Carer Relief
Age Concern Nelson Tasman is contracted by the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board (DHB) to provide informal at-home respite for full-time carers who look after a family member at home.
This is called the Carer Relief Service. This service is subsidised by the Ministry of Health Carer Support Subsidy.
If you’d like to apply for our Carer Relief service, the first step is to contact the Needs Assessment Service on 0800 244 300. They will visit you at home, carry out an assessment of your situation and then give you a number of days respite a year, according to your need. This will enable you to plan your ‘time out’.
Once your assessment is completed, we will visit you and discuss how you’d like to use your respite days. We use fully screened, police checked and trained volunteers to come into your home and watch over your family member while you get some respite.
You can decide when to use your Carer Relief days and how much to use at a time – this can be further discussed with our Carer Relief coordinator.
You will receive a letter from the Ministry of Health to explain how the Carer Support payment is made. If you feel you feel you need to increase your Carer Relief days during the year, ask for another assessment.
Ellie and Beth
Residential care in rest homes
If you decide on short-term respite care in a rest home, you will find it difficult to book in advance. If you wait until closer to the time, there are usually a number of homes with vacancies you can choose from.
It’s worth noting that there is now a large gap between the Carer Support rate you will receive and the actual cost of residential care – the shortfall can be over $500 per week.