Choice Home Help

03/05/2026

I had the pleasure of attending the Parkinson’s Awareness Month Seminar, featuring Professor Michele Callisaya and Dr David Blacker AM in Floreat last week.

While some factors of Parkinson’s are genetic or age-related, researchers suggest that a significant portion of cases could be prevented by reducing exposure to environmental toxins. Ongoing research continues in this area.

Research suggests that moderate-to-vigorous exercise, including aerobic activity, strength and balance training, may slow disease progression.

The new Support at Home funding offers everyone contribution-free services including physiotherapy, exercise physiology, speech pathology, dietician and more. A diagnosis of Parkinson’s ensures you will be allocated a package for your needs.

There are 12 support groups in WA.

03/05/2026

During a keeper talk at the San Diego Zoo, visitors gather as the otters are brought closer for a better look. One mother waddles up to the glass and proudly shows off her baby, instantly drawing “aww” reactions from the crowd.

Moments later, the father joins in, but instead of another baby, he presents a small, smooth rock, holding it like it’s something valuable. He looks around as if expecting the same attention, and the keeper jokes that he’s basically trying to join the moment with his own “show and tell,” since otters sometimes get attached to favorite objects.

The baby wins hearts, but the dad’s rock ends up stealing the biggest laugh.

02/05/2026

30/04/2026

For my families navigating dementia.

28/04/2026

Choice Footy Tipping round up from Coach Gino
Purple_kahuna is the first tipper this season to score a perfect 9 from 9. Well done.
Purple_kahuna was the only tipper to pick Port Adelaide over Geelong and this pick made the difference, with eight tippers picking the other 8 games correctly.
The Leaderboard hasn’t changed, with the top five, OlmanC, Shineykim, pcrouch, sazzy91 and HayleyH only separated by 1 point. Following behind by 2 points are both NarelleDeMarte and Cogman9.
Good luck for next round.

27/04/2026

An Aussie invention is helping people living with dementia stay connected by turning a familiar ringing phone into something much more powerful.

22/04/2026

The Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) welcomes the announcement by the Albanese Government that older people on the Support at Home aged care program will no longer pay out-of-pocket costs for help with showering, dressing and support with continence management. The change means these essential personal care services will move into the program’s clinical care category, fully removing co-contributions. These changes take effect from 1 October 2026.

‘This is good news for older people who have consistently raised concerns with us about the impact on their dignity and wellbeing by having to pay out-of-pocket expenses for essential personal care services,’ OPAN Director Policy, Education and Systemic Advocacy Samantha Edmonds said.

‘OPAN has long and consistently called for these services to be covered by clinical care under Support at Home. We welcome this reform and the significant difference it will make to the lives of older people.’

Read the full release https://opan.org.au/about-us/news-and-media-centre/media-releases/

21/04/2026

Great news!!

We have had a win!!

Co-payments for showers, (we hope just generally personal care) has been scrapped - effective from October 2026!

And to have it released while at an Aged Care conference that has pushed for it - GOLD!

The decision to scrap the plan to charge older Australians $50/hour for showers was made after months of sustained criticism, including warnings that people were forgoing other care to afford the service.

21/04/2026

This is to say thank you to all the informal carers - those that don’t get paid. I think this is beautifully written.

30% of carers pass away before those they care for. Sobering and we see this at Choice.

Take care of yourself too.

I am sitting in my memory and dementia clinic right now, quickly blinking away tears as I mourn the loss of my long-term patients spouse and caregiver. It happens from time to time, my patient will appear with a different family member, and I learn the hard news. Caregiving is never free. It might b...