Since 6 April 2020 the new service delivery model designed by carers, for carers to help them get the support they need early, before reaching crisis point should be fully implemented and operational.
Carer Gateway Counselling Service.
Caring for a loved one is important work. Some days caring brings great joy, but some days it can be lonely or a little overwhelming. No matter how you feel today, there is a counselling professional just a phone call away.
The Carer Gateway Counselling Service is a free service for carers. Each weekday, from 8am to 6pm, our professional counsellors are waiting to talk through the concerns you have and how you feel about your carer role. To learn more about how counselling helps carers, watch their video “Introducing the Carer Gateway Counselling Service” on https://counselling.carergateway.gov.au/s/
To use the Carer Gateway Counselling Service, simply select ‘Request a Callback’, fill in your details and they will call you back within one business day. You can also call 1800 422 737 and Select Option 1 to speak to our team.
If you are distressed and need immediate support, please select the ‘Urgent Help’ tab for details of 24 hour crisis services.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Wellways is the lead agency in the delivery of the new carer services in Queensland and the NSW areas of South West Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains and supported by our consortia partners Dementia Australia, Little Dreamers, North-West Rural Health and Selectability.
Services delivered under the new delivery model:
Carer Gateway Service Providers will give carers access to:
Home and Personal Care services:
These services support older people to live independently in their Own Home and community for longer by providing Personal Care, and Domestic Assistance Services:
Wellways offers a range of services which include:
Services generally last from one to two hours and may take place on several days during the week or, in some cases, seven days per week.
Our personal care services can assist older people with their daily living activities which may include:
Our domestic assistance services include:
Wellways recognises that having carers come into your home can be awkward so we strive to provide consistent carers and roster staff of your choice.
Community services are always by appointment to ensure that your home life is disrupted as little as possible.
For more information, please contact Wellways on 1300 363 898.
In-Home Nursing Services:
Wellways, can provide professional nursing staff to help you manage your health and medical needs at home. Our services include:
In-Home Respite Services:
In-Home Respite Services ensures you still receive services like meal preparation, personal care and domestic assistance in your home when your family member or usual carer takes a break.
In-home respite provides a carer to support you in your own home while your family member or regular carer is taking a break.
Wellways, offers a range of services, including meal preparation, personal care and domestic assistance from one hour up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The advantage of having in-home respite services is that you remain in your own home in familiar surroundings. Wellways staff are very respectful and will always ensure you feel comfortable in your home.
Funding for in-home respite is available from local governmental agencies, or you can choose to pay for the services.
For more information, please contact us on 1300 111 500.
In-Home End-of-Life care:
Wellways can arrange Palliative Nursing Care to provide Comfort and Support if you choose to stay at home surrounded by your loved ones.
Wellways works with you, your General Practitioner and other healthcare professionals to provide comfort and support to you, your family and friends as you near the end of your life’s journey.
If you choose to stay at home surrounded by your loved ones, we can arrange services and supports to meet your personal and medical needs with kindness and compassion. Our services include:
Wellways NDIS Service for Carers:
If you care for someone receiving a package from the NDIS, Wellways can support you to look after Your health and wellbeing.
Talk to us about how we can provide you with the best services and supports for your needs.
For more information, please call Wellways on 1300 111 500.
Wellways offers a wide range of individually tailored services designed to support people affected by mental health issues or disability, as well as their families, friends and carers. Our experienced, local staff will help you take charge of your wellbeing, connect with others and participate in your community.
The support we offer includes:
Staying with your current carer services provider:
Carers in Queensland and the New South Wales areas of South West Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains can continue to access support through their current service providers until the new Carer Gateway Service Providers are established and operational in April 2020.
https://www.wellways.org/carers
https://issuu.com/wellwaysaustralia/docs/wellways_carer_services_handbook
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Support for carers from other agencies
Department of Social Services (DSS)
DSS provide information and links to a range of services available locally and across Australia, including services for people with a disability and those who provide care. Centres can assist carers with options to take a break through short-term and emergency respite, based on assessed need, and provide advice on and coordinate access to respite services in a carer’s local area.
You can find more information on the DSS website about these topics: Carer Gateway
Carer Gateway is a national online and phone service that provides practical information and resources to support carers. The interactive service finder helps carers connect to local support services.
You can find more information on the Carer Gateway website
Print Resources Different people have different needs for information at different times during an illness. Patients will also have different needs from their carers. To support these different needs the following list of resources has been compiled based around topics relevant to patients and their carers. The source of the information is included, note that some information is from outside Australia.
https://www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/tabid/1262/Default.aspx#BGL
Informal Caregiving and Its Impact on Health: A Reappraisal From Population-Based Studies
Our country is in the early stages of an unprecedented explosion in the number of older adults who will be living at home with physical disabilities or serious cognitive impairments. The need to provide adequate care to these vulnerable older adults is a major challenge facing our society on many levels. The assumption of our current health care system is that close family members will provide the majority of day-to-day assistance and manage the wide array of problems that confront these older adults with disabilities. However, most health care delivery models focus primarily on individual patients and do not properly engage, educate, or support family caregivers or other informal care providers.
Spousal Caregivers Are Caregiving Alone In The Last Years Of Life
June 2019
We hypothesized that spouses who were solo caregivers—that is, the only caregivers (paid or unpaid) who provided assistance with a spouse’s self-care or household activities—would experience more depression after bereavement than supported spouses would. Using information from the Health and Retirement Study, we found that 55 percent of the spouses of community-dwelling married people with disability were solo caregivers. Solo caregiving was even common among people who cared for spouses with dementia and those with adult children living close by. Bereavement outcomes did not differ between solo and supported caregiving spouses. Caregiving spouses are often isolated and may benefit from greater support, particularly during the final years before bereavement.
---------------------------------------------------
What happens:
Carer Profile
Carer Details
Name of primary carer? Primary carer name and contact details
If not clear, ask "The last time that you were sick, who took care of You?"
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date of birth
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are there other people who provide care? (eg network of carers, shared caring arrangements) Yes
No
Not sure
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If Yes, provide name and contact details
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Primary Carer residency status Yes - Co-resident Carer
No - Non-resident Carer
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Relationship of the Primary Carer to Care Recipient Wife/female partner
Husband/male partner
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Daughter-in-law
Son-in-law
Other relative - female
Other relative - male
Friend/neighbour - female
Friend/neighbour - male
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Carer Support
Does the Primary Carer have someone to help them? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer receive a Carer Payment or Allowance? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Has the Primary Carer been given information about available support services? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer need practical training in lifting, managing medicine or other tasks? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If the Primary Carer does not receive a Carer Payment or Allowance, consider referral to Centrelink.
Current Threats to Carer Arrangements
Assessor Rated
Does the Primary Carer experience difficulties in areas such as ... ? Carer - emotional stress and strain
Carer - acute physical exhaustion/illness
Carer - slow physical health deterioration
Carer - factors unrelated to care situation
Client - increasing needs
Client - other factors
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are carer arrangements sustainable without additional services or support? No, arrangements have already broken down
No, carer arrangements likely to break down within months
Yes, carer arrangements are sustainable without
additional support
Don't know
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer need an assessment as a Care Recipient? Yes
No
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer need a referral to a Carer Support Agency eg Carer Respite Centre? Yes
No
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Care Recipient as Carer Profile
How many people do you care for? .........................................
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who do you care for? (tick all that apply) Wife/female partner
Husband/male partner
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Daughter-in-law
Son-in-law
Grandchild
Other relative - female
Other relative - male
Friend / neighbour - female
Friend / neighbour
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DOB of person(s) being care for
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are you caring for any person(s) with disabilities? Yes
No
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Assessor, is the client's caring role as risk because of their own needs? Yes
No
Not sure
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
p.76-78 Centre for Health Service Development, University of Wollongong.
--------------------------
A Day in the Life of a Caregiver - shows it how it is... We just, 'do it'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs_7jWqSeIM
Angels Carer Support Group. Held the last Tuesday of each month at St. Paul's Anglican Church Hall, 69 Palm Beach Ave, PALM BEACH - Come just after 1.00pm for that cuppa and a chat. Often we have Speakers on subjects of interest to us as Carers - they start about 1.00pm and go to about 3.00pm.
Other times we just sit, relax and enjoy each other's company and support each other as we face the daily caregiving tasks. Sit and chat, and take a brief break - for YOU :-) We hold our meetings on the last Tuesday of each month. Father Phillip is a Great Supporter of the Angels.
YOU are most welcome to join us :-) when this crisis passes and we are able to resume... Do take CARE of YOU too...
Note: As the 26th January is Australia Day holiday, our first meeting is on 23 February at the church.
and to find out what else is going on in the Palm Beach area: http://palmbeachgoldcoast.net.au/events/
Living on the Gold Coast? Our Angels Carer Support Group are being helped by these Tradespeople... Those who are Caring for others give all of their time 24/7 for the well-being of their loved one. It is a relentless, loving and all exhausting time in their lives, and those for whom they care... Rob Cinelli of LJ Hooker, Shop 2/10 Fifth Avenue, Palm Beach Qld 4221 has been helping us with practical help and suggestions... It is making our lives that much easier.
12 April 2022
Carer Gateway Counselling Service.
Caring for a loved one is important work. Some days caring brings great joy, but some days it can be lonely or a little overwhelming. No matter how you feel today, there is a counselling professional just a phone call away.
The Carer Gateway Counselling Service is a free service for carers. Each weekday, from 8am to 6pm, our professional counsellors are waiting to talk through the concerns you have and how you feel about your carer role. To learn more about how counselling helps carers, watch their video “Introducing the Carer Gateway Counselling Service” on https://counselling.carergateway.gov.au/s/
To use the Carer Gateway Counselling Service, simply select ‘Request a Callback’, fill in your details and they will call you back within one business day. You can also call 1800 422 737 and Select Option 1 to speak to our team.
If you are distressed and need immediate support, please select the ‘Urgent Help’ tab for details of 24 hour crisis services.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Wellways is the lead agency in the delivery of the new carer services in Queensland and the NSW areas of South West Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains and supported by our consortia partners Dementia Australia, Little Dreamers, North-West Rural Health and Selectability.
Services delivered under the new delivery model:
Carer Gateway Service Providers will give carers access to:
- carer support and planning
- in-person and phone-based coaching, counselling and in person peer support
- information and advice
- targeted financial support packages with a focus on employment, education, respite and transport
- access to emergency crisis support
- assistance with navigating relevant, local services available to carers through federal, state and local government and non-government providers, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), My Aged Care and palliative care.
Home and Personal Care services:
These services support older people to live independently in their Own Home and community for longer by providing Personal Care, and Domestic Assistance Services:
Wellways offers a range of services which include:
- shopping,
- domestic assistance,
- personal care,
- respite care,
- transport and
- general nursing.
Services generally last from one to two hours and may take place on several days during the week or, in some cases, seven days per week.
Our personal care services can assist older people with their daily living activities which may include:
- assistance with showering, dressing and grooming
- continence care (bowel care)
- assistance with mobility and exercise
- transporting to medical and dental appointments
- accompanying to recreational and social outings
- respite care
Our domestic assistance services include:
- meal preparation
- grocery shopping
- light housekeeping
- laundry service and ironing
- pet/plant care
- companionship
Wellways recognises that having carers come into your home can be awkward so we strive to provide consistent carers and roster staff of your choice.
Community services are always by appointment to ensure that your home life is disrupted as little as possible.
For more information, please contact Wellways on 1300 363 898.
In-Home Nursing Services:
Wellways, can provide professional nursing staff to help you manage your health and medical needs at home. Our services include:
- catheter care
- personal care including bathing, grooming and dressing
- mobility assistance
- simple and complex wound care and dressings
- skin and pressure care
- diabetic care and monitoring including blood sugar levels
- bladder and bowel care
- stoma care
- tracheostomy care
- assistance with oxygen therapy
- enteral/ peg feeding
- joint movements
- eye and ear care
- monitoring of medications
- liaison with general practitioner
- support on returning home from hospital
- transport to appointments
- assistance with feeding
- sleepovers and 24-hour care
- special one-on-one nurses provided to care for you or your relatives in hospital as an extra nurse
In-Home Respite Services:
In-Home Respite Services ensures you still receive services like meal preparation, personal care and domestic assistance in your home when your family member or usual carer takes a break.
In-home respite provides a carer to support you in your own home while your family member or regular carer is taking a break.
Wellways, offers a range of services, including meal preparation, personal care and domestic assistance from one hour up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The advantage of having in-home respite services is that you remain in your own home in familiar surroundings. Wellways staff are very respectful and will always ensure you feel comfortable in your home.
Funding for in-home respite is available from local governmental agencies, or you can choose to pay for the services.
For more information, please contact us on 1300 111 500.
In-Home End-of-Life care:
Wellways can arrange Palliative Nursing Care to provide Comfort and Support if you choose to stay at home surrounded by your loved ones.
Wellways works with you, your General Practitioner and other healthcare professionals to provide comfort and support to you, your family and friends as you near the end of your life’s journey.
If you choose to stay at home surrounded by your loved ones, we can arrange services and supports to meet your personal and medical needs with kindness and compassion. Our services include:
- home help
- personal care
- nursing care
- pain management
- liaison with the GP and other services
- TLC and emotional support
- respite support for care givers
Wellways NDIS Service for Carers:
If you care for someone receiving a package from the NDIS, Wellways can support you to look after Your health and wellbeing.
Talk to us about how we can provide you with the best services and supports for your needs.
For more information, please call Wellways on 1300 111 500.
Wellways offers a wide range of individually tailored services designed to support people affected by mental health issues or disability, as well as their families, friends and carers. Our experienced, local staff will help you take charge of your wellbeing, connect with others and participate in your community.
The support we offer includes:
- assistance with day to day activities, such as household tasks, meal preparation, light housekeeping and grocery shopping
- transport to and from activities, appointments and meetings
- support to connect and participate in the community, getting out and about and catching up with friends
- transport
- travel training
- support to learn new skills, at home or in the community
- assistance with personal care such as showering, dressing and medication
- case management, support coordination and clinical support services.
Staying with your current carer services provider:
Carers in Queensland and the New South Wales areas of South West Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains can continue to access support through their current service providers until the new Carer Gateway Service Providers are established and operational in April 2020.
https://www.wellways.org/carers
https://issuu.com/wellwaysaustralia/docs/wellways_carer_services_handbook
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Support for carers from other agencies
Department of Social Services (DSS)
DSS provide information and links to a range of services available locally and across Australia, including services for people with a disability and those who provide care. Centres can assist carers with options to take a break through short-term and emergency respite, based on assessed need, and provide advice on and coordinate access to respite services in a carer’s local area.
You can find more information on the DSS website about these topics: Carer Gateway
Carer Gateway is a national online and phone service that provides practical information and resources to support carers. The interactive service finder helps carers connect to local support services.
You can find more information on the Carer Gateway website
Print Resources Different people have different needs for information at different times during an illness. Patients will also have different needs from their carers. To support these different needs the following list of resources has been compiled based around topics relevant to patients and their carers. The source of the information is included, note that some information is from outside Australia.
https://www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/tabid/1262/Default.aspx#BGL
Informal Caregiving and Its Impact on Health: A Reappraisal From Population-Based Studies
Our country is in the early stages of an unprecedented explosion in the number of older adults who will be living at home with physical disabilities or serious cognitive impairments. The need to provide adequate care to these vulnerable older adults is a major challenge facing our society on many levels. The assumption of our current health care system is that close family members will provide the majority of day-to-day assistance and manage the wide array of problems that confront these older adults with disabilities. However, most health care delivery models focus primarily on individual patients and do not properly engage, educate, or support family caregivers or other informal care providers.
Spousal Caregivers Are Caregiving Alone In The Last Years Of Life
June 2019
We hypothesized that spouses who were solo caregivers—that is, the only caregivers (paid or unpaid) who provided assistance with a spouse’s self-care or household activities—would experience more depression after bereavement than supported spouses would. Using information from the Health and Retirement Study, we found that 55 percent of the spouses of community-dwelling married people with disability were solo caregivers. Solo caregiving was even common among people who cared for spouses with dementia and those with adult children living close by. Bereavement outcomes did not differ between solo and supported caregiving spouses. Caregiving spouses are often isolated and may benefit from greater support, particularly during the final years before bereavement.
---------------------------------------------------
What happens:
Carer Profile
Carer Details
Name of primary carer? Primary carer name and contact details
If not clear, ask "The last time that you were sick, who took care of You?"
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date of birth
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are there other people who provide care? (eg network of carers, shared caring arrangements) Yes
No
Not sure
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If Yes, provide name and contact details
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Primary Carer residency status Yes - Co-resident Carer
No - Non-resident Carer
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Relationship of the Primary Carer to Care Recipient Wife/female partner
Husband/male partner
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Daughter-in-law
Son-in-law
Other relative - female
Other relative - male
Friend/neighbour - female
Friend/neighbour - male
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Carer Support
Does the Primary Carer have someone to help them? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer receive a Carer Payment or Allowance? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Has the Primary Carer been given information about available support services? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer need practical training in lifting, managing medicine or other tasks? Yes
No
Not sure
No carer
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If the Primary Carer does not receive a Carer Payment or Allowance, consider referral to Centrelink.
Current Threats to Carer Arrangements
Assessor Rated
Does the Primary Carer experience difficulties in areas such as ... ? Carer - emotional stress and strain
Carer - acute physical exhaustion/illness
Carer - slow physical health deterioration
Carer - factors unrelated to care situation
Client - increasing needs
Client - other factors
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are carer arrangements sustainable without additional services or support? No, arrangements have already broken down
No, carer arrangements likely to break down within months
Yes, carer arrangements are sustainable without
additional support
Don't know
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer need an assessment as a Care Recipient? Yes
No
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Does the Primary Carer need a referral to a Carer Support Agency eg Carer Respite Centre? Yes
No
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Care Recipient as Carer Profile
How many people do you care for? .........................................
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who do you care for? (tick all that apply) Wife/female partner
Husband/male partner
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Daughter-in-law
Son-in-law
Grandchild
Other relative - female
Other relative - male
Friend / neighbour - female
Friend / neighbour
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DOB of person(s) being care for
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are you caring for any person(s) with disabilities? Yes
No
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Assessor, is the client's caring role as risk because of their own needs? Yes
No
Not sure
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
p.76-78 Centre for Health Service Development, University of Wollongong.
--------------------------
A Day in the Life of a Caregiver - shows it how it is... We just, 'do it'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs_7jWqSeIM
Angels Carer Support Group. Held the last Tuesday of each month at St. Paul's Anglican Church Hall, 69 Palm Beach Ave, PALM BEACH - Come just after 1.00pm for that cuppa and a chat. Often we have Speakers on subjects of interest to us as Carers - they start about 1.00pm and go to about 3.00pm.
Other times we just sit, relax and enjoy each other's company and support each other as we face the daily caregiving tasks. Sit and chat, and take a brief break - for YOU :-) We hold our meetings on the last Tuesday of each month. Father Phillip is a Great Supporter of the Angels.
YOU are most welcome to join us :-) when this crisis passes and we are able to resume... Do take CARE of YOU too...
Note: As the 26th January is Australia Day holiday, our first meeting is on 23 February at the church.
and to find out what else is going on in the Palm Beach area: http://palmbeachgoldcoast.net.au/events/
Living on the Gold Coast? Our Angels Carer Support Group are being helped by these Tradespeople... Those who are Caring for others give all of their time 24/7 for the well-being of their loved one. It is a relentless, loving and all exhausting time in their lives, and those for whom they care... Rob Cinelli of LJ Hooker, Shop 2/10 Fifth Avenue, Palm Beach Qld 4221 has been helping us with practical help and suggestions... It is making our lives that much easier.
12 April 2022