Dignity, respect and privacy | Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission

What is the outcome you need to achieve?

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).

Updates to guidance

An updated version of the strengthened Standards was published by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing on 18 February 2025. Please see here for more information Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards – February 2025 | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

The Commission is currently updating our guidance content to reflect these changes. Please ensure you check back regularly.

Actions

1.2.1

The provider implements a system to recognise, prevent and respond to violence, abuse, racism, neglect, exploitation and discrimination.

1.2.2

Individuals are treated with kindness, dignity and respect.

1.2.3

The relationship between individuals and the supporters of individuals is recognised and respected.

1.2.4

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 care and 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, as outlined in the Statement of Rights. 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, 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 care and 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 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 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.

Update to guidance

The Commission is currently updating our guidance content to reflect these changes. Please ensure you check back regularly.

Key tasks

Providers(active tab)

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 2.6)
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 2.6).

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).

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 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 care and 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 care and 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 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 care and 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 care and services (Outcome 3.1). For example, care and services plans* and progress notes.
complaint*s and feedback* (Outcome 2.6)
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 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 families and carers* about the care and 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 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*.