Statement of rights for aged care in Australia
Statement of Rights for aged care in Australia
What is the Statement of Rights?
This Statement of Rights (SOR) is included in the Aged Care Act 2024. It sets out the rights an individual has when accessing or seeking to access aged care services. The SOR explains how you can expect to be treated and what you can expect from a provider. It places you at the centre of your care.
Why the Statement of Rights matters
This SOR supports your right to access and receive safe and quality care. Your rights matter because they help make sure that:
You are treated fairly and with dignity
Your care and services meet your needs
You have control and choice in your life
You feel safe, confident and respected
You can speak up and advocate for your care and needs
Statement of Rights
What are my rights?
As a person receiving aged care, the Statement of Rights provides that you have the right to:
Be treated with respect: you have the right to be treated fairly, with kindness, respect and without discrimination.
Feel safe and well cared for: you have the right to safe and quality services that meet your needs.
Be understood and heard: You feel acknowledged, everything is explained clearly, and your decisions are respected.
Be involved in decisions about your care: you have the right to take part in planning your care, goals and daily activities.
Maintain your privacy and dignity: you have the right to have your personal information is protected, and your dignity respected.
Keep your identity, culture and beliefs: you have the right to practice your culture, language, religion or traditions.
Stay connected with people you care about: you have the right to have visitors and stay in touch with your community, family and friends.
Give feedback or make a complaint: you have the right to provide feedback or speak up if something is good or needs to improve — without fear of unfair treatment.
Access an advocate or support person: you have the rights to have someone help you speak up or make choices.
Statement of Rights as set out in Aged Care Act 2024
Independence, autonomy, empowerment and freedom of choice
1. An individual has a right to:
exercise choice and make decisions that affect the individual’s life, including in relation to the following:
the funded aged care services the individual has been approved to access;
how, when and by whom those services are delivered to the individual;
the individual’s financial affairs and personal possessions; and
be supported (if necessary) to make those decisions, and have those decisions respected; and
take personal risks, including in pursuit of the individual’s quality of life, social participation and intimate and sexual relationships.
Equitable access
An individual has a right to equitable access to:
have the individual’s need for funded aged care services assessed, or reassessed, in a manner which is:
culturally safe, culturally appropriate, trauma-aware and healing-informed; and
accessible and suitable for individuals living with dementia or other cognitive impairment; and
palliative care and end-of-life care when required.
Quality and safe funded aged care services
3. An individual has a right to:
be treated with dignity and respect; and
safe, fair, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment; and
have the individual’s identity, culture, spirituality and diversity valued and supported; and
funded aged care services being delivered to the individual:
in a way that is culturally safe, culturally appropriate, trauma-aware and healing-informed; and
in an accessible manner; and
by aged care workers of registered providers who have appropriate qualifications, skills and experience.
4. An individual has a right to:
be free from all forms of violence, degrading or inhumane treatment, exploitation, neglect, coercion, abuse or sexual misconduct; and
have quality and safe funded aged care services delivered consistently with the requirements imposed on registered providers under this Act.
Note: Division 1 of Part 4 of Chapter 3 deals with conditions on registered providers, including requirements in relation to the use of restrictive practices and management of incidents.
Respect for privacy and information
5. An individual has a right to have the individual’s:
personal privacy respected; and
personal information protected.
6. An individual has a right to seek, and be provided with, records and information about the individual’s rights under this section and the funded aged care services the individual accesses, including the costs of those services.
Person-centred communication and ability to raise issues without reprisal
7. An individual has a right to:
be informed, in a way the individual understands, about the funded aged care services the individual accesses; and
express opinions about the funded aged care services the individual accesses and be heard.
8. An individual has a right to communicate in the individual’s preferred language or method of communication, with access to interpreters and communication aids as required.
9. An individual has a right to:
open communication and support from registered providers when issues arise in the delivery of funded aged care services; and
make complaints using an accessible mechanism, without fear of reprisal, about the delivery of funded aged care services to the individual; and
have the individual’s complaints dealt with fairly and promptly.
Advocates, significant persons and social connections
10. An individual has a right to be supported by an advocate or other person of the individual’s choice, including when exercising or seeking to understand the individual’s rights in this section, voicing the individual’s opinions, making decisions that affect the individual’s life and making complaints or giving feedback.
11. An individual has a right to have the role of persons who are significant to the individual, including carers, visitors and volunteers, be acknowledged and respected.
12. An individual has a right to opportunities, and assistance, to stay connected (if the individual so chooses) with:
significant persons in the individual’s life and pets, including through safe visitation by family members, friends, volunteers or other visitors where the individual lives and visits to family members or friends; and
the individual’s community, including by participating in public life and leisure, cultural, spiritual and lifestyle activities; and
if the individual is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person—community, Country and Island Home.
13. An individual has a right to access, at any time the individual chooses, a person designated by the individual, or a person designated by an appropriate authority.