Becca Hardy, Senior Manager, Research and Knowledge Translation/Senior Research Fellow, ARIIA
The past year has seen the most comprehensive reforms that the Australian aged care sector has had in decades. The new reforms place older people’s rights, like dignity, choice and control, at the centre of care.
Pressure from statutory and regulatory bodies, consumers and families have organisations working hard to keep up. Combined with financial pressures and workforce issues, aged care providers are feeling overstretched, under pressure, and fatigued.
When the rate of change is overwhelming, it is easy for important but complex things—like rights-based care (RBC)—to slip:
- Less time to have in-depth conversations to understand needs and preferences and build trusting relationships.
- Defaulting to task-based care or rules-based decision-making.
- Relying on what’s predictable or “safe” rather than what may best uphold the rights of older people.
- Treating everyone the same, defaulting to routines and “what we normally do.”
The rate of change can feel overwhelming for workers, which can lead to staff burnout and turnover.
For older people, choices like when to shower or what to eat can quietly disappear when systems are under pressure. People with more complex needs such as dementia may receive less tailored support.
Families and older people may see inconsistency, impersonal or rushed care, and become less confident in the sector.
Providers and aged care workers care, but the conditions make it hard to deliver RBC well.
RBC isn’t yet another framework, compliance requirement, or program to implement. While it comes with regulations and responsibilities, the intent behind it is to re-focus care where it matters: on the person receiving it. RBC has the potential to transform the Australian aged care sector, if it is implemented well.
The challenge of RBC is translating it from a conceptual idea to embedded ways of working. Tools and resources that increase workforce capability, embed rights in governance and leadership, and empower staff can help make RBC real.
Workforce capability resources
Staff usually know what good care looks like, but they need support to deliver it under pressure. Practical resources like short training modules, reflective prompts, and real-world case examples can help teams apply rights-based care even in busy environments.
Governance and leadership tools
Leaders navigating change often face competing priorities between compliance, staffing and regulatory pressures and true person-centred, rights-based approaches. Rights-based care can help clarify what should not be compromised. Some aged care organisations are using governance tools that explicitly link decisions, like staffing models or service design, back to the rights of older people.
Practice-level tools
Rights-informed tools can help workers feel confident in the care they provide. Structured care planning conversation guides, checklists to help navigate shared decision-making, and decision support tools can make a big difference in reaching rights-based outcomes, like choice and autonomy, even when time is limited.
The ARIIA Knowledge and Implementation Hub recently launched a new priority topic: Operationalising Rights-Based Care. The priority topic offers evidence and resources that can help organisations adopt and implement rights-based care.
*The views and opinions expressed in Knowledge Blogs are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of ARIIA, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.