Aged care homes in Wollongong

How to choose a home in Wollongong

Seven checks, drawn from the Wollongong data above. One more before any of them: no public list shows live vacancies, so a home with no suitable room for months is not an option this month. Ring each home on your shortlist.

1. Start with the overall rating, then read the parts

   Four of the 6 rated homes in our Wollongong list hold 4 or 5 stars. None is rated below 3 stars, so the overall figure alone will not separate many homes here. 8 homes have no rating in our data; newer homes often have none yet, so ask them directly.

2. Give residents' experience extra weight

   Residents' experience is the one part of the rating that comes from residents themselves, through an independent survey. One Wollongong home rated 4 or 5 overall is rated 3 or lower for it (Warrigal Mount Terry (Albion Park)), so a high overall figure can hide how residents feel day to day. Across the 6 homes with sub-ratings, 3 score 4 or 5 for residents' experience.

3. Check staffing, especially at night

   The staffing rating reflects care minutes per resident each day, including registered nurse time. Among our Wollongong homes, no home is rated below 3 for staffing, and 3 are rated 4 or 5. These are averages over a quarter, so ask how many care staff and registered nurses are on each shift, including nights and weekends.

4. Compare the price of the actual room

   Only two of our Wollongong homes have a published room price in our data (Estia Health Figtree: $387,000 and Uniting Farmborough Unanderra: $636,000), too few to compare. Homes must publish their room prices on My Aged Care and their own website, so ask each one for its full list before you tour. What aged care costs in Wollongong covers the daily fees as well.

5. Put location before a single star

   The homes in our list are spread across 10 suburbs, with the most in Unanderra (3) and Woonona (3). Choose somewhere family and friends can reach easily: regular visits from familiar people matter a great deal, and a home close by can suit better than a higher-rated one an hour away.

6. Look past who owns it

   Of the 14 homes in our Wollongong list, 13 are run by not-for-profits (3 of them faith-based) and 1 by a for-profit company. Ownership alone tells you little about a particular home: ask who manages it day to day, how long they have been there, and how much agency staff it uses.

7. Match the home to the care needed

   Our data does not record specific services for these homes, so ask each one directly about dementia care, a secure area, palliative care and respite. See our guides to dementia care, respite and palliative care.