Helping carers take a break

For many carers, finding services available to give them a planned, regular break from their caring role is critical in supporting them to manage the very demanding role they play.

The Victorian Carer Services Network (VCSN) is pleased to introduce the new Respite Seeker website, an online tool that will make finding respite easier for carers and provide greater coordination between services.

The web -based application has been designed and built by Infoxchange Australia with grant funds from the Department of Health and Ageing’s national respite for carers program.

Respite Seeker provides easy access to current respite information and streamlines searching for and booking respite. Respite services listed include day centres, outings and group activities, residential respite in aged care homes, overnight community respite and respite services delivered in the home.

The site is user-friendly, making searching for respite services easy, regardless of the searcher's knowledge of service system. It is easy to use the site to find a local respite service or the nearest type of service being sought. It is the first time such a comprehensive and easy to search listing of respite services has been available to people looking for respite care.

The site details information on hundreds of services and whether the service has a current vacancy including bed based services such as respite in aged care facilities. It also provides calendar based information about vacancies months ahead to allow carers to plan their respite breaks.

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing is currently redesigning the front end of aged care to ensure that Older Australians and their families have easy access to aged care services. One of the important features of this new front end is the availability of “real time” information about service availability. The VCSN have been working on providing real-time information about residential respite vacancies, for the last 10 years, through the Vacancy Seeker website – and now, with Respite Seeker, hope to be able to expand the real-time information available on a broader range of respite services.

*We no longer offer Respite Seeker as a service