Question

Facilitate the empowerment of older people Assessment Q24 What is meant by a rights-based approach in relation to older people?

Answer 1

The aged care reform package can be stonger by including a human rights approach to the delivery of services for older age people. The aim should be to promote people-centred decision making and real change in organisational culture. The specific areas of the reform package that can easily accommodate a human rights approach include:
1.The incorporation of indicators to monitor the implementation of consumer directed care. These indicators will be essential to determine the accessibility and quality of these services and to ensure the rights of older recipients of these services are protected and their decisions are respected.
2. The implementation of advance care training programs that extend beyond general practitioners to include health workers in the acute care sector and in the aged care sector. This would facilitate a process of effective communication between the acute care sector and the aged care sector and Would help to promote respect for the end-of-life decisions of older Americans.
3. The development of a national program for improvement of health literacy to promote the participation of older age receivers in consumer directed care.
4. The development of disaggregated indicators, at least on the grounds of sex, race, ethnicity, sexuality, socio-economic status, place of abode and urban/rural/remote location. These indicators will provide detailed information on the human rights issues of availability, accessibility and acceptability of aged care services to the whole of the older age population as well as to the special needs groups.
5. Improvement of the effectiveness of the Broadband for Seniors Initiative to ensure that older mericans are confident internet users and can effectively engage with the Telehealth program.
6. The development of indicators related to the charters of rights contained in the user Principles 1997 (Cth). These indicators should be included in the set of national quality indicators that will monitor the quality of aged care services.
7. Human rights training for health workers to ensure they are culturally competent, respect difference and diversity in the older age population, understand and respect human rights.