Our Staff

Marlene Lovell – Director of Care

Helping Hands Community Care

BCom (Accounting and HR Management)

BHlthSc

Accredited Exercise Physiologist and Exercise Scientist Credentialed Integrative Nutrition Health Coach

Marlene graduated from the University of Tasmania, twice, once with a Business Degree and then with a Health Science Degree and she is the founder and owner of Helping Hands Community Care. She is also a practising Exercise Physiologist and a Credentialled Integrative Nutrition Health Coach (for which she is eligible for international certification).

Marlene has over 20 years of experience in working in the community aged and disability care sectors, both as a Support Worker and as a Director of Care. Marlene is passionate about supporting the elderly to achieve healthy ageing and people of all ages to be their best possible selves.

Marlene loves animals, especially cats and guinea pigs. She loves spending time at the beach and in the garden growing vegetables in the warmer months and prefers books, movies and crafts in the colder months.

Billie Wuellner – Coordinator in charge of Operations

Helping Hands Community Care

Billie started working in the Aged Care Sector in 1997 after discovering her passion for working with and assisting the elderly.

She started out as a Support Worker and Gardener in community services for the aged but soon transitioned to the office in the role of Case manager/Coordinator. She has since acquired Certificates in Aged Care, Community Services Case Management, Assessment and Workplace Training and also in Business.

Billie has been working at Helping Hands Community Care since 2005. She now embraces a variety of tasks in the office from service coordination to managing staff and various administrative roles.

Billie loves all animals but especially dogs. She enjoys nature, a good book, movies and gardening.

Our Support Workers

Helping Hands Community Care

We have a fabulous team of exceptional Support Workers and Contractors. All of them genuinely enjoy working in the Community Care Sector and are passionate about providing the best possible care that they can to our clients.

All our Support Workers and Contractors together, create a team with years of combined experience, knowledge and skills. They all have current Police Checks and our Support Workers undertake training throughout the year to keep their knowledge and skills fresh.

But above all else, they are lovely people, cheery and sometimes cheeky, bubbly and sometimes quirky. There is not one that we wouldn’t happily have looking after our relatives.

Coming Future Additions

Helping Hands Community Care Coming Future Additions

Coming Future Additions

Helping Hands Community Care Coming Future Additions

About Us

Caring from the Heart and Mind – not just words, but the foundation for everything that we do.

Our Story

Tasmanian Independent Services Pty Ltd trading as Helping Hands Community Care began life as Helping Hands Placements, a sole trader business in 1998 which provided placement of Nannies to families in the Launceston area. Self-interest was at the root of this business’ beginning because Marlene was starting a university degree and needed childcare for her young pre-school aged children.

Whilst checking with the Government regarding any rules or laws that applied to Nanny Agencies, one Government official suggested that as we were looking at providing in-home care for children, we should consider adding in-home care for the elderly. From that small seed, Helping Hands Community Care has grown.

In 1999 we began brokering Support Workers to funded Aged Care organisations such as Community Options Service. In 2001, after winning a Veterans’ Home Care contract the business was incorporated to meet the requirements of the DVA contract. Later that year we successfully tendered for Home and Community Care Funding (HACC) for both aged care and disability care and we have been running these 3 programs ever since.

The company is a for profit, private, single Director company. It is a community care provider with Government funding to provide Home Care services to the Older Australians aged over 65, Veterans and a small number of Disability clients under the age of 65. This is our core business, our only business and our passion.

We are a smaller, boutique, local service provider. Through our lovely, qualified and thoroughly background checked support workers, we provide high quality services right across all the Launceston suburbs. When you ring our office you will talk to either Billie or Marlene who will get to know you and will know who you are and what your situation is without you having to tell them every time.

But, it’s not about us, is it? It’s about you!

Help in your home is a very personal thing and it can feel intrusive if not done well. It is, afterall, your home - the place where you feel secure and where you have your privacy and can relax. If the help coming in is making you feel invaded or uncomfortable, then it is not really working. Worse still is the situation where the help coming in makes you feel trapped because you don’t know exactly when the worker is coming, or who the worker will be.

We can tell you that we are,above all else, a client centred organisation and we have been since before it became mandatory. Our clients (and also all our employees) are people, not numbers or units and we take their rights and dignity very seriously. We have only ever offered client directed care from the day we began offering services and this will never change.

What this means is that we listen to you and do our best to organise the best possible services to help you meet your personal goals for remaining independent at home. This might mean providing domestic cleaning services to relieve you of the heavy cleaning tasks which you can no longer safely manage. It may mean assisting you with shopping or social outings, or even doing the shopping on your behalf. It may mean a little help in the garden every now and then to help you keep on top of the heavy tasks. Or, it may be helping you to regain some of your independence through a reablement or wellness program.

Whichever it is, we aim to set up your services so that you know exactly when the worker is coming, because it is the same time on the same day each week or fortnight, and you will know which worker is coming because, aside of when your worker is on leave, it will be the same worker each time unless you request a change. The worker will know what needs to be done because they will have a copy of the Care Plan that was written in consultation with you, so there should be no surprises for you either.

Many years ago now, a group of forward-thinking people put together the guiding principles that we work by. The idea was that we wanted the service to provide the kind of care that we ourselves would like to have when we reached the point where help at home was needed. The results of that collaboration are below.

The purpose of Helping Hands Community Care is to help maintain frail aged and younger people with disabilities, who are at risk of premature or inappropriate institutionalisation, safely, and as independently as possible,in their own homes.

Our goals and the guiding philosophy we work within to achieve these goals follow, but in a nutshell

We aim to support clients and their primary carers and families to increase independence by providing reliable, relevant support services to clients in their own homes, within the community setting, in order to prevent inappropriate admission to hospital or residential care.

To hold the hand of our clients and their carers to re-open the doors to independent community life and living.

  1. To build trust and confidence with our clients and in our community with other service providers and stakeholders.
  2. To provide the support that individual clients need and want in order to feel secure and live independent and fulfilling lives in their own homes.
  3. To extend the hand of friendship to help combat isolation and loneliness.
  4. To encourage and support clients to re-enter the community and participate in, and enjoy community life to their fullest capacity.
  5. To support those people who are carers in their own home and provide respite and home services which enable them to continue in their role as primary carer.
  6. To provide Equal Opportunity and Non-Discriminatory Access to this Service to members of the community and provide advocacy in sourcing other services where we are unable to fully meet the needs of the client.
  7. To treat all members of the community, including clients and their carers, with dignity and respect and to protect their privacy with confidentiality.

We will continue to strive for ongoing excellence in service standards and this will be driven by our Employees, our Contractors, our Management Team, and our clients.

The outcomes pursued by Helping Hands Community Care are:

  1. That people who are frail aged or disabled can remain independent in their own home
  2. That family or other primary caregivers are supported in their role
  3. That the organisation operates in an effective, efficient and accountable manner