After hospital discharge: residential respite and emergency placement
Facts checked 18 Oct 2026. Written by our editors from the official sources below; not yet reviewed by a social worker or nurse. Not medical, legal or financial advice.
If an elderly person cannot go straight home after hospital, or their carer suddenly cannot cope, talk first to the responsible social worker (for example the hospital's medical social worker). SWD has two short-stay services:
Residential respite
- For people aged 60 or over who are fit for communal living; no standardised assessment is needed, but the care needed must be within what the home provides.
- By social worker referral; you can also call the Carer Hotline 182 183.
- Fees: $62 a day for care-and-attention and contract home places, $72 for nursing home places.
- Vacancies are on SWD's vacancy enquiry system (link). We list 168 homes with designated respite places (list).
Emergency placement
- In some subvented care-and-attention homes and nursing homes, for people aged 65 or over who meet the admission criteria and urgently need somewhere to stay: homeless, evicted, fit for discharge with no carer, a carer suddenly in hospital, and similar crises.
- By social worker referral. Outside office hours, urgent cases can use residential respite through EBPS homes with designated respite places.
SWD hotline: 2343 2255.