The Aged Care Navigators Trial ended on 31 December 2022. If you, or someone you care about is looking for assistance finding aged care, you can look up a care finder service at https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/help-care-finder. These lists will be expanded as organisations are ready to accept new clients. New organisations will be added until at least the end of April 2023, so keep checking. Services are commissioned through the Primary Health Networks (PHNs), so if there is nothing available in your area, contact your local PHN, you can find their details here: https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/phn/your-local-PHN .
The Care finder program is an important part of Australia’s aged care system. In a system that emphasises people’s choice and control over their care, it is the program that stops people falling through the gaps. Not everyone is in a position to use a website or a call centre to choose their own care. The reasons people might miss out are many, and are as diverse as the life experiences of the older people who have a right to aged care.
Care finders do the work to ensure nobody misses out on the aged care services to which they are entitled. They reach out to the excluded and marginalised. Their clients may be excluded by language, digital literacy, past trauma, limited literacy, cultural difference, sexuality, or for any other reason.
Care finders build relationships with communities and individuals who otherwise would miss out, helping people on their own terms, and ensuring everyone’s experience of ageing is one of quality care with respect and dignity. This program is an essential part of making the aged care system fair, accessible, and kind.
The resources below were created in 2022 as part of the Aged Care Navigation Trail to inform and assist Care Finders in their work.
Resource List
Care Finder Competency Framework 2022 (pdf version)
Care Finder Competency Framework 2022 (Word Version)
Service level resources
- LGBTI Service delivery models
- Addressing service gaps: Responses to common problems encountered by navigators
- Service Intake and engagement models
Skills for person-centred approaches
Resource Title
- Assertive outreach
- Working with older people from diverse communities
- Working with interpreters
- Supporting complex customers
- First time phone contact: Engaging vulnerable clients on the phone
- Referrals
- Navigator Roles and Boundaries
- Supporting older Veterans
Policies and Procedures
- Checklist for Self-assessment against Care finder Competency Framework
- Governance framework for navigation
- Conflicts of interest when delivering navigation supports
- Competency-based recruitment
- Home and Community Visiting: Example Policy and Procedure