Home Assist

Last Thursday late afternoon while I was at the medical clinic, a man from Home Assist left a message that he was coming to see me at 10 am in the following morning.

If you remember I made a phone call back in April and crashed in the middle of the conversation, this person was supposed to come and see me in two days back in April. Naturally I gave up the hope of getting their support and forgot about it.

When I found the message, I was in the middle of bad insomnia, and I was desperately needing to sleep or at least rest. At this point of time, I haven’t had decent slept for nearly two days. My fatigue level and cognitive function was remarkably bad.

I was upset. It was too short notice. I usually need at least 2 day notice so that I can rest up and be ready for the meeting. And I always request late afternoon appointment to be sure that my body and brain are functioning properly.

Although the man didn’t intend to make my life more miserable, it seemed that way. It meant I had to give up the desperate sleep in order to function when he arrives. If I sleep, I would wake up with heavy paralysing fatigue and I would not able to get up for at least a couple of hours. My solution for morning meeting is usually not to sleep.

With my experiences with government agents, I was expecting to have unpleasant meeting and more likely be stressed out by negative attitude of their “assessor”. “Assessor” usually have university degree, but no relative real life experiences. They refuse to look at my life from the point of mine.

Over the night, I dosed off for a couple of hours, but somehow managed to stay awake. The assessor phoned hour earlier and told me he was coming early. I didn’t care. I was awake and able to move. I was extremely exhausted, though. I just wanted to get over and done with this meeting.

The assessor wasn’t the type I expected. Instead of arrogant university graduate, I greeted an elderly and humble handyman.  His attitude made me relax a little.

He double checked my detail. He explained what Home Assist does. He also briefly explained that the service is funded by Queensland government, not the federal government.

We had a chat so that he had reasonable picture how I am surviving with my limitations.

According to the website, their objectives are;

Home Assist Secure can help people feel safer living at home, have easier access to and within their home, and incorporate home security routines into their daily activities.

You can obtain subsidised assistance with minor home maintenance, repairs, modifications and security that relate to your health, safety and security.

Example of small jobs are changing light bulbs and changing batteries for smoke alarm. Example of rather big job is installing a hand rail in bathroom, and this also involves an occupation therapist.

While I was making a cup of coffee for him, he looked around the house and noticed I had disconnected battery from smoke alarm. I explained that the alarm seems to be faulty and goes off in the middle of the night without smoke in the air. It took me for a while to convince him I know how smoke alarm works and I’m positive that the actual alarm is faulty. I disconnected the battery because there is more risk of injury trying to stop the noise while I’m half paralysed than actual smoke.

He installed a brand new smoke alarm for me. I told him that I should get landlord permission first. But he said I don’t need the landlord’s permission by law because it is security related. I didn’t even have to pay for the smoke alarm as it is covered by the allowance allocated for me.

From our discussion, I’m interested in installing a Security Key Box and Bathroom Hand Rail, and of course, vouchers towards payment for lawn mowing.

Security Key Box sounds like a small safe installed outside of the house. It opens by PIN and holds two keys. If I ever need to call an ambulance but I cannot get to the door, I can give the PIN so that they can open the front door without breaking it down. If I have a friend who would visit me (although I don’t have any friend now…), the friend can use the PIN and make himself/herself into the house even when I cannot get to the door.

I need to get a permission from landlord for installing the Bathroom Hand Rail. It is a fall prevention. And Home Assist needs to assign an occupational therapist to point out the area the hand rail should be installed.

He said I’m entitled to 10 of $10 vouchers to pay towards the lawn mowing service. From what he mentioned, I feel I’m being overcharged by the current gardeners. But it could be the handyman’s information is out of date.

There is a catch… I need to phone Home Assist again and apply for these services.

I explained my difficulty of communicating over the phone. I explained what happened when I was talking with their staff last time. I requested to communicate by email. He seemed to understand. According to him, email shouldn’t be a problem. I also explained nobody responded when I sent email to their office last time. This time, he will ask an office manager to send email to me today, so that I know the exact email address to use for future communication, and they know I need to communicate by email, not by the phone.

I also explained that I only answer mobile phone because only give the number to essential services and people. And I don’t answer home phone at all. It is one of my survival strategies.

The assurance of email communication made me feel better and hopeful. If I cannot make the request by email, all these fantastic service means nothing to me.

The meeting was much better than I anticipated. The assessor/handyman was nice and he enjoyed my company as well. I reminded myself that I should not be so persimistic about government support.

I still haven’t received the email from their office yet. So, I’m not holding my breath yet. Probably, I need to wait for another one and a half month…