I’d be out of the office with clients all morning and had been in office long enough to make a coffee and a new client was on the phone…ready and raring to talk aged care.
The poor guy was so confused! His Mum has been in respite since 25/11/19 & he’s only just been told how much of a RAD (refundable accommodation deposit) they’d have to pay for his Mum to permanently enter care. To say he’s in a panic is putting it mildly!
He’s upset that nobody at the care facility bothered to explain the cost of care to him, apparently they thought he knew. He didn’t, so now quick action is required.
After a quick conversation, and a bit of explanation, his comment was “You’ve told me more about the system in the last ten minutes than I’ve been told in the last 8 weeks. Thank you.”
We’ve discussed the next step and I’ve sent him a document that he’s going to need for Centrelink. He tells me “the biggest challenge now is going to be figure out how to print the darn thing. That stuff’s above my pay grade!”
The information he’s going to access from Centrelink will help decide how we proceed. We need to understand Mum’s asset position so we can figure out what they will really need to pay for her care. It’s important to get the contract right upfront; because if it’s not the right contract the contract is forever.
Somehow the government thinks the aged care system is simple and user friendly, it’s not. From this man’s perspective it’s been stressful because he didn’t know what to do until he engaged us. Now he’ll be able to hand the whole process over to us to make our magic happen.
Talk soon
Gayle
