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Your care

What your care looks like

Care that's planned around you, written down properly and kept up to date. Here's what happens, from the first conversation to the weekly check on how things are going.

Your first conversation

Before any care starts, a care coordinator comes to meet you.

  1. We meet you in your home where we can, and we allow an hour.
  2. We talk to you, not about you. If family are there, we still ask you directly.
  3. We ask what a good day looks like, and what a bad one looks like. Most of your plan comes out of that.
  4. We walk through the home: how to get in, where things are kept, the steps, the dog.
  5. We write it up within 2 business days and show you how to see it and change it.
  6. Your first plan is provisional. It isn't right until a companion has actually been.

Your plan is a living profile

Birchmere doesn't keep your care plan as a document in a drawer. It's a living profile that holds who you are, what matters to you and how you like things done, so the companion who arrives on Tuesday knows what's changed.

What your plan holds

  • About you: your name and what you like to be called, family, interests and what you're proud of
  • What matters to you, in your own words
  • What you can do yourself, which matters as much as what you need help with
  • Your routine
  • How to talk with you, including your language and whether you'd like an interpreter
  • Who you'd like: interests, language, personality, days and times
  • How to do things your way, from how you take your tea to which shops you use
  • How to get in, and who else is involved

What matters to you comes first

It's in your words, such as "I want to stay in this house", and it shapes everything else.

We don't take over what you can still do

A companion who takes over a task you can manage does you no favours. Your plan says what you can do yourself.

Nothing is deleted

Every change is kept, with who made it and when.

No account needed

If you'd rather not use the website, ring us and a coordinator records it. We'll post you a printed copy whenever you want one.

Update it yourself

Coming soon

You and the people you nominate can change most of your plan at any time, in your account.

You're in charge

You outrank everyone

A family member or other person you nominate can help, but they can't overrule you.

If you and your family disagree

Your coordinator talks to you privately, and you decide.

Important safety details are protected

Health and safety, what to do if something happens, risks you accept and what we don't do can be suggested by others but need a coordinator to confirm. That way an allergy or a falls note can't be quietly removed.

You choose who sees what

Coming soon

You can give one person your whole plan and another only your visit summaries, see every change a nominated person makes, undo it without explaining, and remove anyone's access at any time.

After every visit

Before your companion leaves, they write a short summary. It's how you, and the people who care about you, know how the visit went.

What it covers

What was done, anything booked that wasn't done and why, how you seemed, and anything worth passing on.

You see it straight away

It appears in your account with the start and finish times, and you and anyone you've given access to can read it. Check-in and check-out set the times, so they're the real ones.

Plain words

Companions write what they saw, in ordinary words, and they don't diagnose or guess.

It can't be changed

Summaries can't be edited or deleted. A correction is added alongside the original.

Someone reads them

Anything that needs following up reaches your coordinator the same day, and your coordinator reads your summaries at least weekly, looking for patterns.

Keeping your plan right

A plan that's updated all the time can still be wrong about the things nobody thought to change. So we review it:

  • Every 12 monthsA conversation, going through your plan together. Not a form check.
  • After a hospital stayBefore care starts again, because what's changed is often more than anyone says.
  • After a fall or an incidentWithin 5 business days.
  • When a companion notices a changeCompanions see change first. "She's not managing the stairs like she was" is reason enough.
  • Whenever you askAny time, for any reason.

Your choices are yours

You have the right to make choices other people think are unwise, such as living alone when family would rather you didn't.

  • We make sure you have the information, and we record the conversation: what the risk is, what we said, what you said, and what we agreed.
  • We look for something that lowers the risk without taking away your choice, such as a light left on and a check-in call instead of insisting on a rail.
  • Where you agree, we tell your family what you've decided. We don't use family pressure to change your mind.

Medication: companions remind, they don't give

A companion can remind you that it's time, bring you a glass of water, hand you an unopened pack you've asked for, and tell us if medication looks untouched or you seem confused about it.

Companions don't pop tablets from a pack, measure liquids, apply creams or patches, or tell you what to take or how much.

If you need help with medication, we'll talk with you and your family about a nurse or a pharmacy dose service. Medication support is only ever offered if we've told you in writing that it's available to you.

Keeping everyone safe

Serious incidents

Birchmere is private-pay and isn't required to report to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission today. We use the same eight categories of serious incident that registered aged care providers must report, so we hold ourselves to that standard anyway.

If a companion can't get in

If a companion can't get in and can't reach you, they call our office after 10 minutes and don't leave until we tell them to. We'll contact you or your emergency contact, and may ask for a welfare check.

If someone is at risk

If we have reasonable concerns that a client is being harmed, neglected or financially exploited, we may report them to police or an advocacy service.

Feeling unsafe

A companion can end a visit and leave if they feel the client or they are unsafe.

Infection control

Companions wash their hands on arrival and when needed, and use gloves for cleaning, laundry and waste.

Birchmere is not an emergency service. In an emergency, call 000.

What we ask of you

  • Keep your health information, allergies, emergency contact and GP up to date.
  • Make sure a companion can get in and that the home is reasonably safe to work in.
  • Treat companions with respect. Abuse, harassment and threats aren't acceptable.
  • Don't offer companions money, gifts, loans or work. They aren't allowed to accept them.
  • Tell us before a visit if there are recording devices in the home.

Meet your coordinator

It starts with a conversation. A care coordinator will call you within 2 business days to talk it through, with no obligation.

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