31 March 2021
As an aged care consumer, people have the right to safe and quality care and to live without abuse or neglect.
Effective from tomorrow (April 1), the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) is a new Government initiative to help reduce the risk of abuse and neglect for people living or staying in a residential aged care home.
The scheme requires aged care providers to identify, record, manage, resolve, and report all serious incidents that occur or are alleged or suspected to have occurred, in a residential aged care service.
Underpinning the SIRS is a requirement for residential aged care providers to have in place an effective incident management system – a documented set of protocols, processes, and standard operating procedures – to manage all incidents, respond to incidents, and take steps to make sure they do not happen again. The incident management system covers a broader range of non-reportable incidents and includes incidents that involve staff or visitors.
The SIRS requires every residential aged care service to adopt a systematic approach to minimising the risk of and responding to, serious incidents involving residents.
The SIRS also introduces explicit obligations for providers to report a broader range of serious incidents to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission than is currently required. This includes reports of all incidents that are alleged or suspected to have occurred, or witnessed, between consumers of an aged care service, including where the consumer who commits the incident has a cognitive or mental impairment (such as dementia).
Definition of a reportable incident under the SIRS
Reportable incidents include those listed below.
- Unreasonable use of force – for example, hitting, pushing, shoving, or rough handling.
- Unlawful sexual contact or inappropriate sexual conduct – such as sexual threats or stalking, or sexual activities without consent.
- Neglect – includes withholding personal care, untreated wounds, or insufficient assistance during meals.
- Psychological or emotional abuse – such as yelling, name calling, ignoring a consumer, threatening gestures, or refusing a consumer access to care or services as a means of punishment.
- Unexpected death – in the event of a fall, untreated pressure injury, or the actions of a consumer result in the death of another consumer.
- Stealing or financial coercion by a staff member – for example, if a staff member coerces a consumer to change their will to their advantage, or steals valuables from the consumer.
- Inappropriate physical or chemical restraint – for example, where physical or chemical restraint is used without prior consent or without notifying the consumer’s representative as soon as practicable; where physical restraint is used in a non-emergency situation; or when a provider issues a drug to a consumer to influence their behaviour as a form of chemical restraint.
- Unexplained absence from care – this occurs when the consumer is absent from the service, it is unexplained and has been reported to the police.
Under the SIRS, an allegation, suspicion, or witness account of any of the above serious incidents must be reported to the Commission.
Residential aged care providers must, from tomorrow, report all ‘Priority 1’ incidents within 24 hours. ‘Priority 1’ incidents include those that cause or could reasonably have caused physical or psychological injury or illness requiring some form of medical or psychological treatment. Instances of unexplained absence from care and any unexpected death of a consumer are always to be regarded as Priority 1 reportable incidents.
From 1 October 2021, all ‘Priority 2’ incidents – reportable incidents that do not meet the criteria for ‘Priority 1’ – must also be reported within 30 days.
The Commission provides a free service for anyone to raise a concern about the quality of care or services provided to people receiving Australian Government funded aged care. Find out more at www.agedcarequality.gov.au or call 1800 951 822.
For more information click on: https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au