An older person may need aged care yet be unable to complete the steps: no phone credit, no safe address, distrust of services, cognitive difficulty or nobody reliable to help. Australia’s care finder program offers intensive, face-to-face navigation for a defined group of vulnerable older people. It is not a concierge service for every family, and knowing the eligibility test prevents weeks of referrals to the wrong support.
understand My Aged Care registration and assessment; see the steps from assessment to move-in; compare Australian aged care homes and their services.
Care finder is for intensive navigation needs
The program is intended for eligible older people who need substantial help to access aged care and have no trusted person able and willing to support them. Vulnerability may involve communication barriers, homelessness, cognitive issues, isolation or difficulty understanding and engaging with services. A family being busy is not automatically enough. Ask a local care finder to apply the current criteria to the person’s situation.
The age gateway has important exceptions
My Aged Care generally serves people aged 65 and over, with lower age thresholds for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people and people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Eligibility also requires care needs and the program’s vulnerability conditions. Do not infer acceptance from age alone. A younger person with disability may need the NDIS or another state service instead.
Describe the barrier, not only the diagnosis
A useful referral explains what the person cannot complete and why ordinary phone or family support fails. Examples include repeatedly losing letters, being unable to use interpreters by phone, unsafe family involvement, no identification, sleeping rough or refusing unknown services after trauma. State urgent risks and the best way to approach the person. Avoid sending excessive clinical records before consent and need are established.
- Current location and safe contact method
- Tasks the person cannot complete alone
- Trusted people available—or why none can help
- Communication, culture and trauma considerations
- Immediate housing, health or safeguarding risks
Expect practical, relational help
A care finder can build trust, explain My Aged Care, help register, attend assessment, find providers and connect other community supports. They may make calls with the person, organise documents and help compare responses. The work is often face to face and can continue across steps. It should increase the older person’s understanding and choice, not simply move paperwork without them.
Know what a care finder cannot promise
They do not control assessment approval, package funding, waiting lists or provider vacancies. They are not an emergency service, guardian, financial adviser or substitute decision-maker. A referral cannot force someone to accept care if they have decision-making ability. If immediate danger, abuse, homelessness or medical crisis exists, the appropriate emergency or safeguarding service must run alongside navigation.
Keep housing and aged care on parallel tracks
For someone homeless or at risk, an aged-care assessment may not solve tonight’s accommodation. Ask the care finder which housing, health, income and legal services are also involved, and name a lead for urgent shelter. Similarly, a residential bed may not be the preferred outcome if Support at Home could work with stable housing. Do not let one system wait passively for the other.
Prepare a referral that can be acted on
Write a short account in the person’s own terms: what they want, what has already failed and how a worker can meet them safely. Include consent to contact where possible. If the person will not answer unknown numbers, provide a trusted location or service through which an introduction can occur.
After referral, record the organisation, worker, date and next action. Ask when to follow up and what to do if the person moves or is hospitalised. Vulnerable people are easily lost when responsibility changes. A simple timeline keeps support alive without circulating sensitive details widely.
Review whether the relationship remains voluntary and useful. Intensive help should not become control. The older person can ask questions, decline a provider and change preferences. Where capacity or exploitation is a concern, seek the correct assessment and safeguarding advice rather than asking the care finder to act as an informal guardian.
Care finder support may continue while the person meets assessors and providers, which is important when trust is fragile. Ask whether the same worker can attend, how missed meetings are handled and what contact method survives phone loss. If the worker changes, request a warm handover with the older person present rather than a fresh intake that forces them to retell trauma.
Separate reluctance from inability. Someone may understand the system and refuse it; another may want help but cannot navigate forms, calls or transport. The care finder should support choice, not treat every refusal as incapacity. If decision-making ability is genuinely uncertain, seek the correct assessment and communication support. Homelessness, unusual beliefs or disagreement with family do not by themselves establish incapacity.
When comparing providers, use the care finder to make the hidden tasks visible: confirming vacancies, arranging interpreters, understanding fees, checking transport and attending a tour. Keep a shortlist with reasons, not dozens of names. If no provider accepts the referral, record each reason and take that evidence back to the assessor or program lead. Repeated rejection may show the care plan or funding needs review, not that the older person has “failed” navigation.
Can a relative refer someone?
Referral routes vary locally and may accept contacts from health professionals, community services, family or the person themselves. The care finder still assesses eligibility and engagement. Ask the local Primary Health Network or My Aged Care for the current provider and referral process. Do not promise the person that a particular service or bed will result.
Does care finder support cost the older person?
Care finder is a government-funded navigation service and eligible clients should not be charged for the support. This does not make aged-care services themselves free; assessments, contributions and provider fees follow their own rules. Ask for any cost explanation in writing and distinguish navigation from a commercial placement or brokerage service.
What needs direct confirmation?
Confirm eligibility, referral route, local provider, response time and scope with the relevant care finder, Primary Health Network or My Aged Care. In urgent risk, contact the appropriate emergency, health, housing or safeguarding service. Only assessors and providers can confirm funded care, availability and admission; a care finder cannot guarantee those outcomes.