Getting a My Aged Care assessment

Nearly everyone who gets government-funded help at home starts the same way: an assessment arranged through My Aged Care. You cannot skip it, and a provider cannot do it for you. What a provider can do is help you get ready, which makes more difference than people expect.

Starting it

Call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, or ask your GP or the hospital to make the referral. You will be asked some questions over the phone about how you are managing day to day. If it looks like you need support, they arrange an assessment, usually in your home.

You can start this yourself, or a family member can start it with your consent. You do not need to have chosen a provider first.

What happens on the day

An assessor visits and talks through how you manage: washing and dressing, meals, the house, getting out, medications, how steady you are on your feet, and what support you already have from family or neighbours. It usually takes an hour or so.

The result is a classification — one of eight levels — which sets your quarterly budget. You are written to with the outcome.

The mistake people make

Most people describe their best day. They have the assessor in the good front room, they have had a decent night's sleep, and they play down the difficulty because that is how they were raised.

The assessment can only work from what it is told. Before the visit, it is worth writing down, honestly:

• What is genuinely hard now that was not hard two years ago
• Anything you have stopped doing because it became too difficult
• Any falls or near-falls, even ones you did not mention at the time
• What a bad day looks like, not an average one
• What a family member is already quietly doing for you each week

Have someone with you if you can. Two people remember more, and it is easier to be frank when somebody else is there to say the thing you would rather not.

Worth having to hand

Your Medicare card, a list of your medications, your GP's details, and any recent letters from specialists or the hospital. If there is a My Aged Care reference number from an earlier contact, that too.

Afterwards

Once you have a classification you choose a provider, and the funding follows you. You can change providers later if it is not working.

We help people prepare for this every week, and there is no cost and no obligation for that conversation — you do not need to have chosen us, or anyone. Ring (03) 5229 0722 if it would help to talk it through, or read how eligibility works.