‘One stop shop’ for community care
A brand new Access Point for people seeking community care services has opened in Victoria.
A ‘one stop shop’ for prospective community care clients has been launched by the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs.
The $2.45 million Direct2Care demonstration site based in Knox is the first of at least two such sites in Victoria.
“The demonstration sites will draw together information about all the different types of community care services, provided by all levels of government, into one convenient location,” said Federal Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot.
“It will also assist GPs, carers and family members.”
People can access the service by calling a dedicated telephone hotline – 1300 121 121 – to receive advice from experienced support workers.
The support workers will contact local aged care services who, in turn, will make contact with the people seeking care.
The Knox site will be run by UnitingCare Community Options alongside a Commonwealth Carelink centre which it already coordinates.
“As the first point of contact it is going to give people much better access to services,” said the organisation’s CEO, Ronda Held.
“Comparatively, Carelink has relatively meager funding and it just provides information. But the direct care service provides a guided referral process where we collect the information, guide the person to the right service and then follow them up to see if they have managed to obtain the service they need.”
The second Victorian site will be established in Ballarat to service the Grampians region.
The state’s sites will be developed using $1.2 million in funding from the Australian Government and $1.25 million from the Victorian Government.
“Vulnerable people and their carers shouldn’t have to deal with an onerous, complex system to determine if they are eligible for community care services,” said Mrs Elliott.
“We want to remove the complexities that frail and older Australians and their carers have been dealing with, and to provide them with better access to the most appropriate care for their needs.”
