Below you will find official links and documentation on official government documentation on the Charter of Residents' Rights and Responsibilities.

Charter of Residents' Rights and Responsibilities

The User Rights Principles 1997 made under the Aged Care Act 1997 includes a Charter of Residents' Rights and Responsibilities. The Charter details the rights and responsibilities of all residents including personal, civil, legal and consumer rights. The Charter also outlines residents’ responsibilities in relation to other residents, staff and the residential aged care service community as a whole.

Schedule 1 Charter of residents’ rights and responsibilities of the User Rights Principles 1997:

A. Each resident of a residential care service has the right:

• to full and effective use of his or her personal, civil, legal and consumer rights
• to quality care appropriate to his or her needs
• to full information about his or her own state of health and about available treatments
• to be treated with dignity and respect, and to live without exploitation, abuse or neglect
• to live without discrimination or victimisation, and without being obliged to feel grateful to those providing his or her care and accommodation
• to personal privacy
• to live in a safe, secure and homelike environment, and to move freely both within and outside the residential care service without undue restriction
• to be treated and accepted as an individual, and to have his or her individual preferences taken into account and treated with respect
• to continue his or her cultural and religious practices, and to keep the language of his or her choice, without discrimination
• to select and maintain social and personal relationships with anyone else without fear, criticism or restriction
• to freedom of speech
• to maintain his or her personal independence
• to accept personal responsibility for his or her own actions and choices, even though these may involve an element of risk, because the resident has the right to accept the risk and not to have the risk used as a ground for preventing or restricting his or her actions and choices
• to maintain control over, and to continue making decisions about, the personal aspects or his or her daily life, financial affairs and possessions
• to be involved in the activities, associations and friendships of his or her choice, both within and outside the residential care service
• to have access to services and activities available generally in the community
• to be consulted on, and to choose to have input into, decisions about the living arrangements of the residential care service
• to have access to information about his or her rights, care, accommodation and any other information that relates to the resident personally
• to complain and to take action to resolve disputes
• to have access to advocates and other avenues of redress
• to be free from reprisal, or a well-founded fear of reprisal, in any form for taking action to enforce his or her rights.

B. Each resident of a residential care service has the responsibility:

• to respect the rights and needs of other people within the residential care service, and to respect the needs of the residential care service community as a whole
• to respect the rights of staff and the proprietor to work in an environment free from harassment
• to care for his or her own health and well-being, as far as he or she is capable
• to inform his or her medical practitioner, as far as he or she is able, about his or her relevant medical history and current state of health.

Lodging a Complaint regarding an aged care service

Office of Aged Care Quality and Compliance (OACQC)

The Office of Aged Care Quality and Compliance (the Office) has been established to provide a focus on the quality improvement of care and services to care recipients in Australian Government subsidised aged care services.

The Office manages national programs in relation to:

• Compliance with legislation;
• User rights;
• Aged care workforce;
• Clinical care; and
• Prudential Regulation.