Documents worth sorting before you need them

Every family that has been through a hospital admission has had the same conversation in a corridor. Does anyone know who his GP is. Has Mum got an advance care directive. Where is the Medicare card.

None of it is hard to find on a quiet Sunday. All of it is hard to find at nine on a Tuesday night.

This is a checklist for the quiet Sunday. It is general information, not legal or financial advice.

Identity and entitlements

• Medicare card
• Pension or Seniors Card, and DVA card if there is one
• My Aged Care client number
• Centrelink or DVA customer reference number
• Private health insurance details, if any
• Driver licence or other photo ID
• Birth certificate, and marriage certificate if the surname changed
• Citizenship or visa documents where relevant

Health

• The full medication list, with doses, and the date it was last correct
• Allergies and adverse reactions
• GP name, practice and phone number
• Specialists, with what each one treats
• Pharmacy, especially if they pack the medications
• Recent discharge summaries
• Hearing aid, glasses, dentures and mobility equipment details, including who services them
• Advance care directive or advance care plan, if one exists

The medication list is the one that earns its keep. Bring it to every appointment and every admission, and put the date on it, because an out-of-date list is actively dangerous.

Decision-making

These are the documents that determine who can act if the person cannot, and they are the ones families most often discover do not exist.

• Enduring power of attorney, for financial and legal decisions
• Enduring guardianship or medical decision-maker appointment, for health and lifestyle decisions
• Will, and where the original is held
• Details of any trustee or administrator already appointed

The names and the rules for these differ between states and territories, and a form that is right in one is not necessarily right in another. If none of these exist, that is worth acting on while the person can still make them. Speak to a solicitor, or your state or territory’s public trustee or guardianship body.

Do not photocopy a signed original and file the copy as though it is the document. Note where the original lives.

Money

• Bank accounts, with the branch and account details
• Superannuation and any income stream
• Direct debits and recurring payments, which is the list nobody has
• Insurance policies: home, contents, car, funeral, life
• Rates, utilities and phone accounts, with account numbers
• Any loan, mortgage or lease

The direct debits list matters more than it sounds. When someone goes into hospital for six weeks, the payments keep going, and the family cannot see what they are.

The house

• Title documents, or the lease and the agent’s details
• Emergency contacts for plumbing, electrical and the like
• Where the water and electricity shut-offs are
• Spare key holders, and who has a key
• Alarm or security codes, held sensibly

People

• Emergency contacts, in the order they should actually be called
• Who has been told what, if a diagnosis is being managed carefully
• Neighbours who keep an eye out
• Religious or community contacts who would want to know
• Preferred language, and who interprets if needed

That last pair is easy to leave off a form and matters enormously in a hospital at midnight. Our languages and cultural care page covers how we handle it.

How to keep it

One folder, one place, and two people who know where it is. Paper works. If you prefer digital, keep a paper copy of the essentials anyway, because phones go flat and passwords die with people.

Review it once a year. Put it in the same week as something you already do, so it actually happens. The medication list needs checking more often than that, every time it changes.

What this makes easier

When care starts, this folder is most of the intake conversation. It is also most of what a hospital asks for, most of what an assessor asks for, and most of what a family member who lives interstate needs at two in the morning.

Our My Aged Care assessment checklist covers the assessment specifically, and the starting plan for arranging care is the one-page version for families right at the beginning.

At Aldera, this is the sort of thing One Story exists for. Told once, held properly, and not asked for again by the next carer through the door. That is how we work.

For anything legal, get advice from a solicitor. For a conversation about care at home, call us.