my main role here is implementing and coordinating activities for the residents here at Golden Grove. But also a huge part of my role is the management and training and recruitment of volunteers. So I’m their number one contact. So they are basically, they travel the journey of volunteering with me and my team.

00:01:11 Kate
How important are volunteers in the day-to-day running of the care home?

00:01:14 Rachel
The importance honestly can’t be measured. It sounds a bit cliche, but it really can’t. Because our Lifestyle teams here are somewhat small, volunteers are pivotal for our day to day. They allow us to be able to offer more activities to residents and also do the really important one-on-one social visits for residents who don’t want to come out to activities – they still get that opportunity to be social and have visits from people as well, so they are a pivotal role every day.

00:01:40 Kate
And what kind of things are they doing? What sort of activities?

00:01:41 Rachel
So we have volunteers that help like Kaye, with activities. And they also do one-on-one visits, we have volunteers that help in our cafe, they help with admin work as well. So they can actually help with other areas, not just lifestyles, but the main volunteers we have here are our lifestyle volunteers. So they help run activities from craft, to exercise class, to church, to birthday special celebrations.

00:02:06 Kate
Are there services that Helping Hand provide that you just simply couldn’t do if you didn’t have the support of volunteers?

00:02:11 Rachel
Literally all of them. Volunteers are absolutely pivotal because they are an extension of us. So yeah, I couldn’t speak highly of them and we couldn’t do what we could do without them.

00:02:19 Kate
Is there a particular activity or person or exchange that you’ve seen with the volunteer in action that springs to mind as a very special example?

00:02:27 Rachel
This sounds very cliche, but she’s sitting next to me. OK, so Kaye has been volunteering for four years and Kaye is part of the furniture, part of the family. There are people that volunteer and they volunteer because they feel they need to, and there are some people that volunteer because they were made to do it, if that doesn’t sound weird. She is the most friendly, outgoing person. The residents, every Monday and Tuesday here, they look out and look forward to seeing her. If she’s not there one day they notice, which is a big thing, and she’s just perfect for the role. She just brings this warmth, this passion. It’s not forced. It’s so natural. And she really is part of the team here. We couldn’t imagine not having her here. And every day she’s here is like, a very a special time for her. She does wonderful things.

00:03:14 Kate
We can’t not come and talk to you now Kaye, that’s so wonderful. Can you tell us about how you came to Helping Hand and sort of what you’re involved with now?

00:03:20 Kaye
I was actually caring for my mum and dad who were in their 90s, and they both passed away within about six months of each other and I feel a bit lost. And I was told that I either had to get a job or do volunteering to keep getting my pension, my carers pension. And I hadn’t worked for such a long time that I thought I don’t think I could do that. So they told me to go into the op shop or something like the hospital. You can volunteer in the hospital. And because I cared for my mum and dad, I just loved being around them. So that came to mind. My family said to me, are you crazy? And I said no. I think I could do it. So I got in touch with Golden Grove and came in, and that was four years ago and I just love it. The people here just make me feel so welcome. The team are fantastic to me. They treat me like part of their team. And the residents – I get hugs and they’re all saying to me all the time ‘Ohh, you do so much for us.’ They do so much for me. I just love it. I look forward to Mondays and Tuesdays.

00:04:36 Kate
So yeah, every Monday and Tuesday.

00:04:39 Kaye
Yes all day. I find that easier because once I get into something, it’s better to just stay here and finish it, than say a few hours here or a few hours there. I just prefer to be here all day, and it’s like my getaway from my home life and my family and enjoying my time for a couple of days.

00:04:58 Kate
And do you do a variety of activities?

00:05:00 Kaye
Yes, whatever needs to be done, some days are different, but my main thing is we go walking on a Monday morning, we take the residents out, and that is great. They love getting out into the sunshine and we chitchat, which we do a lot of. Then on Monday afternoons, we do carpet bowls. And during that time, I help bring the residents down. That’s a big thing. We go up and remind them of what the activity is, and assist them to come down to the hall. Then I do books. I take around some library books to make sure everyone’s got something to do if they don’t come down to an activity. Tuesdays, we do Jeopardy in the morning and we do bingo in the afternoon. And bingo is a very popular activity with lots of laughs, and we have a great time in bingo.

00:06:01 Kate
Now obviously there was specific reasons for why you came and were a volunteer, and I know Rachel, it’s getting harder and harder to get people to volunteer.

00:06:15 Rachel
Yes, for various reasons.

00:06:16 Kate
I remember hearing the radio story about the fact that, you know, sometimes a lot of people just can’t retire as early as they want. So it’s trickier for them to then give their time. But when people do have this space, it’s a really purposeful thing for people to do, isn’t it?

00:06:24 Rachel
It is. I mean, there’s no minimum or maximum amount of hours for volunteering, especially here. Any little bit of time anyone can give is really appreciated. And especially with our residents, they know everyone’s very time poor, so it’s probably – out of a lot of industries – you volunteer in aged care, probably they are the most appreciative of just a little bit of time. So anything someone can give is what we love, and we will openly take. And as I said some people aren’t group type people either. So we have some volunteers here that they prefer the one-on-one volunteering. They’re not big for group activities like residents, and we understand that. So they’re more than happy just to do visiting for a few hours a day, visiting multiple residents. Not so much joining in the activities. Or we’ve got some, as I said, that are very admin focused, so they prefer to be in the back of the office, not really people people, which is totally fine, but there’s always a role for them as well. So we’re very lucky. We’re sort of open to a lot of areas.

00:07:14 Kate
Within our industry, do you find that people can bring skills from their working life and then apply them here? Do you have any examples of that?

00:07:21 Rachel
Yes certainly. So we’ve got a lot of people that have worked in aged care or nursing before, so they’ve done it before. They might have retired or close to retirement, so they use those transferable skills over. So they’ve already got that basic empathy and understanding of the elderly. So that’s a big thing. But anyone you know, customer service role. Same thing dealing with people. Anything really.

00:07:39 Kate
What about things like, if you’re a carpenter or a musician?

00:07:43 Rachel
I think, well, we have a men’s shed. So they actually have a lot of volunteers as well, they love to build things, so we have people that come from a building, cabinetry background that come and help our gentleman with the men’s shed. We have artists who do painting with our residents as well. We’ve got beauticians that come and do our nails every Thursday and hand pampering, so many areas that you can use and transfer over to aged care because what we do is so diverse. Anyone from any background, because we basically do every activity you could imagine. Literally everyone has a skill to bring here. There’s not one that you’d go ‘oh no’, we use everything. Truck drivers, they love to share their one-on-one time on the road with other truck drivers here, because residents here as well come from such diverse backgrounds in their lives, anything could be made transferable here.

00:08:29 Kate
And that’s the great thing about aged care as well, and I just want to make the point, if you don’t have specific qualifications or a skill, you’re still welcome, aren’t you, you can adapt?

00:08:36 Rachel
The only thing really that volunteers need is what we call an NDIS clearance, because we’re working with vulnerable people, so that clearance is for, you know, children and the elderly. But other than that? That’s all they need. So if you have no qualifications whatsoever, you’re just as valuable as someone that has university qualifications. You’re exactly the same. You’re an even keel here.

00:08:52 Kate
Do you get the sense that the people that choose to volunteer have similar values? Do they tend to align?

00:08:59 Rachel
They do. They’re either a bit like Kaye, they’ve either looked after their family members or they’ve worked in the industry, or they just have, I guess, that simple empathy and understanding of elderly people and just want to make their lives brighter. As we kind of say working here, you’re sort of getting back towards the end of someone’s life and it’s such a rewarding experience. So most of those people have either experienced it themselves, and they want to give back in some sort of way. So they definitely all match our values perfectly.

00:09:27 Kate
And Kaye, it sounds like you enjoy every second that you’re here, which is wonderful for you and the residents, but is there a standout moment that you’ve had in your experience over the last four years?

00:09:35 Kaye
There has been lots. At the moment there’s a lady that never left her room, and I would go in and visit her and we would talk and she would tell me all her stories. Some of the people here have got amazing stories. So in the end, I convinced her to come to bingo with me – only for half the bingo. So I would leave at half time and go and get her, and she’d be sitting on her bed waiting for me, and I would bring her down. And now she laughs and she’s waiting for me to come and get her for bingo. And now I take her on walks as well. And yeah, she’s a special person, I think she’s a lovely, lovely lady. But I just noticed that she is a lot happier now. It really made me feel good to know that I got her out to an activity, and yeah, she loves it.

00:10:30 Kate
Would I be right in saying that you’re much happier in your life too for this experience?

00:10:34 Kaye
Most definitely. At home, my family say there’s work Kaye and there’s home Kaye. And work Kaye is much happier.

00:10:43 Kate
They get the best do they?

00:10:46 Kaye
I give my best here, and my family get the rest.

00:10:50 Kate
Well, I think you’re a pretty fabulous example of why volunteering is a really good thing to do and make sure – I’m hoping people, whether it’s at Helping Hand or anywhere else – listen to this and thank volunteering sounds like a great idea. If they want to volunteer at Helping Hand what should they do?

00:11:02 Rachel
So there is a website you can go onto, the Helping Hand website, through the career section; or you can pop on to Seek website as well, which is where all our vacancies are advertised; and there will be a number as well, you can call for people who don’t like online.

00:11:13 Kate
That’s fine. We will have the number at the end of this podcast and we’ll have all these details in our show notes as well. Now I like to finish the episodes where we can with a piece of advice that you’d like someone who’d listen to this, to take away and maybe to share at home. Is there something in particular that you think is really valuable for people to know about volunteering, Rachel?

00:11:32 Rachel
It is for everyone and when I mean everyone, I mean everyone and anyone. Please don’t undervalue your skills or your background. A lot of people going into any job or volunteering think ‘oh I’m not good enough’ or ‘I don’t have enough to offer’ that is completely incorrect and especially with aged care, everyone has anything to offer. And as I said, there is nothing – you’re not too boring, or your life is not exciting enough – trust me, it is. Because the residents appreciate everything, and so do we as staff. So no one can be undervalued here. It’s great. So whatever you think, please think the opposite and know that volunteering can definitely be for you, wherever you come from.

00:12:05 Kate
That’s wonderful. What about you Kaye?

00:12:07 Kaye
I certainly do not regret the day that I walked in here. I was really nervous when I was standing outside and I thought I’ve never done anything like this before, but I came in, and it’s just been so wonderful. And it just makes you feel good. It really does. And I would tell anybody, please just give it a go. You’ll find that you will absolutely love it.

00:12:31 Kate
That’s great. Well, you’re clearly both doing a wonderful job and enjoying it. And thank you so much for joining us to explain the benefits of volunteering.

00:12:38 Rachel
Thank you for having us.

00:12:44 Kate
For more information on Helping Hand and their services please head to www.helpinghand.org.au or call Helping Hand directly on 1300 653 600.