Home safety checklist
While making your home a safer place, make sure you also stay as fit an active as you can. If you have good strength and balance it's much easier to regain your footing if you trip. Outside Ensure that path surfaces and gradients are safe, clear and moss free. Steps...
Quick tips for making your home safer
Outside Ensure that path surfaces and gradients are safe, clear and moss free. Steps are easier to negotiate when walking than a ramp. Indicate or mark changes in levels. Is it easy to get the mail? Keep bushes and branches trimmed back from pathways and doorways. Use appropriate and assistive...
What is an Advance Care plan and an Advance Directive?
Advance care plans and advance directives sound similar, and they are related, but they’re not quite the same thing. An Advance Care Plan is a way to start a conversation with those closest to you, those who hold your EPA, and your GP about your values, goals, and what your...
My family say I need home help. I don't. What can I do?
This situation does put you in a difficult position. Your family will probably be acting with the best intentions. Perhaps they noticed that you are finding some things more difficult these days. Hearing their concerns can threaten your independence and feel quite undermining and scary. While it can be tempting...
Home help - when it's time to act
If a health or disability issue is making it hard for you to stay living at home, help is available. Life is full of times of transition where we move from one stage to another. Managing these is not always easy. One such transition can come when a health or...
Can I get help at home when recovering from surgery?
In many situations you will not require help at home. If you do services will be generally be provided for a short term only and what you receive will depend on your individual circumstances. If your surgery is a result of an accident and you are eligible for ACC support...
Meet New Zealand's Aged Care Commissioner
Message from Carolyn Cooper, Aged Care Commissioner : Kia ora, I’m Carolyn Cooper, the Aged Care Commissioner for Aotearoa New Zealand. This is a new role created (in 2022) to help monitor the delivery of great quality of care and quality of life for older people. We all have the...
Is a care suite different to a serviced apartment?
A care suite is a hybrid-type option that combines a village offering (meaning it requires an upfront ‘purchase’ price) and support at a higher level of care as certified by Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health and governed by the Age Related Residential Care (ARRC) Agreement. They may also be referred...
What is a Care Plan?
A Care Plan is something that shows the formal support you will get following an interRAI assessment, along with any assistance from family/whānau, friends, the community and other agencies. It may include services such as: personal care, household/domestic assistance, equipment to make things easier for you and carer support. This...
Can I get financial help to insulate my home?
The Warmer Kiwi Homes programme offers insulation and heater grants to low-income homeowners. Homeowners who hold a Community Services Card and those who live in areas that are identified as low income (you can check if you live in an eligible area on the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority website)....
Am I living in a healthy home?
A healthy home is one that is warm and dry. To be considered a ‘healthy home’, it must be between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius) and have humidity levels of between 40 and 60 percent). The Healthy Homes Standards provide a set of standards that the home you live in...
What are the benefits of living in a healthy home?
Living in a healthy home – one that is warm and dry - has been linked to improved physical and mental health, and overall wellbeing. There is evidence to show that living in a warmer and drier home prevents rates of illness (particularly for people with respiratory issues), and reduced...
The home I rent has been flood damaged. What are my rights?
If you rent a home that has incurred damage as a result of a natural disaster (such as a flood), there are rights you have as a tenant. ConsumerNZ has provided an outline of these: Landlords should be aware they are responsible for maintaining the property. This includes damage caused...
Stay active at home
Lifemark Adaptable and Accessible Home Design
WHO: What is people-centred care?
Addressing inequity in primary care – The role of genes
Assisting someone to get into a car; Carers NSW
How to reduce the spread of infection in your home.
What is respite? Carer Gateway. Carer Gateway is not a service in NZ