Outcome Statement
The provider must deliver funded aged care services to individuals in a way that is free from all forms of discrimination, abuse and neglect, treats individuals with dignity and respect, and respects the personal privacy of individuals.
The provider demonstrates that the provider understands the rights of individuals under the Statement of Rights. The provider must have practices in place to ensure that the provider acts compatibly with the Statement of Rights, in accordance with subsection 24(2) of the Act (acting compatibly with the Statement of Rights).
Actions
The provider implements a system to recognise, prevent and respond to violence, abuse, racism, neglect, exploitation and discrimination.
Individuals are treated with kindness, dignity and respect.
The relationship between individuals and the supporters of individuals is recognised and respected.
The personal privacy of individuals is respected, individuals have choice about how and when they receive intimate personal care or treatment, and this is carried out sensitively and in private.
Why is this outcome important?
Outcome 1.2 explains providers’ obligations to make dignity, respect, and privacy a key part of their aged care services. Providers need to make sure they include these values in all aspects of how they deliver care. It’s important providers understand the rights of older people under the Statement of Rights. This includes the right to be free from all forms of violence, degrading or inhumane treatment, exploitation, neglect, coercion, abuse and sexual misconduct. Outcome 1.2 is relevant to, and supports, all other standards. To meet Outcome 1.2, providers and workers need to understand each older person so they can deliver person-centred care.
Outcome 1.2 focuses on the rights of older people to:
- not be discriminated against, coerced, abused or neglected
- maintain their dignity
- protect their privacy.
Supporting these principles makes sure older people are empowered to decide how they receive care. This helps to create a sense of autonomy and control over their lives. Providers need systems and processes that help older people to make informed choices about how their aged care services are delivered. These choices respect their preferences, support their wellbeing and protect them from discrimination.
Personal privacy is a key part of Outcome 1.2. Care needs to be delivered in a way that respects an older person’s privacy and dignity. To help strengthen trust and maintain older people’s privacy and dignity, make sure that:
- intimate care is done privately
- you protect older people's personal spaces and belongings.
Making these values a key part of how you deliver care shows that it’s important to treat older people as individuals with the right to a private, respectful and dignified life.
Providers need systems and processes that recognise, prevent and respond to discrimination, neglect and abuse. This includes incidents of coercion and sexual misconduct. This helps protect older people’s rights. Through respectful and person-centred care, providers make sure older people are treated with compassion and respect while also protecting their personal privacy.
You need to give focus to:
- recognising and respecting the relationship between older people, their supporters, family and carers
- making sure older people have a choice about when and how they receive physical care or treatment
- carrying out intimate care in private.
All providers are responsible for delivering aged care services in line with the older person’s rights, as set out under the Statement of Rights. This includes older people’s right to be treated with dignity and respect, to have their personal privacy respected, and to not be discriminated against, abused or neglected. This helps to protect older people as they are particularly vulnerable to abuse, including coercion and financial abuse.
Providers are required to have systems to recognise, prevent and respond to abuse, neglect and discrimination. Providers delivering aged care services in a home or community setting are not accountable for abuse and discrimination that occur outside of their delivery of aged care services. However, when they become aware of these occurrences, they have responsibilities to identify these may change the nature of the older person’s care and service requirements, and if required, provide emotional support and access to other services. This is part of their holistic approach to aged care services delivery. Providers should report these occurrences to the appropriate authorities in line with relevant legislation and with the informed consent of the older person.
Key tasks
Providers
Providers
Put in place a system to recognise, respond to and stop abuse and discrimination from happening. This also applies to violence, racism, neglect and exploitation.
Integrate this system with your systems for:
- providing safe and quality care and services (Outcome 2.3)
- managing incidents (Outcome 2.5)
- managing feedback and complaints (Outcome 2.6a and 2.6b)
- worker training (Outcome 2.9).
Be clear about how your organisation:
• uses systems and processes to stop abuse and discrimination from happening
• identifies cases of abuse, discrimination and neglect
• investigates and addresses these issues, to reduce the risk of them happening again
• monitors and evaluates how effective steps to respond to cases of neglect are
• encourages older people to provide feedback and complaints following your feedback and complaints management system (Outcome 2.6b).
Make sure workers follow the Code of Conduct for Aged Care. This will help your organisation and workers to:
- support an older person’s right to personal choice, dignity and respect
- promote kind, honest and respectful behaviour
- protect older people from harm.
Report any serious matters or situations where older people have been harmed or were at risk of harm by following the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) process.
Make sure workers get informed consent from the older person or their substitute decision-maker when responding to situations that involve abuse or discrimination (Outcome 1.3).
Older people may experience complex family dynamics that workers may become aware of. If complex situations put the older person’s safety and wellbeing at risk, they need to:
- escalate these concerns
- follow the organisation’s risk, incident and information management systems (Outcomes 2.4, 2.5 and 2.7).
Outcome service context
For providers delivering aged care services in a home or community setting, your workers may see signs of, or become aware of abuse, neglect or discrimination outside of the aged care services they deliver. You should have systems and processes in place that:
- encourage workers to document and escalate incidents that occur outside of the aged care services they deliver, and any changes to older people’s mental and/or physical functions.
- make sure the information received about the health and wellbeing of older people inform the review of aged care services.
- support workers to recognise and record if they receive information from the older person, their supporters, family members or other carers that would expose the older person to abuse or discrimination.
For providers delivering aged care services in a home or community setting, the guidance for Outcomes 2.4 and 2.5 has more information on managing incidents of abuse and discrimination that occur outside of aged care services delivery.
Put in place strategies that maintain the personal privacy of older people.
Make sure these strategies:
- meet the older person’s needs, goals and preferences (Outcome 1.1)
- are part of the organisation’s information management system and clinical information system (Outcomes 2.7 and 5.1).
Have a process for providing intimate personal care or treatment, such as help showering. During your assessment and planning (Outcome 3.1), work out when and how an older person receives intimate personal care or treatment. This needs to be:
- based on the older person’s needs and preferences
- done in private and in a sensitive way
- done in a culturally safe, trauma aware and healing informed way (Outcomes 1.1 and 3.2)
Where an older person’s needs or preferences are different to the organisation’s usual approach, document this in the older person’s care and services plan (Outcome 3.1). For example, if the older person prefers to shower only when a family member is there to help them and this isn’t on a regular day. Make sure you follow the older person’s care and services plan when delivering aged care services (Outcome 3.2). This will help to make sure their care is consistent.
Personal privacy also includes the older person’s personal space and the things they own.
Make sure workers have the time, support, resources and skills to treat older people with dignity, respect and privacy.
Give workers guidance and training on how to deliver aged care services that respect older people’s dignity and privacy (Outcome 2.9). This needs to be in line with:
- the organisation’s policies and procedures
- contemporary, evidence-based practice
- workers’ roles and responsibilities.
Make sure workers understand how to:
- treat older people with kindness, dignity and respect
- recognise and respect the relationship between older people, their supporters, family and carers
- respect the privacy of older people. This includes their home and the things they own. It also includes their information and the things they discuss with you during care.
The guidance for Outcomes 2.8 and 2.9 has more information on workforce planning and worker training.
Monitor how you plan for and deliver aged care services to make sure older people are treated with dignity, respect and privacy.
To check if your organisation and workers are treating older people with dignity, respect and privacy, you can review:
- older people’s aged care services (Outcome 3.1). For example, care and services plans and progress notes.
- complaints and feedback (Outcome 2.6a and 2.6b)
- information about incidents and near misses (Outcome 2.5).
Look for situations where:
- older people haven’t been treated with kindness, dignity or respect
- the relationships between older people, their supporters, family, and carers haven’t been recognised or respected
- the personal privacy of older people hasn’t been respected.
Also, talk with older people, their supporters and others they may want to involve, such as families and carers, about the aged care services they receive (Outcome 2.1). Ask them how workers treat them and their family. These conversations can then inform continuous improvement actions and planning (Outcome 2.1).
Assess if workers are following your quality system (Outcome 2.9). You can do this through quality assurance and system reviews.
If you find any issues or ways you can improve through your reviews and assessments, you need to address them. If things go wrong, you need to:
- practise open disclosure. This means being open about what has gone wrong. Share what went wrong with older people, their supporters and others they may want to involve, such as family and carers.
- put in place strategies to mitigate the risk of things going wrong again.
The guidance for Outcome 2.3 has more information on monitoring the quality system and open disclosure.
Further resources about this outcome can be found on the Commission's Quality Standards Resource Centre.
