What to expect from your provider

Aged care providers must respect the older people in their care and provide safe, quality services that meet their needs. This includes delivering the level of care and services as outlined in the:

Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards - a set of requirements that providers need to meet to make sure older people receive safe and quality care
Statement of Rights - details the rights that older people have when receiving aged care
Aged Care Code of Conduct - describes how aged care providers, responsible persons and workers (including volunteers) must behave and treat people receiving aged care.

Meeting these obligations makes sure that everyone receiving aged care is treated with dignity and respect.

Raising a concern

If you have a concern or complaint about your aged care, it’s your right to raise it with your provider. They must have a complaints process that is easy to understand and use.

When you raise a concern or complaint, your provider must:

acknowledge your concerns
handle your concern or complaint openly and honestly
work with you to resolve the concern
use it to help them improve.

Raising a concern or complaint is safe, and your provider can’t punish you or treat you differently for it.

What the Statement of Rights means for providers

Registered providers must:

take all reasonable and proportionate steps to act in line with the Statement of Rights when they deliver aged care services
show that they understand the rights of older people under the Statement of Rights
have ways to make sure they act in line with the Statement of Rights.

If an older person believes that a provider isn’t acting in a way that’s in line with the Statement of Rights, they can make a complaint to the Complaints Commissioner.

Rights under the Aged Care Act

Here is what the Statement of Rights includes:

Independence, choice and control

Older people have the right to independence, autonomy, empowerment, and freedom of choice. This means older people have the right to make their own decisions and have control over:

the funded aged care services they have been approved for
how they access those services
their money and belongings.

Older people have the right to choose the way they live, even if there is some personal risk. If necessary, older people should also be supported to make those decisions and to have them respected.

Equitable access

Older people have the right to a fair and accurate assessment to find out what funded aged care services they need. Assessments for care should be culturally safe, trauma-aware and healing-informed. This means older people should have equitable access to an assessment for care that respects and recognises their:

culture and background
personal experience and any trauma
cognitive conditions such as dementia.

Safety and quality

Older people have the right to quality and safe funded aged care services.

This includes the right to access services:

that are free from any violence, abuse and neglect
that value and support their identity, culture, spirituality and diversity
from workers with the right training and skills.

Privacy

Providers and anyone working in the aged care system must respect and protect older people’s privacy and access to their information. Older people have the right to get information about the funded services they use.

Communication and feedback

Communications should be person-centric – putting the older person first.

Older people have the right to:

get information in a way they understand
communicate in the language or method they prefer
raise issues without fear of being punished or treated unfairly.

Support, advocacy and connection

Older people have the right to stay connected with people that are important to them, such as family, friends and carers.

Older people also have the right to stay connected with their communities, like through leisure, spiritual or cultural activities, and pets. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a right to stay connected with their community, Country and Island Home.

Older people may also need support to understand their rights, make decisions or make a complaint. They have the right to access and get support from an advocate or someone else they choose.

It’s important that providers, their associated providers and older people understand the difference between aged care service delivery, independent aged care advocates and other supporters under the new Aged Care Act. The Older Persons Advocacy Network outline the key differences, including information about the obligations of providers, in the 'Aged care services and independent aged care advocates - How are they different?' factsheet.