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Private home care takes pressure off

on Monday, February 24, 2014

When Maureen Mahoney’s mother-in-law started showing the early signs of dementia, she began weighing up her residential care options.

It wasn’t until she stumbled across an advertisement in the local paper that Maureen discovered her mother-in-law did not have to leave her beloved home to get the care she needs.

Prestige InHome Care director Nick McDonald says there needs to be greater awareness around community and home care.

“Everybody needs to be understand their options,” Mr McDonald says.

“If you go searching, the information is out there, but it’s hardly transparent.”

Mr McDonald says that if people had the same options years ago they would have stayed at home.

With more people now moving into the over-65-year-old age bracket and living longer than ever before, the government has recognised the need for a strong home and community care sector.

Yet Mr McDonald says most people have no idea what options are available in home care.

“They usually know that the council can pop over a couple of times a week and that the district nursing service can come round to dress a wound, but often that’s the extent of their knowledge base.”

Mr McDonald says historically, social workers and discharge planners view private healthcare services, such as Prestige Inhome Care, as a greedy, money-hungry businesses that take advantage of older people.

“I think that is purely through a lack of understanding. There’s an enormous market out there for people who aren’t eligible for the government stuff – or they are, but only for a proportion of their care needs.”

Mr McDonald says at that point it is either up to family members to cover the rest of the care, or pay someone privately.

“It’s a very legitimate sort of solution for a lot of people,” he says.

“People constantly talk about what we do here as the world’s best kept secret and we’re trying every day to fix that.”

Aged Care Online caught up with Maureen at the Prestige head office in Victoria to find out more.

Press play below to hear her story.

Picture: Maureen with Prestige Chief Executive Nick McDonald. CREDIT: ALICE B

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