What AskFam covers

Plain explanations of the everyday help people arrange for a parent — what each one actually is, what to ask for, and what is paid for.

• Help around the home — This is where most people start, and usually not because the house is a mess.
• Getting out of the house — Losing the car is the change people feel hardest, and it is rarely only about the driving.
• Company — This is the need people apologise for raising, as though it were less real than a broken tap.
• Meals — Somebody who has stopped cooking has usually stopped eating properly, and it tends to show up as weight loss before it shows up as a conversation..
• Pets — This looks like the smallest thing on the list and is regularly the biggest.
• Looking after children — Two quite different things sit under this heading, and the difference is who has checked the person..
• People who come to them — When getting out is the hard part, the answer is often somebody who comes in.
• When you need a person, not a list — Some things should not be answered with a list of names, and AskFam deliberately does not answer them that way..
• Getting help paid for — Most families do not know that a lot of everyday help at home is subsidised, and the ones who do usually find out late — after months of paying privately, or after a crisis forces the question..
• Disability and the NDIS — The NDIS is how disability support is funded in Australia for people under 65, and it is its own world of language and process — access requests, plans, line items, plan managers.
• Where to start — Most people arrive here in the same state: something has changed with a parent, you are worried, and you do not know where to begin — or whether you are overreacting.

Or skip the reading: describe what someone needs and AskFam will work out which service covers it.