There are a range of different levels of care provided by both accredited and private homes. Sometimes different words are used to describe the same type of care, just to confuse. So it is worth looking briefly at what these are before we move onto the details for each:

• independent living units and serviced apartments are usually found in retirement villages. These provide the lowest level of support as residents continue to live largely independently. You do not need an ACAT assessment to move into these and they are outside the scope of this book.
• respite care is a short-term stay in a residential home.
• low care is a permanent residential situation for people who can still live partly independently but need help with meals, personal care or laundry. These used to be known as hostels or low-level care.
• high care provides 24-hour nursing care as well as meals, personal care, cleaning and laundry. These used to be known as nursing homes or high-level care.
• specialist care will be needed for people with dementia or other psychiatric conditions or possibly vision and hearing impairment.
• ageing-in-place homes provide several, sometimes all, of these facilities in the one location.
• extra-services homes provide a more luxurious standard of accommodation and facilities (but the same standard of care) for an extra cost. These are available for both low and high care.

To give you a taste...