Daniella Greenwood, Consultant – Aged Care
The Statement of Rights in the new Aged Care Act isn’t just words on paper, according to cultural and operational change consultant Daniella Greenwood. It’s the legislative muscle we need to bring about a fundamental shift in the way we deliver aged care.
‘The Statement of Rights, which is based on an international human rights framework, states older people get to choose how, when, and by whom their services are delivered,’ says Ms Greenwood, who is one of the expert panellists on our upcoming webinar on the subject.
‘It also ensures that any decisions that are made respect the older person’s current will and preference rather than what others believe to be in their best interests.
‘That’s the conceptual decision-making shift aged care staff, health professionals and families are going to have to make.’
The new Act, which comes into effect on 1 July 2025, calls for a dramatically different approach to the medicalised, institutionalised and paternalistic model of care that is currently being delivered in aged care, says Ms Greenwood.
‘Human rights-based aged care simply can’t exist under the current ways of thinking and working.’
Basic human rights are routinely and casually violated
Under the new Act, aged care providers will have a positive duty to understand and deliver services to older people in line with the Statement of Rights, which includes rights like independence, autonomy and privacy. Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, which come into effect at the same time, actively reinforce those rights.
Basing the Statement of Rights on international human rights legislation, including the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disability (CRPD), lends additional weight, Ms Greenwood says.
‘A human rights lens definitely exposes a lot of the deeply troubling cases of neglect and abuse that have come up in countless reports and throughout the Aged Care Royal Commission.
‘But perhaps even more importantly, it exposes the business-as-usual human rights violations that have become normalised in aged care.
‘Basic human rights such as self-determination, privacy of medical and social information and just the freedom to make everyday decisions are constantly, routinely and almost casually violated.’
Older people being forced to engage in an organised group activity instead of watching their favourite daytime soap, being woken up and hurried out of bed just to eat breakfast or shower, or being stopped from eating their favourite desert on the whim of a family member are some of the examples Ms Greenwood has experienced as a change consultant in Australia and the United States.
A better conceptual framework? Mind your own business!
‘Don’t think these moments are little; they are humiliating for older people,’ she says.
‘We’re talking about casually overriding the choices of another citizen when there is no serious or imminent risk to the safety of that person or anybody else.
‘If you consider it outside residential or home care, it’s really quite shocking.’
Such paternalism and focus on ‘institutional efficiencies’ won’t meet the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, which will require flexible mealtimes, consistent staffing assignment and control of one’s own schedule, Ms Greenwood says.
‘Exercising one’s duty of care very rarely means imposing your opinion or wishes on a client when those wishes are contrary to the person’s own will and preference. A better conceptional framework would be “mind your own business”.
‘The old, paternalistic model, under which providers and family think they know what’s best for the older person, is the antithesis of human rights-based care.’
Register for OPAN’s new Aged Care Act: Statement of Rights webinar.
For more information visit our dedicated New Aged Care Act webpage.
