Guides & Handbooks

This booklet aims to give guidance on how to:

• create an effective, resolution focused complaints system in aged care services and how to enhance existing processes
• maintain compliance with Standard 6
• encourage a positive, blame-free culture around complaints handling in aged care services by fostering an understanding of the complaints process and how it affects the people involved, and setting out the essential elements for the effective management of complaints within a service including skills, procedures and policies.

This guidance provides information for providers to help them to develop and embed a best practice incident management system which enables them to respond to and manage specific incidents and near misses by assessing:

This guidance on the Serious Incident Response Scheme is for residential aged care providers. The Scheme comes into effect on 1 April.

Australians have a right to live free from abuse and neglect as a matter of human rights, current law and reasonable community expectation. These rights, which do not diminish with age, include the right to live dignified, self-determined lives, free from exploitation, violence and abuse. In addition, consumers of Commonwealth-funded aged care services have specific rights and expectations for safe and quality care and services. 

Practical guidance to support COVID-19 outbreak management planning and preparation in residential aged care facilities

To support the aged care sector, the Commission has developed a range of storyboards that are designed to illustrate key behaviours and priority issues. The storyboards are particularly helpful in supporting people whose English or literacy levels may be a barrier when it comes to accessing content and are relevant to all providers and consumers, their families and representatives across the aged care sector. 

Advance Care Planning – Don’t Leave it Too Late 

To support the aged care sector, the Commission has developed a range of storyboards that are designed to illustrate key behaviours and priority issues. Storyboards are particularly helpful in supporting people whose English or literacy levels may be a barrier when it comes to accessing content relevant to all providers and consumers, their families and representatives across the aged care sector. 

Person Centred Care – Know Me Well resources

To support the aged care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission is developing a range of new storyboards that are designed to illustrate key behaviours and priority issues.

These translated guides will help you understand what to expect if someone has COVID-19 in your residential aged care service, including that a number of changes will take place. These changes will be made very quickly. You might be anxious when these changes take place but the aim is to keep you safe.

COVID-19 is an infection that can be more serious for some older people. The Commission has developed a range of resources to help consumers understand their options on staying safe, keeping in touch with loved ones and keeping fit and active.

These translated guides provide useful information on how to stay safe in a time of COVID-19.

The advice in this resource has been prepared by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s Chief Clinical Advisor Dr Melanie Wroth, to support residential aged care services across Australia in preparing for and responding to a COVID-19 outbreak, complementing the earlier version that was for Victorian providers. The advice is informed by the Commission’s involvement in monitoring and supporting providers to identify and mitigate pandemic-related risks, including managing an outbreak in their service, and the lessons learned from these experiences.