Age Care Service Finders

Some older people need extra, intensive support to access aged care services and other supports in the community.

In these situations, a care finder may be able to help.

Age Care Service finders is a free service. It exists to support vulnerable people – who have no one else who can support them – to learn about, apply for and set up support services.

Who can use the care finder service?
How does the care finder service work?
What help can care finders provide?
How do I contact a care finder organisation?
Where do I start?

Who can use the age care service finder?

The age care service finder is not available for everyone. It exists specifically to support vulnerable older people who need intensive support to access aged care services and support.

To receive care finder support, a person must:

have no carer or support person who can help them, or
not have a carer or support person they feel comfortable or trust to support them, and
be eligible for government-funded aged care (use the Eligibility checker to learn more).

In addition, they should have one or more of these reasons for needing intensive support:

have difficulty communicating because of language or literacy problems
find it difficult to understand information and make decisions
be reluctant to engage with aged care or government
be in an unsafe situation if they do not receive services.

If someone doesn’t meet the criteria above there are a range of other support options available. Learn more on the Getting support in aged care page.

How does age care service finder work?

If someone requires care finder support, then a local organisation can connect them with a dedicated care finder.

The care finder will visit them, usually in person. This can be at their home or another place they would like to meet. They will ask questions to understand the person’s situation and support them to work through the steps to address their needs.

To find a local care finder organisation see How do I contact a care finder organisation below.

What help can care finders provide?

Care finders can help vulnerable older people navigate the aged care system and find support services to improve their quality of life. Care finders can help with both accessing services for the first time and changing or finding new services and supports.

They can help someone with:

talking to My Aged Care on their behalf and arranging an assessment
attending and providing support at the assessment
finding and short-listing aged care providers in their area
completing forms and understanding aged care service agreements
checking-in once services are up and running to make sure everything is OK
solving other challenges and connecting to supports in the community, such as health, mental health, housing and homelessness, drug and alcohol services and community groups.

How do I contact a care finder organisation?

There are care finder organisations across Australia. To help connect someone with this service, you can call any care finder organisation in your region.

When you call, you will need to answer some questions about why the person needs help from a care finder. The person must give consent for you to provide this information, so it is best if they are with you when you call.

Every care finder organisation can support people who meets the criteria for this service. However, some also focus on particular groups. See specific organisation details below.

Check which Primary Health Network (PHN) covers your region in the PHN locator map.

For more information, please click here.

Where do I start?

Please fill and submit the care finder service intake and assessment form to streamline the process of gathering essential information and evaluating your needs, thereby enabling us to deliver tailored and efficient services.

To open the form in a new window, click here : care finder Service Intake & Assessment Form .

Age Care Service Finders - Catalyst Foundation