Guides
Plain-English guides to ageing at home.
Practical, jargon-free guides to funding, choosing care and staying in your own home, written the way a knowledgeable friend would explain it.
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Guides
Drinking enough water in later life
Why older people drink less without noticing, the signs of dehydration to watch for, and small habits that make drinking easier at home.
15 October 2026
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Guides
Recognising elder abuse and where to get help
The forms elder abuse takes, the quiet signs families and workers notice, and who to contact in NSW if you are worried about an older person.
15 October 2026
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Guides
Talking to a parent about giving up driving
Signs driving is getting harder, how to raise it without a fight, who can give an independent view, and how to keep a parent getting out once the keys go.
15 October 2026
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Guides
Living with persistent pain at home
Practical ways to manage persistent pain at home in later life, who can help, and how in-home support can work around good and bad days.
7 October 2026
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Guides
The Restorative Care Pathway explained
A plain guide to the short-term Restorative Care Pathway in Support at Home: who it is for, how to ask about it and how to get the most from it.
7 October 2026
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Guides
Looking after teeth and dentures in later life
A sore mouth quietly changes what someone eats and whether they go out. Daily mouth care at home, dentures, dry mouth and when to see a dentist.
5 October 2026
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Guides
Sudden confusion in older people: delirium
When a parent is suddenly muddled, drowsy or not themselves, it may be delirium, not dementia. What it looks like, what causes it and what to do today.
5 October 2026
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Guides
Talking about dementia across languages
Some languages have no gentle word for dementia, and some families never discuss it. How to start the conversation and find help in your language.
5 October 2026
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Guides
Breathing problems and help at home
Breathlessness shrinks a life quietly, one avoided task at a time. What pacing really means, how the house can do some of the work, and when to ring.
17 September 2026
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Guides
Keeping on top of medications at home
Eight tablets a day is a system, not a memory test. What actually helps at home, who is allowed to do what, and the moments when mistakes cluster.
17 September 2026
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Guides
Moving house with a Support at Home plan
Your funding follows you, but your provider might not. What to sort before the move, what only changes after it, and the gap most people fall into.
17 September 2026
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Guides
Low vision at home: making the house work
Most people with low vision are not blind. They need contrast, light and things kept where they were left. What actually helps, room by room.
15 September 2026
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Guides
Starting the advance care planning conversation
Not the forms. The conversation that has to happen first, why it goes better early, and how to open it without turning it into a family meeting.
15 September 2026
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Guides
Wound care and skin at home
Older skin tears easily and heals slowly. What helps day to day, what only a nurse should do, and the changes that mean you ring someone today.
15 September 2026
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Guides
Preparing for a planned hospital stay
The fortnight before you go in is the part nobody plans. What to sort at home, who to tell, and the questions to ask while you still have time to ask them.
11 September 2026
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Guides
What happens to your plan when you travel
Going away for a few weeks does not mean giving up your place. What to tell your provider, what happens to your budget, and what to sort before you go.
11 September 2026
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Guides
When your regular support worker leaves
Workers move on. What a proper handover looks like, what you should be told and when, and how to stop starting from scratch with the next person.
11 September 2026
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Guides
If you go into hospital, what happens to your funding?
Going into hospital does not cancel your Support at Home place. What pauses, what keeps being charged, and the calls worth making on day one.
8 September 2026
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Guides
Parkinson's disease and help at home
Parkinson's changes by the hour, not by the year. How to build support around medication timing, freezing, fatigue and a voice that gets quieter.
8 September 2026
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Guides
Ramadan, fasting and support at home
How to arrange home care around Ramadan when someone is older or unwell. Shifting the roster to suhoor and iftar, and the exemptions worth knowing.
8 September 2026
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Guides
Arthritis and staying independent at home
Arthritis changes how a house works before it changes where you live. The small adjustments, the help worth asking for, and when to bring in an OT.
7 September 2026
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Guides
How to ask for a support worker who speaks your language
You are allowed to ask, and it is not a special favour. What to say, who to say it to, and what to do if the answer comes back as no.
7 September 2026
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Guides
How to read a home care agreement before you sign
The clauses that matter in a home care agreement, the ones people skim past, and the questions worth asking before you put your name to anything.
7 September 2026
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Guides
Getting to appointments when you stop driving
What actually replaces the car. Community transport, taxi subsidy schemes, family lifts, and how to arrange the appointment so the trip is worth making.
4 September 2026
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Guides
Help at home after a stroke
What support at home looks like after a stroke, from the first weeks back to the slower months. Fatigue, speech, showering and what family should ask for.
4 September 2026
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Guides
What to do after a fall at home
The first few minutes, how to get up without making an injury worse, when to see a doctor even if nothing hurts, and how to find out why it happened.
4 September 2026
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Guides
How to get a free interpreter for aged care
Interpreters for aged care assessments and appointments are free to you. How to ask for one, what to expect on the day, and what to do if nobody offers.
3 September 2026
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Guides
How to raise a concern about home care
Most problems with home care are fixed at the first conversation. What to say, who to say it to, and where to go if it does not get better.
3 September 2026
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Guides
Support for you, the family carer
Help exists for the person doing the caring, not only the person cared for. What Carer Gateway offers, and why waiting until you are worn out costs more.
3 September 2026
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Guides
Keeping routines that work when someone has dementia
Why the same order, the same time and the same face reduce distress, how to build a routine that holds, and when to let one go.
2 September 2026
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Guides
What an overnight support shift involves
Sleepover or awake all night, what the worker actually does, and how to work out which one a household needs. A plain look at overnight support.
2 September 2026
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When an older person stops eating properly
Appetite fades quietly and weight goes before anyone notices. What is usually behind it, what helps at home, and what belongs with a GP.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Allied health at home: what you can get
Physio, OT, podiatry, dietetics, speech and psychology can all come to the house. What each one is for and how they are usually funded.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Continence support at home
Bladder and bowel problems are common and often improvable, not something to simply manage. Who to see, what help exists, and how to raise it.
2 September 2026
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Guides
What the AT-HM scheme pays for
Assistive Technology and Home Modifications is a separate pool of funding from your services budget. What it covers and how to get to it.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Emergency alarms and personal alerts
Pendants, watches, monitored services and fall detection. What each actually does, what none of them do, and how to choose one that gets worn.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Hoarding support that respects the person
A forced clean-out almost always fails and often causes lasting harm. What actually helps, who to involve, and where the real safety lines are.
2 September 2026
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Guides
What happens at a Home Medicines Review
A pharmacist comes to the house, goes through every medicine including the ones in the drawer, and reports back to your GP. How to get one.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Home nursing and support work
Wound care, injections and catheters are nursing work. Showering, meals and prompting are support work. Why the line matters and how to check it.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Home modifications for ageing in place
Which changes prevent the most falls, what needs an occupational therapist, how it is funded, and what you can do if the house is rented.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Palliative care at home
Palliative care is not only for the last days, and most people want to be at home. What has to be in place, and who to ring at three in the morning.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Veteran Home Care and DVA support
DVA runs its own home support, separate from My Aged Care. What Veterans Home Care covers, who is eligible, and how it sits alongside aged care.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Seeing a dietitian about eating at home
What a dietitian actually does for an older person, when to ask for one, and why the advice is often the opposite of general healthy eating.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Exercise physiology and preventing falls
Strength and balance training is the best evidence there is for preventing falls. What an exercise physiologist does and why the dose matters.
2 September 2026
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Guides
What an occupational therapist does
OTs assess how you manage real tasks in your real house, and they are who specifies rails, ramps and equipment. How to get one and what to expect.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Physiotherapy at home for older people
Strength, balance and getting back on your feet after a fall or a hospital stay. What a home physio visit involves and why the exercises matter more.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Foot care and podiatry at home
Sore feet stop people walking, and people who stop walking get weaker fast. Why podiatry is one of the highest value appointments in aged care.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Counselling and psychology in later life
Depression in older people is common, treatable and constantly mistaken for ageing. What help exists, and how to raise it with someone who will resist.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Speech pathology, swallowing and speaking
Coughing at meals is a reason to get assessed, not to change the food yourself. What a speech pathologist does for swallowing and communication.
2 September 2026
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Guides
What complex care at home means
Several conditions at once, clinical tasks, and a plan that has to hold together. What complex care actually involves and who should be coordinating it.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Managing diabetes at home as you age
Targets often loosen with age rather than tighten, and hypoglycaemia becomes the bigger risk. What changes, and what to raise with the GP.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Getting a memory assessment
Worried about memory? What the assessment process involves, why several treatable things imitate dementia, and why going early is better.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Massage and manual therapies at home
Massage, myotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic for older people. What each involves, what the evidence supports, and what to check first.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Paying privately for home care
Plenty of people pay for help while they wait for funding, or instead of it. What to check, what it should cost you to leave, and when it makes sense.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Sleep problems in later life
Sleep changes with age, but broken nights are not something to simply accept. What causes it, what helps, and why sleeping tablets are a poor answer.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Stairlifts and getting between floors
A stairlift is one answer to a two-storey house and not always the best one. The options, what to check, and the cheaper fixes to try first.
2 September 2026
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Guides
Coming home from hospital: the first two weeks
The risky part is not discharge day. It is the fortnight after, when the ward routine disappears and nobody is checking. What to put in place first.
1 September 2026
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Guides
How to talk to a parent who refuses help at home
Refusal is almost never about the vacuuming. What is usually underneath it, the openings that work, and the ones that make a parent dig in harder.
1 September 2026
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Guides
The first month of home care, and what to fix
Almost every new care arrangement needs adjusting in the first four weeks. What is normal teething, what is not, and how to say so before it hardens.
1 September 2026
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Guides
Self-managed or provider-managed: what actually changes
Providers use these words loosely. Here is what genuinely differs day to day, who does the chasing, and how to tell what you are being offered.
31 August 2026
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Guides
What the Support at Home means assessment looks at
A means assessment decides what you contribute towards your own care. Here is who runs it, what it looks at, and the questions worth asking.
31 August 2026
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Guides
What happens at a Support at Home plan review
A plan review is your chance to change what is not working. Here is what triggers one, what to bring, what gets asked, and what happens afterwards.
31 August 2026
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Guides
What to expect from your first home care visit
What actually happens on day one, who turns up, what they will ask, and the things worth saying while someone is still writing it all down.
29 August 2026
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Guides
Domestic assistance: what is and is not included
What a support worker can help with around the house, what sits outside the role, and how to set up the hour so it is spent on what matters most to you.
28 August 2026
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Guides
Personal care at home, done with dignity
What personal care at home actually involves, how to keep control of your own routine, and the questions that separate good support from rushed support.
28 August 2026
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Guides
Respite care explained, for family carers
What respite care is, the forms it takes at home and away, how it is funded, and how to arrange a break that is actually restful.
28 August 2026
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Guides
How to switch aged care providers without losing your funding
Unhappy with your home care provider? Your funding follows you, not them. Here is how to switch calmly and without a gap in care.
27 August 2026
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Guides
Waiting for a Support at Home place: what to do in the meantime
The wait between an aged care assessment and funded services is the hardest stretch. Here is what you can do while you wait, and what to avoid.
27 August 2026
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Guides
What can a Support at Home budget be spent on?
A plain-English guide to what your Support at Home budget covers, what it does not, and how to make the most of every hour.
27 August 2026
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Guides
How to choose an in-home aged care provider
What to look for, and what to look out for, when choosing an in-home aged care provider for yourself or a parent.
26 August 2026
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Guides
How much does in-home aged care cost in Australia?
A plain-English look at what in-home aged care costs under Support at Home, what the government pays, and what you might contribute yourself.
26 August 2026
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Guides
How to get a My Aged Care assessment
A step-by-step, jargon-free guide to getting assessed for in-home aged care through My Aged Care, and what happens at each stage.
26 August 2026
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Guides
Staying at home vs moving to residential care
A calm look at the choice between in-home aged care and residential care, and the questions that actually help you decide.
26 August 2026
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Guides
Support at Home explained, in plain English
A clear guide to the Support at Home program, how it works, and what it means if you or a parent needs care at home.
26 August 2026
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