New SA home help agency
A new home help agency for people who need assistance looking after themselves or family members has been announced by Health Minister, John Hill, and Families and Communities Minister, Jay Weatherill.
The newly named Domiciliary Care SA will be in place by mid-2007.
The integrated home help service will be based on the successful Metro Domiciliary Care service, but will bring together services for older people, people with disabilities and those convalescing.
The reforms will bring all of these areas together into a single home care agency. At the moment homecare services for disability, health and ageing clients are administered in different ways by different departments.
Metropolitan Domiciliary Care (MDC) has been transferred from Health to the Families and Communities Department.
The intention of the transfer is to make it easier for clients and staff to better link in with services they need, such as specialised care, social support and disability care, and to ultimately make life easier for those who need home care services, and their families and carers.
MDC sees about 15,000 clients a year and provides more than half a million “occasions of service” – including things like physical assistance, rehabilitation and personal care, as well as respite and support for carers.
The Government is also looking at the transfer of country domiciliary care services to the new agency.
