Older Person’s Statement of Rights

Older health consumers often experience a stigma relating to their time of life that may reflect an inappropriate community bias that values youth over age.

Stigma relating to older age can be expressed in a health care setting as an assumption of feeble-mindedness, reference to family before the individual, lack of respect for a person’s time or daily routines, privacy and modesty, and provision of limited information about treatments and treatment options. 

Older health consumers have the right to request the following rights of health service providers:
Older Health Consumers:

• have a right to be valued and respected and consideration given to their diverse social, religious, political and cultural backgrounds
• have a right to participate in decision making and make informed choices about their treatment, care and on going well being
• have a right to quality treatment on the basis of need
• have a right to comprehensive and accessible information about their diagnosis, health condition, treatment options and prognosis in a language they can understand
• have a right to refuse treatment and have their rights respected if they choose to have no medical or surgical interventions to prolong their lives, but still reserve the right to receive those treatments which enhance their comfort, dignity and controls pain
• have a right to privacy and dignity in respect to personal modesty
• have a right to be treated in a similar manner to other health consumers, in terms of language and behaviour, regardless of their age
• have a right to make a complaint about a health service and have that complaint treated with respect, without fear of retribution and resolved within an acceptable timeframe
• have a right to the involvement of a care-worker, where appropriate, in their care-plan
• have a right to consideration with respect with regard to appointments and associated waiting times, so that they are attended to promptly for the benefit of both the patient and the carer