If you’re starting out with self-managing a Home Care Package, you may wonder where to find your care workers or service providers. A range of carer marketplaces give older Australians access to available carers in their area, so you can get the services you need at the rates you're comfortable paying.
Let’s have a look at how to use these carer marketplaces.
What is a carer marketplace?
A carer marketplace is a website designed to connect people with available home care workers and service providers in their area. They are like the eBay or Gumtree of home care workers – you can browse through hundreds of carers in your region, and choose the best option based on their hourly rates, availability, services offered, and qualifications.
With the help of these online carer marketplaces, it’s easy to quickly find a compassionate carer who will help you with your activities of daily living.
How do I use a home care worker marketplace?
Using a carer marketplace is simple – just sign up, enter your location, and choose a home care worker with rates that work for you. This process will be the same for any carer marketplace you come across – don’t be afraid to try a different carer marketplace if you can’t find a suitable carer!
For this guide we’ll be using the online carer marketplace Mable. If you use a different carer marketplace, things will look slightly different, but the process will be almost exactly the same. Some other home care worker marketplaces we recommend are Careseekers, Find a Carer, and Like Family.
Create an account
For most carer marketplaces, you will need to sign up before you can start viewing and interacting with carer profiles. Make sure you sign up as someone who is seeking support, not providing support. If you’re a friend or family member signing up to help an older person, there should be an option to specify who it is that is seeking support.
Complete the sign-up process by filling out all the requested information and supplying an email address. Make sure you use an up-to-date email address that you have access to, as you likely be using it for a lot of your contact with potential home care workers.
Enter a location or post code
Once you’ve created an account and logged in, return to the carer marketplace homepage or dashboard to search for available home care workers. Simply enter your suburb or postcode to see all the care workers available in your area. If you or the person seeking care is looking to move soon, make sure you check if there are any available home care workers in that new location.
Filter your results
Our original search gave us over 1000 results – that’s a lot of carers to choose from! We can narrow down our results by applying some search filters. On Mable, you can filter carers by several different filters, such as gender, services offered, experience, qualifications, and languages spoken. There are many more filtering options, such as experience with dementia, Alzheimer's, or palliative care, available through the ‘More Filters’ button.
In our new search, we’ve filtered the results to only show female carers, who can assist with showering, toileting and dressing, and who are non-smokers. Now, we have far fewer home care workers to choose from, and we can narrow this down even further by applying additional filters to find the perfect carer.
View a home care worker profile
Once we have our filters set, we can start viewing carer profiles to find out more about each home care worker. Each profile will tell you a little bit about a carer as well as a range of useful information. Through a carers profile, you will be able to see their availability, services and support types offered, indicative rates, qualifications and checks, work history, and reviews.
This worker has indicated rates we are comfortable with paying, offers the services we need, and is available at the times we need in our area. They've also indicated they have expertise in aged care and dementia. The next step is to contact this care worker.
Contact a home care worker
Once we have found a home care worker who in our area who offers the services we need at rates we are comfortable with paying, it’s time to get in contact. Most carer marketplaces have a button we can click to directly contact that carer through the website.
When you contact a home care worker, they will discuss with you your needs and how they can assist you with your activities of daily living. You will need to agree on the specific services you will receive, as well as agree on the rates which you will pay. If you are receiving a Home Care Package, these services will be paid for using your package budget.
Accept the home care worker's agreement and start receiving subsidised services
Once you have agreed on the services you will receive and the rates you will pay, your carer will send you an agreement to sign and accept. This agreement will outline the specific days and times they will work, what services they will provide, and what rate you will pay.
If you are self-managing your home care package with Trilogy Care, you won’t need to worry about handling any of the bills for carers you found on Mable. Mable will send us all the information we need to pay your carers directly with your home care package funds.
If you feel more comfortable handling the financials yourself, you are more than welcome to pay for your home care workers out of your own pocket, and we will reimburse you with your home care package funds. You’ll find our reimbursement form online, with a helpful video to guide you through the process if you need help.
Your home care package funds can only be used for specific services, so make sure you are aware of the inclusions and exclusions. If you’re new to self-management, you will love our guide on the difference between self-managed and fully managed home care packages.
