Retirement living vs Assisted Living vs Residential Aged Care in Australia
Retirement living, assisted living and residential aged care are often spoken about as though they are the same thing. They are not, and the difference matters.
Independent Aged Care Guidance with Clarity and Confidence
Helping older people and families prepare for tomorrow’s care needs today
Most people encounter the aged care system for the first time during a crisis, often feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to start. The best outcomes usually come from planning early, before urgent decisions need to be made.
As a Registered Nurse and a former Aged Care Executive, we sit on your side of the table, helping you navigate the system with confidence and clarity.
Whether you’re planning for the future or managing something urgent, call (03) 9969 4455 or (02) 8395 4455
Independent · No obligation
No commissions from providers
No commissions from providers
How would you like to start?
Who we are
Clinical judgement, and inside knowledge of the system
No family should have to navigate aged care alone. Between us, we’ve seen it from both sides – the bedside and the boardroom.
Clinical and executive experience
Louise Greene is a registered nurse with an MBA and more than forty years in health and aged care. She has held executive roles with major providers, founded and sold a home care business, and chairs clinical governance committees today. She knows what good care looks like at the bedside, and how decisions about it get made everywhere else.
Inside knowledge
Kerry Mann spent thirteen years as chief executive of an aged care and retirement living group, and chaired its governing body. She knows how fees are set, how staffing is decided and how an agreement is written, because she used to write them.
*We accept no commissions, referral fees or incentives from any provider. Introductions to trusted partners are made on merit, with no fee paid or received either way.
Start here
Where do you even start with aged care?
Most people arrive here in the middle of something. Find the sentence that sounds like your situation.
How we help
What families come to us for, and what we do about it.
01
Planning ahead for aged care
Most families meet the aged care system at a time of crisis, leaving them little time to consider the options. Planning early means you make informed decisions rather than taking what is available on a Friday afternoon. We help you work out what is likely to be needed, how to plan for it, what to research and organise now, and what can wait until closer to the time.
02
Navigating My Aged Care
My Aged Care is the front door to the whole system. There is a lot of information, it can be very overwhelming, and it is hard to know where to start. We help you register, get through the phone line and the online portal, understand referral codes and the service finder, and work out what to do when the answer you are given does not match the situation in front of you.
03
Preparing for an aged care assessment
Your aged care assessment determines what funding is approved and how quickly it comes. Assessors see one snapshot, and older people routinely understate how much they are struggling. We help you prepare the evidence, brief the family, and describe a normal week honestly.
04
Understanding care and support at home
Help at home comes through two programs. CHSP provides entry-level support such as cleaning, meals, transport, social support and minor home maintenance, with a contribution set by the provider. Support at Home funds higher and more complex needs through eight classification levels and a quarterly budget, split across clinical care, independence and everyday living, with a different contribution rate for each, based on your financial circumstances. Two short-term pathways, for restorative care and for end of life, sit outside the ongoing classifications and do not carry the same wait. Care can also be purchased privately at any time. We explain which route fits, what you can expect to pay, and how long you are likely to wait.
05
Planning for discharge from hospital
Discharge is where most aged care decisions get made, usually in a hurry, and there are more programs available than most families are told about: Transition Care, restorative care through Support at Home, Hospital in the Home, state-based post-acute programs such as ComPacks, respite in its various forms, and privately purchased services. Not everyone goes home, and the destination matters as much as the timing. We help you understand your options, ask the right questions of the discharge team, and get what is needed in place before the discharge happens.
06
Finding a suitable residential aged care home
There is a lot to consider. The right answer depends on many factors, including care needs, location and affordability, the type of room someone would like, specialist care services such as dementia or palliative support, and the type of lifestyle they enjoy. My Aged Care star ratings are a starting point rather than an answer. We help you dig deeper, prepare a shortlist, compare homes, work out what to ask when you call and what to ask on a tour, and read what a tour will not show you.
07
Finding a home for you
For some older people and families it simply works better to have us do the searching. We can do as much or as little as you need: research availability and come back with a shortlist, or take it all the way through the visits, the application, the transition into care and the settling in. We work for you and are paid by nobody else, and we take no commission from any home we put forward.
08
Understanding aged care fees and affordability
Aged care costs come in layers: a basic daily fee, means-tested contributions, and an accommodation payment you can pay as a lump sum, a daily amount, or a combination. We explain what applies to your situation and what it means for the family home.
09
Note on structure
This section is what we help with. Section 7 is how you work with us. Keeping topics and delivery methods apart avoids the site listing one-to-one guidance and Aged Care School twice under different headings.
We work for you
Our income comes from the people and families we support. We receive no commissions, referral fees or incentives from aged care providers, and we never will.
This matters more than it sounds. Most services that help families find aged care are free to you because a provider pays them when you move in. That payment shapes the advice, and you are never shown what it excluded.
When we introduce you to someone we trust, whether a provider, a financial adviser or a solicitor, no fee is paid or received in either direction. And if you do not need us, we will tell you that too.
Both of us are actively involved in the aged care sector, and that is deliberate. Rules, funding and standards change constantly, and being inside the sector means we are actively aware of how it currently works.
Featured resources
Resources
At Aged Care Conversations, we believe no family should have to navigate the complexity of the aged care system alone.
Way To Start
How you can work with us
Book a free conversation
FREE Fifteen minutes with Louise or Kerry. Tell us where things are up to and we will tell you what we would do next. Small questions often get answered in the call itself, and if a free service can do what you need, we will point you to it.
Join the Monday Morning Open Line
FREE Bring any aged care question and get a straight answer. No booking, no charge, and you are welcome to listen without saying a word. 9.30am Melbourne / Sydney time, every Monday.
Book us to speak
We provide free Education sessions for community groups either online or in person. Clubs, churches, libraries, support groups and neighborhood houses are all welcome.
Ask us for something else
Some situations do not fit any of the above, and that is fine. If what you need sits outside these options, tell us and we will put together a package that suits you. Everything we offer can be scaled up, scaled back or paused as things change, and you are never locked in.
Collaborate with us
FREE We work alongside financial planners, solicitors, care managers and other advisers whose clients are facing aged care decisions. These are working relationships, not paid referral arrangements. No fee is paid or received in either direction.
Buy our aged care guides
Five written guides covering aged care assessment, Support at Home, residential aged care, hospital discharge and assisted living. Current with the Aged Care Act, and specific enough to act on. From $29.
Attend Aged Care School
Live online classes on one topic at a time, with time for your questions and a summary sheet afterwards. Learn how the system works before you are forced to. From $35 a class, or book a bundle.
Ask us one question
A focused thirty-minute conversation when you need one thing clarified rather than a full consultation. An assessment question, what to do next after hospital, or an option you have been given and do not understand. $150 plus GST.
Work with us one to one
Guidance on your own situation, for a single session or right through an assessment, a discharge or a move. We can work with you alone or with the whole family, and we are willing to sit in the room when the hard conversation happens. From $395 plus GST.
Have us find an aged care home for you
We do the search: approaching homes, checking availability against the care needs, and coming back with a shortlist worth visiting. We can take it further, through the visits, the application and the move. No provider pays us, so the shortlist is yours rather than theirs. From $550 plus GST.
Client Testimonials
What people say about us
Posted on Google 
C
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. We will be self-funding residential aged care for a family member and needed to know the real cost well ahead of time. Aged Care Conversations gave us a detailed indicative cost report, a ranked shortlist of the top 15% of facilities in our region, and a guide to what to ask on a visit. Detailed, expert work that has taken the guesswork out of planning. Highly recommended.
Posted on Google
Mary Gaynor
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. If you are looking for help and guidance to navigate through the complexities of aged care, then Aged Care Conversations is the business to contact .They are aged care experts and helped to identify suitable aged care homes for our 93 year old mother based on her needs and budget.They explained the complexities of the fees and variations of care and gave us enormous support throughout the whole transition to aged care. Louise Greene had endless patience, advice , information and tips that helped us through this confusing and overwhelming time and we could not recommend her and her team highly enough and would have been lost without their professional knowledge and support.
Posted on Google
Marita Scott
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Louise was wonderful as she helped us to understand the aged care system during a stressful time as we decided what was best for Mum as she moved from an independent life to needing support. She helped us to understand the complex financial options and to chose a place that suited Mum. I will always remember Louise's empathy and patience as we learnt about the aged care system. We felt more confident making the decisions we needed to make with her knowledge and experience to support us.
Posted on Google
Deb Johnson
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Having refused to consider moving from her two storey house to a one level home somewhere close to shops and transport it was no surprise when mum fell one day and broke her hip. Hospitalised, it was evident we had to find a place to provide respite care with the possibility of longer term residential care. A call to Louise provided clarity as to our options. Her extensive knowledge, practical approach and empathy helped us and saw mum move into a local age care residence which suited her and our needs. Having someone by our side to navigate the age care system was invaluable.
Posted on Google
Helen Kemp
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Aged Care Conversations was a life saver! As someone who has worked in aged care it was still a challenging process and Lou and Kerry were amazing! It saved me time, gave me reassurance that I had things in order and was able to be confident about my choice for residential care for a loved one! Could not recommend more highly!
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Common questions
Questions people ask
If your question isn’t here, that’s a good reason to book a free conversation – or just call us.
What is respite care, and how long can someone stay?
Respite care is short-term aged care that gives a carer a break or provides temporary support while longer-term arrangements are made. It can be delivered in the person’s own home, at a day centre, or as a short stay in an aged care home. To access subsidised respite in an aged care home you need an aged care assessment, arranged through My Aged Care. Once approved, you can use up to 63 subsidised days each financial year, and an assessor can approve extensions beyond that.
What is an aged care assessment, and what happens during one?
An aged care assessment determines what government-subsidised aged care a person is approved for, whether that is help at home, respite, or a place in an aged care home. Assessments used to be carried out by ACAT teams and are now arranged through My Aged Care under the Single Assessment System. A trained assessor asks about daily life: mobility, memory, medication, meals, showering, mood, recent falls, safety at home, and the support already in place. Most assessments happen in the person’s home, but they can also be done by phone or telehealth depending on the circumstances. What the assessor records generates the classification and priority level. You can have a family member, friend or carer with you, and it is worth having them there.
What is the Support at Home program?
Support at Home is the Australian Government program that funds aged care services delivered in a person’s own home. It replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025. Funding is allocated through eight classification levels, paid as a quarterly budget, and split across three categories: clinical care, independence, and everyday living. What you contribute varies by category and by your financial circumstances, and clinical care carries no contribution.
What happened to Home Care Packages?
Home Care Packages ended on 1 November 2025 and were replaced by Support at Home. People who held a package moved across automatically and keep their existing arrangements under grandfathering provisions. The main differences are that funding is now allocated across eight classification levels instead of four package levels, budgets are quarterly rather than accumulating indefinitely, and contributions vary by service type rather than being a single income-tested fee.
How much does residential aged care cost in Australia?
Residential aged care in Australia has four fees, plus one that is optional. Rates as at 1 July 2026.
- Basic daily fee — $66.80 a day, paid by everyone.
- Hotelling contribution — up to $22.15 a day, towards meals, cleaning, laundry and utilities.
- Non-clinical care contribution — up to $107.32 a day.
- Accommodation payment — for the room, paid as a refundable lump sum, a daily payment, or a combination.
The hotelling and non-clinical care contributions are both determined by an income and assets assessment through Services Australia. The optional fifth is a Higher Everyday Living Fee, charged by some homes for additional services and agreed to separately.
What is a RAD in aged care?
A RAD is a Refundable Accommodation Deposit: a lump sum paid to an aged care home for a resident’s room. It is refundable, so the balance is returned to the resident or their estate when they leave, less any agreed deductions. The alternative is a Daily Accommodation Payment (DAP), a daily amount calculated from the room price using the Maximum Permissible Interest Rate, currently 8.43% for agreements made between 1 July and 30 September 2026. You can also pay a combination of the two.
For people entering under the arrangements from 1 November 2025, a retention amount is deducted from a refundable deposit at 2% a year, calculated on the reducing balance, for a maximum of five years. So a RAD is refundable, but not entirely: up to roughly a tenth is retained over five years. Daily accommodation payments are indexed on 20 March and 20 September. This is the single biggest change to how accommodation is paid, and it is central to whether a lump sum or a daily payment suits a particular situation.
What should I do if a parent refuses help?
Start smaller than you want to. Refusal is almost always about independence rather than about the help itself, so a cleaner or a gardener is accepted far more often than “carers”. Frame it as making your own life easier rather than fixing them, and let it be a trial with an end date. Get the aged care assessment done anyway, because approval lasts and does not oblige anyone to accept a single service. Respite is often the step that works when nothing else has.
What happens when someone can’t return home from hospital?
The hospital will begin discharge planning, usually faster than the family expects. The options are wider than most people are told: Transition Care, restorative care through Support at Home, Hospital in the Home, state-based post-acute programs, short-term residential respite, or a permanent move into residential care. Not everyone goes home, and the destination matters as much as the timing. You can ask for time to decide, and you should.
Updates
Recent Articles
At Aged Care Conversations, we believe no family should have to navigate the complexity of the aged care system alone.
Paying for extras in aged care? A deadline families need to know about
If someone you love is in residential aged care and enjoying the benefits of an additional services package, there is a deadline worth knowing about.
All existing additional service and extra service fee agreements will cease on 31 October 2026.
How much does residential aged care cost in Australia? Fees explained for families
Your parent or friend needs residential aged care, and you are trying to make the right decision. But as you begin talking to different homes, each conversation seems to reveal another fee, making an already difficult process feel even more overwhelming.
Updates
You don't have to work this out on your own.
Call us, or book a free 15-minute conversation. If we’re not the right help for you, we’ll say so – and point you somewhere that is.
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Weekly Open Line: Mondays 9.30am – 10.30am