Family and friends

This support is often delivered informally – meaning that it is simply help offered by the family, asked for by you or organised between everyone.

Some of the support you may receive through your family, friends and neighbours can include:

◆ Shopping and meal preparation

◆ Running errands

◆ Day trips and outings such as community group activities or family events

“I look forward to Wednesdays,” says Ruth Johnson from Young, New South Wales.

Wednesdays are when Ruth’s home care workers help around the house with things she can no longer do herself, such as hanging up bed sheets, vacuuming the floors or cleaning out the fridge.

Every other week they take her grocery shopping, an everyday task made impossible by severe carpal tunnel syndrome in her hands.

Ruth also enjoys the companionship of her helpers.

“Most of the time, it is the same people who come each week. They know where everything is, they know me, it’s comfortable. You could almost call it ‘rent-a-friend’,” she says, with a laugh. At 68 (“but still 21 in my mind”), Ruth is one of provider Mercy Health’s younger clients.

◆ Transport to appointments

◆ Assistance around the home such as cleaning, washing and gardening

◆ Collecting mail and deliveries

◆ Taking out/bringing in the bins each week

◆ Socialisation

◆ Monitoring health and wellbeing

She first arranged to have home care services after hip replacement surgery that went terribly wrong.

Ruth is no stranger to surgery. She had her first hip replacement in her early 30s and since then has had both hips replaced several times, but the 2017 trip to hospital left her with lasting problems.

Following 20 weeks of hospital care Ruth returned home with a walking stick and found herself needing help around the home.

“I get very frustrated with myself because I can’t do what I used to do, but I don’t walk around feeling sorry for myself,” Ruth says.

“Since changing to Mercy Health, I’ve never looked back. When I first walked into their office here in Young it was professional and welcoming. And the people who help me are brilliant.”

Ruth worked as an enrolled nurse in an aged care home for seven years and recognises the same characteristics in her home care workers that she herself brought to the job.

Depending on relationship dynamics and what you need, family and friends may provide you with more intense support.

However, it is important to know when it is time to access alternative supports that will better assist you and reduce the impact your care needs have on your loved ones.

“I loved working in aged care, it was like looking after your own mum and dad,” she says.

“There were a lot of ‘orphans’ in aged care and I enjoyed putting a smile on their face.”

With family either far away or busy with their own work and lives, Ruth is always pleased when Wednesdays roll around and her like-minded support workers come to visit.

Case study provided by Mercy Health