Bre Rasmussen is the manager of the Allied Health Professionals division at Brightwater At Home, and presented to us last Tuesday together with Adriana Filippou, Brightwater’s Community Engagement and Events Organiser.Brightwater has been part of the WA community since 1901 and provides residential aged care and rehabilitation services, but Bre chiefly spoke about home care.
Their team includes care workers, nurses and therapists and each home care package is designed to cater towards an individual person’s needs. Brightwater offers help with cleaning, shopping, driving to appointments and personal care.
A home care package for a person over 65 or vulnerable people over 50 starts with an aged care assessment, which can be arranged online, by telephone or through a referral from a GP.
There are eight care levels with the basic one offering assistance over two to three services, which can be domestic help, home maintenance and gardening or meal delivery. Prices for each service are heavily regulated and range from $10,000 to $78,000 a year. A care partner will be appointed and can work with the client to determine their requirements.
An up to 12-weeks transitional care program is also available after a client’s hospitalisation to home.
Bre allowed plenty of time for questions and there were quite a few from the floor. President Margaret pointed out that younger members Sue and Aaron were possibly not so invested in the topic, but the room as a whole listened with rapt attention. Several members had personal experience with arranging care needs for a family member and were interested to hear of changes taking place in the aged care system.