Know Your Rights: Basic Carers' Rights and Responsibilities in Australia and New Zealand
Carers' rights and responsibilities should be at the back of every carer’s mind. While basic respect and dignity are the pillars of carers' rights, we’ve outlined other key things you’re entitled to as you fulfill your responsibilities throughout your work.
In this article:
● Right to individual human worth and dignity
● Right to have your views and identity taken into account
● Right to support and consideration
● Right to personal privacy and confidentiality
● Right to access and influence patient’s medical records
Right to individual human worth and dignity
The right to individual worth and dignity is as basic as it gets. This ensures that as a care worker, you are respected both as a professional in the field and a living, breathing human being.
Care workers are professionals who play a pivotal role in society. You make contributions that positively impact the community—there’s no doubt about this. As such, you should be afforded the respect that comes with the responsibilities of caring for Australia’s vulnerable.
More importantly, you should also be entitled to basic human rights. You are first and foremost a person, after all. The people you work with should recognise and respect your individual needs too.
Right to have your views and identity taken into account
This goes hand-in-hand with the respect you should be accorded as a human being. While professionalism is key to conducting care work, it’s impossible to completely separate your personal identity with your professional work.
Whenever appropriate, your POV and cultural identity should be taken into account because your personal and cultural identity can impact your relationship with those you work with. Moreover, they can impact care treatments you’ll prescribe and implement later on.
Right to support and consideration
Care work isn’t easy. While rewarding, it does come with challenges. During those times, you should be entitled to support and consideration that help you overcome the obstacles.
Both in Australia and New Zealand, governments express their support for care workers through laws, providing support mechanisms in all forms.
You should also be free to join carer support groups if you need help keeping your health and overall wellbeing in check. This is especially true if you have any special needs that need specific attention.
Right to personal privacy and confidentiality
As care workers, it’s not uncommon for us to develop meaningful relationships with those we work with and care for. But as with all our healthy relationships, it’s important to set boundaries.
That’s why even as care workers, we are entitled to personal privacy and confidentiality. When dealing with people at work, there are personal details you are NOT required to disclose, especially if you’re not comfortable doing so.
Right to influence a person’s care plan
As a professional care worker, you have a say when it comes to the medical plan of those you care for. As such, it’s critical for you to be included in conversations that directly affect how you’ll assess, plan, deliver, and manage the care services you provide.
The reason is simple—it takes both the care worker and client to make a care plan work. While your job ultimately requires you to put your client’s care first, you should also ensure that you’re comfortable with what’s expected of you.
Make sure to flag any treatments you feel uncomfortable implementing. This way, you can make accommodations that benefit everyone involved in the care plan. Connected Healthcare monitoring solutions such as personal alarms, fall detectors and epilepsy sensor help people live safer and much more healthy lives.
Key Takeaways
There’s nothing wrong with asserting your rights as a care worker. When it comes to rights, it all really boils down to a simple thing—you are entitled to basic respect and dignity not only as a care worker, but as a person, too.
As the old adage goes, respect goes both ways. If those you work with expect to be respected, you should also demand respect from them. Doing this benefits everyone!
Interested to know more about Carer support? Visit our blog section and read through our Carer articles here.
