Aged Care Advocacy in Australia: Free Help from OPAN

Where can I find aged care advocacy services?

Start with two lists. For free, independent advocacy, the national service is the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) on 1800 700 600, which delivers the National Aged Care Advocacy Program in every state and territory (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025). One number reaches the advocacy organisation for your state, free of charge. For paid help beyond advocacy, the ranked list above shows navigators and support organisations with measured response times and current coverage on the Carevo platform. Many families use both: OPAN for a dispute, a private navigator for the ongoing legwork.

What is aged care advocacy?

Aged care advocacy is independent support that helps an older person or their family understand their rights, resolve problems with a provider, and navigate the aged care system, including the My Aged Care assessment and complaints processes. The Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) delivers this as a free, government-funded service under the National Aged Care Advocacy Program (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025).

Advocacy is different from care itself. An advocate does not cook meals or run a home care package. They step in when something has gone wrong or a decision needs to be understood, and they help the older person speak for themselves rather than deciding on their behalf.

How to choose a navigator from the list above

The list above is ranked using the criteria explained in the methodology above it. Four checks matter specifically for advocacy and navigation.

Independence first. Ask whether a private navigator accepts referral fees or holds commercial relationships with any provider they might recommend. A good navigator can state their position in one sentence.

Fees in writing. OPAN advocacy is free. Private navigators set their own fees, so ask for an hourly rate or a fixed quote in writing before work starts.

Program knowledge. Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages for new participants on 1 November 2025 (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025), and the rules on budgets, fees and contributions changed with it. Ask whether they have worked with the current program, not the one it replaced.

Carevo measures whether a provider accepts an enquiry, not when care starts or a practitioner contacts you. Confirm current capacity and a start date directly. How Carevo measures enquiry acceptance.

Who is it for and how is it funded?

Advocacy support is for older Australians accessing or applying for services such as Support at Home, the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP), or residential aged care, and for families acting on their behalf. OPAN’s advocacy service is free and funded directly by the Department of Health and Aged Care (2025), separate from a person’s own Support at Home or CHSP budget. Families who want more hands-on help beyond free advocacy, such as provider negotiation or ongoing case management, can also engage a private fee-for-service navigator.

For an older person in Australia, the free OPAN service is the same national program wherever they live, so the right to independent advocacy does not change with location. What can change is the availability of private navigators, since these are local businesses and coverage across Australia varies.

What does an aged care advocate do?

An advocate works on the older person’s instructions, not the family’s and not the provider’s. In practice that means explaining what a letter, fee notice or assessment outcome actually says, preparing the person for meetings and sitting in on them, raising concerns with the provider when asked to, and helping draft or lodge a formal complaint. An advocate does not take over decision making, and a provider cannot stop you from involving one. Family members can make the first call to OPAN on the person’s behalf.

When should you bring in an advocate?

Three situations come up most often. Assessments: an advocate can help you prepare for a Single Assessment System appointment so the assessor hears the full picture, bad days included, and can help you request a reassessment if the outcome seems wrong. Fee disputes: if invoices do not match agreed prices, or new charges appear without explanation, an advocate helps you question them before you pay. Service cuts: if a provider reduces hours, withdraws from your suburb or exits the sector, an advocate pushes for continuity of care and a proper handover to a replacement you can shortlist from the home care package comparison. Involving an advocate early usually settles a problem at the conversation stage rather than the complaint stage.

Is this a job for an advocate or a formal complaint?

Work through the steps in order. Raise the issue with the provider first; every registered provider must run its own complaints process. If that stalls, an OPAN advocate on 1800 700 600 can take it up with the provider alongside you, which resolves most disputes. If the problem is serious or unresolved, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission runs the formal complaints process on 1800 951 822; it is free, it accepts anonymous complaints, and it can require a provider to put things right (My Aged Care, 2026). An advocate can help you write the complaint and stay involved while the Commission looks into it.

What rights does the Statement of Rights give you?

The Aged Care Act 2024 commenced on 1 November 2025 and put a Statement of Rights at the centre of the system (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025). It covers the right to independence and choice, to information you can understand, to safe and quality care, to have a supporter or advocate involved, and to complain without your care suffering for it. Providers must be able to show how their decisions line up with these rights, which gives an advocate something specific to point at. Read the plain-English breakdown on our Statement of Rights page before your next provider meeting.

Availability on Carevo

Carevo lists 4,325 aged care providers across 8,918 suburbs, with records updated 2026-08-26, including navigators who work alongside the free advocacy services. For coordinated care packages, see Support at Home. If the underlying issue is a carer who needs a break, compare respite care providers; to run the package yourselves, see self-managed home care.

When to call an advocate, and what they can actually do

Advocacy is free and under-used, largely because people call after a decision rather than before one.

Worth calling early. Preparing for a Single Assessment System assessment, where knowing what evidence matters changes the classification. Fee disputes, where an invoice includes charges you did not agree to. A provider proposing to reduce or withdraw services. A move into residential care being pushed faster than the family is comfortable with. Concerns about care quality that raising directly has not resolved.

What an advocate does. Explains your rights in plain terms, helps you prepare for a meeting, attends the meeting with you, writes to the provider on your behalf, and escalates to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission where needed. They are independent of the provider and of the government funding the service.

What they do not do. They do not provide legal representation, make decisions for you, or manage your care. Where a matter needs a lawyer, they refer.

The Older Persons Advocacy Network delivers this nationally on 1800 700 600, funded through the National Aged Care Advocacy Program. It is free to the person using it and does not come out of any care budget.

Your rights under the Statement of Rights

Advocacy works because there is something concrete to advocate against. The Statement of Rights sets out what an older person receiving funded aged care is entitled to, and it is worth knowing before a difficult conversation.

It covers independence and choice about how you live and who provides your care; information given in a way you can understand and in your language; safe and quality care delivered by people with the right skills; being treated with dignity and respect and having your identity, culture and diversity valued; personal privacy and control over your information; the right to have a person of your choosing supporting you in decisions; and the right to complain without it affecting your care.

That last point is the one people most often doubt. Complaints go to the provider first, then the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, and an advocate can make the complaint on your behalf if you would rather not be the named complainant. Retaliation for complaining is itself a breach.

How this page is compiled

The provider rankings and figures on this page come from Carevo platform records, including provider registrations, measured response times and coverage, together with the cited official sources. Carevo is an Australian platform that connects families with NDIS and aged care providers. Carevo does not deliver care itself.

Funding sources and checks

Check the current NDIA pricing arrangements and Support at Home program rules for the proposed service. Funding depends on the approved support and available budget; a Carevo listing is not approval. Confirm availability and a start date directly with the provider.