The Department of Health is to unveil its Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) to protect vulnerable and senior Australians from abuse and neglect on 1 July next year.
The move was announced by the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Senator Richard Colbeck (pictured) who said it followed the release of a prevalence study which provided a framework for its implementation.
“Any abuse of a care recipient is unacceptable and that is why we committed to implementing a Serious Incident Response Scheme for residential aged care in the 2019-20 Budget,” Senator Colbeck said.
He said SIRS would drive quality and safety improvements at individual service and broader system levels.
“As part of the scheme, residential aged care providers will be required to manage all incidents, with a focus on the safety and wellbeing of consumers and reducing preventable incidents from reoccurring,” he said.
“The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will receive incident reports and will have enhanced powers to administer the SIRS, including taking regulatory action where needed.”
The Minister said that reporting under SIRS would include a broader range of incidents, including neglect, psychological or emotional abuse and inappropriate physical or chemical restraint.
“Significantly, it will also lift the current exemption on the reporting of resident on resident incidents, where the perpetrator has an assessed cognitive impairment.”
Senator Colbeck said the reform had been recommended in the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Report on Elder Abuse – A National Legal Response and the Review of National Aged Care Quality Regulatory Processes (Carnell-Paterson Review).
