Government agencies’ handling of complaints about aged-care services has been called into question by Australia’s peak body on LGBTI health.
Previous inquiries have found older LGBTI people who were using aged-care services were reluctant to complain in fear of retribution or being outed.
The chair of the National LGBTI Health Alliance, Paul Martin has called on the Australian Department of Health and Ageing to specifically address LGBTI people in a proposed charter for aged-care complaints.
The Service Charter for the Aged Care Complaints Scheme was recently under review although the feedback period finished last Friday. The Charter defines the role and expectations of the ombudsman-like scheme that investigates complaints made about aged-care services.
In the Alliance’s submission to the review, it called for explicit reference to bullying and harassment as well as a ‘diversity’ statement to reassure people their complaint would be taken seriously.
In a statement, LGBTI Health Alliance Chairperson Paul Martin said LGBTI people living in aged care services experienced significant discrimination.
‘The draft service charter is a bland document which would not encourage a LGBTI individual or same-sex couple to make a complaint and believe it would be handled in a safe manner,’ he said.
‘What the charter needs is a strongly worded diversity clause, which specifically refers to LGBTI people.’
This is not the first time standards for aged-care services of older LGBTI people have been called on.
The issue was raised back in 2009 when the Federal Department of Health and Wellbeing commissioned an inquiry into the complaints scheme for aged-care services. Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton reviewed the scheme and highlighted the invisibility of LGBT older people who used aged care services.
The 2009 report said LGBT older people using aged care services were reluctant to complain in case they outed themselves or their same-sex relationship. According to the report, older LGBT people feared victimisation and retribution from services if they raised problems – some recipients had been threatened with ‘outing’ by providers if they made a complaint about service standards.
Earlier this year, the national Productivity Commission released a draft report of an inquiry into the caring for older Australians. In the report, the commission said services should be ‘respectful’ and ‘responsive’ the special needs of people of diverse sexuality and gender. The report also said LGBT people were not specifically identified in the current Aged Care Act 1997.
GLBTI Retirement Association Incorporated (GRAI) spokesperson Brett Tizard said the complaint scheme could only respond to what was in the (Aged Care) Act and that LGBT people should be acknowledged.
GRAI also released its report into aged-care accommodation last year which found 86 per cent of services who responded were unaware of LGBTI residents within their accommodation. Only 30 per cent of respondent services recognised that LGBTI people had specific needs.
OUTinPerth asked the Department of Health & Ageing if they would consider amending the charter but they did not respond in time for publication.
Benn Dorrington
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