Care Finder Communique #1 - January 2024
This Department has introduced care finder communiques that will be released on a regular basis to address frequently asked questions and issues that have been raised in recent months. Please find below the first Communique for this year.
Care finder communique #1 - January 2024
Evaluation of the care finder program – first report
- The first Evaluation Report from Australian Healthcare Associates will be publicly released in coming weeks.
- One finding was that not all staff have completed mandatory induction training. Please check that all staff currently working as intake staff, care finders and their managers have completed this.
PHN meetings
In September 2023, the department invited PHNs to meet informally to discuss the implementation of the care finder program, and to hear about the challenges, achievements and learnings from the program in the first year. We’d like to acknowledge the time of those who took part and thank you for sharing your experiences with us. It was fantastic to meet so many of you (albeit online) and to hear about the incredible achievements of your teams and your commissioned organisations.
Across the board, we heard stories of professional, dedicated commitment to clients, collaboration and shared learnings, and the establishment and strengthening of service integration across regions.
Unspent funds/carry overs completed for FY2023
PHNs and commissioned organisations must observe the policy guidance that unspent funds cannot be used for brokerage or establishing a ‘flexible funding bucket’, nor to provide services.
Unspent/carry overs may be used for once-off and/or non-recurrent activities such as to help further establish intermediary networks and communicate the purpose/target population for the program.
Funds may also be spent on updates to IT systems to streamline data capture and reporting and for training to support care finders to enhance their understanding/experience of a particular population group, the homelessness and housing sector and to support care finders to develop their resilience and self-care tool kit, acknowledging the emotional challenging aspects of their role. This final item is particularly important, and organisations who do not have training and/or supports in place for care finder staff should consider this in their annual planning.
Determining whether people aged under 65 years can be assisted by the care finder program
The recent program evaluation consultations and the department’s meetings with PHNs raised the need for clearer guidance on how to determine whether a person aged under 65 years fits the target group for the care finder program.
The care finder program does not have ‘eligibility criteria’ as such. Care finders will use their discretion where a potential client is aged under 65 to determine whether the person:
- is ‘frail’ or ‘prematurely aged’, which is defined as having a functional need for assistance with one or more basic or instrumental activities of daily living; AND
- 50 years or older if the person has Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander heritage, OR is homeless or at risk of homelessness; OR
aged 45 years or older if they are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin AND homeless/at risk of homelessness and on a low income.
The person does not need to have had a My Aged Care assessment and does not need to be seeking aged care services at the time (for example, housing support may be their priority at the time of contact) but they must require assistance with one or more activity of daily living. If clients do wish to access aged care services, they will require an assessment. There is no need to provide evidence of NDIS testing for these groups.
Reporting update
In conjunction with program evaluator AHA, the department is currently working on some improvements to the online monthly reporting questions.
The inclusion of additional (optional) questions is designed to more accurately capture time spent by care finders supporting people outside of the target population. This will also allow care finders the opportunity to add clarification text should they choose to. We expect these new questions will remove confusion about how to report against Band 0 Cases.
PHNs will have an opportunity to provide feedback before the changes are finalised and implemented.
Aged Care Reforms
To receive the latest news on the aged care reforms, all commissioned care finder organisations can sign up for the Your Aged Care Update newsletter here.
For an overview of the reform schedule along with the latest news and updates, go to Aged care reform roadmap | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
The care finder policy team will be compiling reform information for PHNs to share with their commissioned care finder organisations ahead of key changes that will affect them.
Improving integration with assessment
The department will investigate how aged care assessors can be notified (prior to contacting a client to set up an assessment) where a care finder is working with a client.
Ideally this will enable care finders to:
- ensure the client has an awareness and understanding of the assessment process,
- can assist with linking assessors to clients,
- be informed of when assessments are scheduled and, if appropriate attend the assessment with the client, provided the client wants them to.
Communications to key program intermediaries
- In response to feedback from PHNs and care finders, the department has been reviewing and redistributing information to Services Australia, the assessment workforce and My Aged Care contact centre.
National promotion of the program to the public is not appropriate as it would likely result in an influx of inappropriate referrals. PHNs and care finders should continue to work within their regions to establish strong relationships with key referral sources, service providers and community contacts that could assist in directing outreach activities.