2007

New amendments to the Aged Care Act came about following a Cabinet reshuffle when Senator Santo Santoro was appointed Minister for Ageing and sworn in on 27 January 2007. Shortly after his appointment, some very high-profile issues regarding abuse emerged. These prompted a key review of issues relating to the management of abuse of older people. The incidences of abuse tended to be within family relationships, often associated with money management; however, there were high profile examples of physical abuse in several aged care facilities interstate. The new amendments to the Act brought in protections for those who reported alleged incidents of assault or abuse.

From 1 July 2007, new amendments to the Aged Care Act around reporting and risk management regarding the abuse of older people in residential facilities came into effect.

Resthaven introduced policies and systems and rolled out an intensive training and education program for all residential staff. The new legislation included the requirement that all persons engaged by Resthaven, who may at any time have unsupervised access to residents or clients, needed to undertake a criminal history check.

Obligatory reporting, also introduced from 1 July 2007, also required significant systems and policy development in the second half of the financial year.

“We understand the Government’s reasons for introducing additional risk management. To encourage issues to be raised if identified, we have increased our monitoring of broader risk factors relating to the abuse of residents and clients by family, staff or other stakeholders.” — Chris Headland, Executive Manager Corporate Services.

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