Who Cares?: Your Essential Guide to Navigating Aged Care in Australia: Home Care, Residential Care, Costs, and Advocacy for Families

Most Australian families are completely unprepared for the aged care system.

One day you are helping an ageing parent with small tasks. The next you are dealing with hospital admissions, assessments, home care services, residential care decisions and a system filled with unfamiliar language and complex rules.

The truth is that aged care in Australia can be confusing, fragmented and difficult to navigate—especially when decisions must be made quickly and emotions are already running high.

Families often find themselves asking:

• How does the aged care system actually work?
• What happens during a My Aged Care assessment?
• When is it time to consider residential care?
• How do you choose a safe facility?
• What do home care packages really provide?
• What do aged care services cost?
• How do you advocate when the system is not listening?

Who Cares? was written for families facing these questions.

Drawing on lived experience caring for multiple relatives as well as extensive research into Australia’s aged care system, Jonette George explains how the system works behind the scenes and what carers need to know to protect the people they love.

Inside this practical guide you will learn:

• how to navigate My Aged Care and the assessment process
• what home care services can—and cannot—provide
• how to manage waiting lists and service delays
• understanding funding, payments and residential care costs
• the key questions to ask when choosing an aged care facility
• how to advocate for better care when problems arise
• recognising when needs are changing and support must increase
• what families should expect during end-of-life care

Written in clear, compassionate language, Who Cares? turns a complex system into practical knowledge families can actually use.

This book also acknowledges the emotional reality of caring—exhaustion, uncertainty and the quiet responsibility many families carry alone.

If you are caring for an ageing parent, partner or relative, this guide will help you understand the system, ask better questions and make informed decisions with greater confidence.

Because when families understand how aged care works, they are far better placed to protect the dignity, safety and wellbeing of the people they love.