Care finder program restores face-to-face support

The federal government has rolled out a new program to help vulnerable people navigate Australia's aged care system.

The Care Finder program, launched at the beginning of 2023, was born after Commissioner Lynelle Briggs recognised that some older people could not access support services due to previous negative experiences or cognitive impairment.

Over the past three months, Care Finder organisations have been established in various primary health network regions across Australia.

Not-for-profit 'Connect' covers anyone living in Camden, Wollondilly, and Wingecarribee, NSW.

Aged Care Insite spoke with team leader Clare Thorn and coordinator Anne-Marie Kennedy about the challenges of locating this particular group of people and the Care finder's teething problems.

ACI: What are your main tasks within the Care Finder program, Connect?

Anne-Marie: The aged care system is complex, and some people find it more difficult than others to navigate and access the services they need.

The Royal Commission recognised there was a cohort of people falling through the cracks for various reasons. 

So, this program is designed to fill the gap and prevent, where possible, this vulnerable group from being unable to get the care they need. 

Our program mainly exists to put a face-to-face element back into aged care services.

You can ring My Aged Care or contact them online, but nothing else will come to you to help you get into the system.

The nature of our target group prevents them from calling My Aged Care for help.

You can imagine that if someone doesn't have the capacity to seek help or go through the onboarding process, how else would they be able to receive support?

 The beauty of the program is that it's quite pure.

Clare: It's actually returning to many of the old case management ways we had before My Aged Care was introduced. 

We're really able to take that time to connect with the person, gain their trust, and take it slowly – which is quite a feature for these times.

A big part of this program is that once you connect with the person and they become your client, is the ongoing follow-ups.

These check-ins would initially be every two months.

We establish that they are still receiving support and meeting their needs.

If their quality of life has improved and it's consistent over time, we might change the frequency to every six months or yearly. 

We just keep following them so they're taken care of.

And that's very important because circumstances can change, and they might lose connection again.

What are some reasons this particular group finds it difficult or is reluctant to access help services?

Anne-Marie: There are many different reasons because it greatly depends on each individual.

It could be that someone had some previous interaction with my aged care that wasn't positive.

So, now, that person might feel hesitant or uncomfortable contacting the government for help.

Some people have had bad experiences with government systems in general.

An example would be people from the Stolen Generation, where children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent were removed from their families by the Australian government.

Another example is people who came from another country to Australia and have lost all contact with their families. 

They have no support network to help them navigate the aged care system when they might find it difficult themselves.

And then there's a cohort of people who are generally very suspicious or just afraid of governments and institutions, so they don't want to reach out.

Some people are ineligible to access aged care in Australia because of the age cut-off but would otherwise qualify for aged care support.

Or they do have a carer, but they are estranged from them, or the carer cannot facilitate access to support services. 

They may also have sensory deficits such as hearing and vision, a language barrier, or cognitive impairment preventing them from gaining access.

We don't just help people to get aged care services, but also other community support that improves their quality of life, such as the local bowling club or a women's association. 

Or help them overcome issues such as housing.

Older people are increasingly more likely to experience homelessness – especially older women.

They might be on the brink of homelessness, close to being evicted from their house, and we connect them to people who could help them.

Essentially, we try to help a vulnerable group facing many issues, such as housing difficulties.

What has been a significant challenge for your team in setting up the program?

Anne-Marie: Our challenge is reaching this tricky cohort of people that need our service.

We've got to find them and offer our help, and hopefully, they'll accept. 

So, it's quite complicated.

For example, one of our first referrals was a woman who lived independently in an aged care facility.

She received Meals on Wheels, and the deliverer noticed that she was living in a poor and unhygienic living environment. 

She was also suspicious and paranoid, estranged from her daughter, and divorced her ex-husband five years ago.

Her granddaughter had attempted to help her in the past but couldn't help her any longer. 

She was close to being evicted from her property.

So, the challenge for us was to connect her to services to prevent her from eviction and to address her poor living conditions.

Then, we look at ongoing services that could help her in the future, provided that she accepts. 

So, each of our team members needs a lot of skills and empathy to negotiate with this group of people.

We also need a lot of connections with different service providers and agencies within the areas we cover.

We need to become familiar with what is available, ranging from basic home help to housing.

Because they might not be able to link with these services themselves.

So, it's quite a challenge to set all of this up and reach out to this particular group.

How has the process of setting up the Care Finder program been for your team?

Clare: We're learning as we go.

Of course, we had specific staffing requirements from the funding body, but there's a lot we have to experience and see where we're needed.

The primary health networks have rolled out at different times, so some might have been running for a while, and others are just setting up.

Although the program is federal, each state has a slightly different approach to setting it up.

There's also some overlap between the areas each district covers because some areas have a higher-than-expected number of people needing the Care finder program.

So, possibly in a few months, everyone will be at a similar point across the state.

At the moment, we're a team of five members. We might hire an administrator when we receive more clients.

We've had chats with potential service providers who might know some people who need help.

Because we hadn't existed when people needed support, service providers have taken the initiative to help people.

People are just being kind of charitable towards these people and bending some rules to help them.

We are trying to unearth all those vulnerable people so we can help them get into the system and get more help than they're getting now.

It's like linking with everybody who might connect with these people.

We visit events and local communities where they might go, and we'll learn about what exists in the area. 

Some of our councils run aged care-specific activity groups month to month. 

They'll invite everyone to hear a guest speaker and have a free morning tea that we join to see if we can identify some people that might be our target.

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