Help@Hand Aged Care Placements

Sally was very generous with her time and experience despite the fact that we are not really quite at the point that we can use her services but when we are we will definitely as she seemed so knowledgable and pleasant to deal with. This is all a bit of a minefield and it is important to have good guidance

Sally and Kerri from Help@ Hand Aged Care placements were my Godsend in such a difficult and distressing time for my family.
The quality of their knowledge was amazing.
Highly recommend this service for anyone going through aged care placements with a loved one.

Sally provided a wonderful service and helped lessen the burden of an intense and difficult time time for my family. She was able to explain and navigate the aged care system on our behalf and, within a couple of days, was able to secure difficult-to-obtain high level care for my father in a wonderful facility. She did all the slog work behind the scenes and made herself available to us whenever we needed. There is no way we could have done the same so quickly, and it meant we could focus our energy on dad. 100% recommended!

My father celebrated his 83 birthday this year, but the family could see that his mental health was on the decline.

We were recommended Helping Hands by my business partner who had also used Helping Hands a few years earlier.

We required somebody to assist us to navigate the road ahead incase my dad required an aged care facility due to what seemed to be the onset of dementia.

Sally from Helping Hands came out the following day for a face to face meeting to explain what her company could offer if we ever needed her help

Our plan was to be on the front foot incase my father dementia was to get worse and was necessary to go into a nursing facility with 24 hour care.

Over the following 6 months my dad having 2 hospital visits due to falling down in the street and hitting his head on pavement.

Also his dementia was getting worse along with his overall health, so his ability to live at home was now not possible due to his mobility problems.

Luckily we already had the wheels in motion in case this occurred, so it was easy to move my father from a hospital bed into a lovely nursing home in Caulfield for a trial of the facility with Respite for 2 months.

Sally from Helping Hands was able to organise this accommodation within 24 hours of our request and my father moved to a comfortable home with ease.

My dad enjoys the nursing home as there’s four to five activities each day to occupy his time and gives him some companionship with the other guests and staff in the home

I recommend Helping Hands, their services and communication during this period have been amazing over a challenging time for the family and my dad

Regards

Dave Evans

Sally is amazing. She is knowledgeable, always available and secured us a lovely place for mum. I couldn’t have done it without her. Thank you Sally for helping the transition from Cairns to Melbourne into aged care for mum.

Our aged care advisor put us in contact with Sally and Kerri, who assisted us to transition my mum into an aged care home. This was a difficult time and decision to make weighed heavily on me, but the support and services we received from Sally and Kerri made the transition smooth and stress free. Highly recommended service for anyone who struggles to navigate through aged care services.please do not hesitate to get in touch with them. Mary Anne

I called Sally late in 2021 because we needed to urgently move our parents into residential aged care in Melbourne, on advice of their doctors. One of my initial criteria for calling Help@Hand was impartiality in assessing residential aged care homes.

COVID was still rife and I knew that this would be very challenging to do quickly at the best of times. On top of that, Sally had other specific requirements she needed to meet for us: room sizes, separate and dual occupancy, particular locations, COVID safety protocols, etc.

Sally was unfazed and in no time we were already visiting appropriate residential aged care homes, with my father and myself, to see which one would be most suitable. By January 2022, my parents were already moved in - safe and sound.

. The degree of Sally's knowledge, experience and management skill was evident during all interactions with other parties when visiting/assessing the different places. Asking all of the right questions, uncovering any risks to be dealt with etc. And then providing options and recommendations for the family's consideration and approval.

In addition to the sourcing of residential aged care homes, Help@Hand offered other services that we were able to take advantage of which made the whole process much easier for us. Specifically, assistance and support in dealing with the various government agency tasks that also need to be accomplished in parallel i.e. Centrelink, Aged Care, etc.

There is one other thing that cannot go unmentioned though. Over and above the excellent placement service offerings delivered, there was also exceptional sensitivity and delicacy in handling and navigating difficult family conversations, in an effort to address the interests of everyone involved.

. That's not where the story ends however because Help@Hand was called upon again this year to do the same for a move to another location closer to the family home. Once again the consistent high quality of service was experienced - outstanding!

I would recommend Help@Hand to anyone who is looking for professional, considerate and effective assistance with residential aged care placements.

Sally and her team really went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that best outcome for both our parents.

Thank you.

Sally Gilbert from Help hand is recommended by us because it really helps to have a consultant who know many aged care homes. Once Sally found out about our old Josephine, she found us a home that wasn't on our radar and we are very, very happy with it. She also tried to save us money in a few ways as she knows her way around the system very well.

Hi Sally,
I has been a great pleasure working with you for getting a beautiful permanent home for Anthony. Our family is grateful for your tireless effort and energy to take away our stress during this difficult time. Anthony is overwhelmed by the new environment and the caring of Blue Cross staff first day he moved in, but is now starting to adapt his new life there.
We wish Help@Hand all the very best in the future.
Warm regards,
Grace

Thank goodness for Sally! Both my parents required care and we were so lucky that Sally has her finger on the pulse of the aged care industry and managed to secure 2 rooms for them in a newly opened facility. Sally is amazingly fast with her responses and is pretty much always available to talk to no matter what day of the week it is. The whole process was turned into a streamlined and stress free process for us. Thanks again!

I cannot begin to describe what a relief it was to have Sally on our team for everything we have just been through! Although we had our preliminary meeting with Sally early on, thinking we had plenty of time, things went suddenly pear-shaped and she was able to sweep in and help us quickly find a perfect home for my mum-in-law (with advanced dementia), despite a number of difficulties, including it being 2 weeks out from Christmas! When we were feeling overwhelmed and under pressure to decide within the hour, or risk missing out, Sally jumped immediately onto a phone meeting to talk us through the pros and cons of the Homes we were considering. It helped us feel so much clearer about our choices. And then Kerri and her specialised admin services just grabbed the Centrelink ball and ran with it for us.after having viewed some of the forms and tried to understand the processes myself, I have never been so grateful to hand them over to someone else! Both Sally and Kerri were excellent communicators and just so friendly, going above and beyond. I would not hesitate to recommend this wonderful team.

Sally was fantastic to deal with. Sally took all the stress out of looking for and finding a suitable high quality facility for Mum. Sally was also able to negotiate a great deal on the fees. I highly recommend her services.

Working with Sally was an absolute pleasure. Her knowledge of the industry is invaluable and we couldn't have organised this without her help and support. Thank you

Sally has been an amazing help for our family. She provided compassionate service to our family at a very emotional and stressful time. She answered every question, guided us through each change in situation with such care. Thank you Sally

Sally was amazing. Totally professional, whilst being very kind and supportive. Sally’s vast knowledge of the Aged Care system, enabled me to choose a facility that is very suitable for my 92 year old mother. I am also very grateful to Sally who guided me with negotiating the facility’s fees for my mother. My mother has settled very well, in a facility that is close to me. I could not have managed all this without the assistance of Sally.

Without doubt Sally provided a high level service with care and understanding of the difficulty in sourcing an appropriate aged care for my mother. She took genuine interest in our needs. Highly recommend Help@Hand when considering the hard task of finding suitable aged care for a loved one. Go Sally.

Sally’s knowledge and experience was invaluable in helping us choose and arrange permanent care for our Dad. Sally was very supportive during this challenging time and she was always kind and compassionate. Nothing was ever too much trouble.

After spending several days with forms and many phone calls to a variety of agencies, apart from Services Aus I reluctantly called Sally.
Best value for money service I have experienced in some time.
I believe their commitment is from a heartfelt desire to help not to maximise margins. Strongly recommend this service

My goodness, Sally Gilbert 'Help@Hand' is absolutely amazing! I could NOT have embarked on this complicated journey alone.

I was faced with the prospect of having to move BOTH of my parents into aged care quite urgently and I really didn't know where to start. I decided to reach out to my Community Hub on Facebook to see if others had any advice they could offer. Sally's name came up about half a dozen times, so I decided to give her a call.

From the moment I spoke to Sally over the phone, I felt extremely comfortable and that I was in good hands. She was approachable, very professional and empathetic to our situation.

The next step was for her to meet my Mum (unfortunately my Dad has Alzheimer's). Mum also felt extremely comfortable from that meeting and decided to proceed with Sally's services.

It's such a tricky area to navigate and Sally took us through, step by step. No question was too silly and no request too much.
There were dramas along the way due to Covid, and Sally was right on top of everything!

She short-listed 5 properties which matched our requirements and personally attended the inspections with me. From this list of properties (all were great), we selected one.

Kerri (her associate) looked after all of the Centrelink forms etc (again, this can be daunting when trying to navigate) and this all went through promptly and without a hitch.

Sally really cares about her clients and genuinely wants the best outcome. This was such a sad and stressful situation for us all and Sally really did make the process that much easier.

From the bottom of our hearts Sally. Thank you for your service.

Mum, Dad and Allison

I contacted Sally as I was having absolutely no success in resolving an issue with CentreLink regarding my mother’s aged pension. Kerri delayed her annual leave to look into the matter immediately and within 24 hours the matter was resolved. Pension restored and back pay appeal won! Sally and Kerri were professional and caring. I can’t recommend them enough.