Aged care navigation, in plain English, for six countries — written by a GP who has watched too many families hit the same walls.
I am a practising GP. Over more than a decade in general practice, I have had hundreds of consultations with adult children, partners, and siblings who are caring for someone they love — and are completely lost in a system that was not designed to explain itself.
Not lost because they are not capable. Lost because the system is genuinely complicated, the information is fragmented across dozens of government websites, and nobody — not the hospital, not the specialist, often not even the GP — has sat down and explained it in plain English.
The same patterns keep presenting. The details differ. The walls are the same.
Families who discover, years into caring, that their relative had been entitled to funded home care all along. The entitlement existed. Nobody told them. The money was unclaimed because nobody knew to ask.
Carers who have been providing intensive support for months without ever being told that a Carer's Allowance, Carer Payment, or equivalent exists in their country — or how to access it. The payments are there. They are just not finding people.
Adult children who have flown in from overseas and need to understand an entire aged care system in a weekend. There is nowhere to send them that gives them a clear map, in plain English, of what to do in what order, specific to where they are.
Families who have missed the window for Power of Attorney. Nobody explained that the window closes the moment capacity is lost. By the time they ask, the legal path forward is slow and expensive and painful — and entirely avoidable.
In a 15-minute consultation, I can do a great deal. But I cannot teach someone the entire aged care system, the NHS care pathway, and the Centrelink entitlements landscape before their next patient is waiting.
I kept thinking: there should be somewhere I can send these people. A resource that explains the system clearly, in the language families actually use, without requiring them to already know what questions to ask.
"The families who navigate this well are not the ones with the most money or connections. They are the ones who know what questions to ask — and who to ask them to. That knowledge should not be a privilege."
It is a free navigation platform for family carers across six countries — covering the systems around the clinical decisions. The funding, the assessments, the legal documents, the services, the payments that go unclaimed for years.
Six countries because the carers who need this most are often navigating from a distance — managing a parent's care from another city, another country, another time zone. The diaspora reality of modern caring is something almost no resource acknowledges.
It is designed to be read in a crisis. At 11pm, on a phone, by someone who is exhausted and does not know where to start. Which means it has to be specific — not comprehensive in the way that makes something useless.
The interactive tools run entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored, no account required. The Care Coordinator gives you a personalised action plan. The Entitlements Checker finds what you may be missing — in most countries, that is significant. The 3am guide is exactly what the name says it is.
It is not medical advice. The guides explain systems — how funding works, what legal documents you need, how to access services. They do not tell you what treatment someone should receive, whether a care home is the right decision, or whether a medication is appropriate. Those questions belong with the clinical team who knows your family member.
CarerCompass helps you prepare for those conversations, understand the context, and ask the right questions. It does not replace them.
Every tool runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server. Nothing is stored anywhere except your own device. No account, no email, no tracking of what you enter.
The country guides, situation navigation, and system explainers will always be free. The information that helps families navigate is not going behind a paywall.
Written by a practising GP. Not a content farm, not generated filler. Academic citations where the research exists. Clinical context sits behind every guide.
If it would not help someone at 11pm in a crisis, it does not belong here. Every guide is written for someone who is overwhelmed and has no time to spare.
The moment a clinician's name is attached to a health resource, some people start treating it as personal medical advice. It is not — and I want that to be unambiguous. The guides explain systems. Your GP explains your situation. Those are different things.
I also have patients. I do not want someone arriving at their next appointment with expectations shaped by what they read on a website, rather than by their own clinical situation.
If something here is out of date or wrong, I want to know — it matters. Write to me at hello@carercompass.org. Response times vary. I am still a full-time GP.
Important: CarerCompass provides general information about care systems, services, and entitlements. It does not constitute medical, legal, or financial advice and is not a substitute for professional guidance about your specific situation. Government programmes, payment amounts, and eligibility rules change — always verify current details directly with the relevant agency.
CarerCompass is part of a small network of GP-authored health navigation sites, all built on the same principles — plain English, country-specific depth, no medical advice, genuinely private.
All projects are built and reviewed by a practising GP in Queensland, Australia. Operated by Digital Treasure Pty Ltd (ACN 696 816 636).
That is enough. Start with your country — everything else follows from there.
Find your country's guide →CarerCompass is free and run by a GP in spare time.
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