Kelly Hughes is an APM Regional Assessment Service team leader based on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
Recently she was referred to assess a client, Shirley, who has Parkinson's disease. Shirley and her husband (who is also her carer) were unsure of what support services they could access through My Aged Care, but were eager to have an assessment, which Kelly provided. Some supports that were considered include home cleaning help and maintenance, gardening assistance and speech therapy. Shirley and her husband were very happy with individualised support plan that was
Shortly afterwards, Kelly received a call from the Caloundra Parkinson's Support Group advising that Allan and Shirley had provided excellent feedback about their experiences with the Home Support Assessment process and wished to invite APM to present to the group.
Mark Thompson (APM Regional Lead) and Kelly spoke to the group on My Aged Care and the Home Support Assessment process and conducted a question and answer session following their presentation. The Support Group were very interested and motivated in knowing how to register with My Aged Care and about learning what services they were eligible to receive to assist them to remain living as independently as possible at home.
At the end of the presentation, Allan spoke to the group about his positive experiences from Shirley's Home Support Assessment, advising that the services they are now accessing have changed their lives. He encouraged everyone to register with My Aged Care.
Kelly and Mark, along with the entire RAS team enjoys making contributions like this every day to our clients.
Thank you to Shirley and her husband for sharing their personal experience and for providing APM with the opportunity to assist many others access services to remain living as independently as possible.