I wanted to do a blog post on ACATs. Because they are a thing that you have to navigate in this whole aged-care environment thing we’re trying to work our way through.
The problem is that Aged Care Assessments (ACAT) aren’t very interesting. And like most of our aged-care system, they’re also impenetrable for anybody outside of the system. But, since we’re waiting for Mum’s transfer to happen, I thought I’d meander my way unhelpfully through a post on ACATs that contains very little information.
I once spent an entire morning online trying to answer questions like
“What is an ACAT anyway?”
“When is an ACAT required?”
“How are needs assessed?”
“What do the ACAT levels mean?”
“Who does an ACAT assessment?” (The answer to that one is the very helpful “an ACAT assessor”. Thanks internet!)
At the end of my search, I was left no wiser than before. If you want to access aged care services, you need an ACAT. The ACAT provides an indicator of how much assistance you need. There are four ACAT levels, with four being the highest. Mum is obviously a four. And I knew that before I went online so I’m no wiser than before.
An ACAT is used to help assess what kind of assistance you need in the home or what kind of respite or accommodation you can access if you can no longer stay in your home. Since this government has defunded all of that, the answer to “what kind of assistance can I use an ACAT to access” is “practically none at all”. But you still have to undergo an ACAT anyway. Thanks, Liberal voters.
Now that I’ve annoyed at least 30 per cent of you, I will end this post by noting that a home assistance ACAT and a comprehensive ACAT are two different things. So the one you get when you enter a nursing home is different to the one you get if you want assistance at home.
The only important message here is to register with My Aged Care. Because regardless of what else happens, you are going to need this registration to navigate the system. So if you’re over 65 and haven’t done so, it’s probably best to look into it.
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