Accepting a place in an aged care home
You might be offered a place to an aged care home (nursing home) straight away or a chance to join the waiting list. What you choose to do will depend on a number of considerations:
You are under no obligation to accept a place that is offered to you.
Order of preference
Is the home one of your preferred choices? Or was it a second best option for you? You might want to wait and see what happens elsewhere. Ask how long you can have to make up your mind before the place is offered to another person.
Timing
If you need to urgently find a place in an aged care home, you may have to take the best option available to you right away.
If your need is less urgent, you have the option of joining the waiting list of an aged care home (or a number of waiting lists) and hope that a place becomes available for you soon.
If you need to quickly move to an aged care home directly from hospital, you will be given a higher level of priority than other people on the waiting list.
Costs
Is the available place being offered to you, within your budget? If you have been assessed, or expect to be assessed by Centrelink as a low means or fully supported aged care resident, you may have to wait for a place to become available on that basis.
If you are contributing to the costs of your care and accommodation, you could still be offered a place that is too expensive.
Flexibility
If finance is a long term issue for you, you may be able to negotiate something affordable in the short term while you wait for a 'fully supported' place to become free. This might mean moving in to one room and later having to move to a different room.
Generally speaking there is nothing to prevent you from discussing a range of different short or long term options on the way to getting the aged care home, features and care you want.
Remember you can usually negotiate with the home, at least to some extent, around costs, timing and other arrangements.
Keep aged care homes informed about your choice
Once you have accepted a place in a home, it is usually polite to tell the other aged care homes you have applied for that you are no longer looking and can be removed from their waiting list.
