Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. SRV is the key state-wide service in Victoria established specifically to work with older people experiencing elder abuse.
This submission details our experiences of how older people living in aged care have had their independence curtailed and decision-making powers limited through improper use of enduring powers of attorney (EPOA), guardianship and administration orders, and advance care directives. This has occurred due to:
- ignorance and misunderstanding of the proper use and extent of these powers, orders and directives by aged care facility staff
- deliberate misuse of powers with the intent to restrict the independence and decision-making opportunities of the older person, and/or
- misguided attempts to safeguard or protect the older person.
In many cases the misuse of EPOA documents is driven by the appointed attorney and facilitated by the aged care facility staff without proper consideration of the older person’s preferences and rights. Misuse of guardianship and administration orders is often a result of aged care staff believing they are acting protectively from a perceived or misunderstood duty of care or in the older person’s best interests, but without regard for the older person’s capacity, wishes and/or will.
This submission speaks directly to the Commission’s terms of reference regarding how to ensure that aged care services are person-centred and allow people to exercise choice, control and independence in relation to their care.