Self-managed is a style of care and support delivery for Members who want to manage their care and support themselves. Five Good Friends self-managed offering allows Members to completely manage their own support from signup to negotiating rates and visits with Helpers and booking in services.

Choice and control are essential for people who wish to self-manage – but it’s vital to offer this experience without compromising on our values of high-quality care. Matching Helpers to Members is an important aspect of quality service delivery. In our research, families regularly tell us about the confidence and reassurance you feel from having the same trusted people in their homes. Helpers also tell us how much this improves their experience and their ability to provide help and support.

This article will show you how the self-managed features work for Members and Authorised representatives.

Note: These features are only available to Members on self-managed plans.

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Members or their Authorised Representatives can signup for self-managed Membership. You can start the sign-up process from the Five Good Friends website.

Once you've completed the signup form, you can activate your account and describe your preferred Helper match. This includes defining the services you want, the days you prefer, details about yourself, and matching preferences for things like hobbies, skills, and interests. This assists the Five Good Friends matching engine to recommend a tightly curated list of potential Helper matches.

After at least 24 hours, you will receive a notification alerting you to new candidates for your match request. You can then review each Helper and send requests to the ones you like. Sending a request will share your matching criteria and profile with the Helper to review and decide if they can support you.

The Helper will receive a notification about the new request, review your profile, and decide if they want to engage with you. If a Helper decides to connect, they will be empowered to communicate directly with you to discuss the opportunity, negotiate services, rates and propose the first visit. We encourage you to also arrange an initial meet-and-greet in a public place or via video chat to confirm you are happy with the candidate.

When you and the Helper are ready, the Helper can propose your first visit. You will need to accept the proposal before a service can occur. This proposal can be adjusted as many times as is needed by the Helper before you accept it. You can request changes through the chat interface with the Helper. You can find the visit proposal in the chat thread with the Helper. You will also receive a notification about the proposal.

Once you have accepted the proposal from the Helper, a visit will appear in your schedule.

At any time before the visit, you can request a change. If the visit is in the next 24 hours, adjusting without incurring costs may be too late. This is at the discretion of the Helper. Requesting changes to a visit can be negotiated in the Helper chat thread. The Helper can edit the visit, and you will receive a new visit proposal. You will need to accept this proposal before the service can take place.

At any point, after the first visit is accepted, the Helper can make additional visits proposals. Each of these will come through to your as a notification. You must accept each proposal before it will appear in the schedule.