Current Community Care service users

Rights and responsibilities

As a person using Community Care services, you have a number of rights. Community Care service providers should recognise your right to:

• be treated with respect and courtesy
• stay informed and be consulted
• have a say in decisions made about your care
• receive quality services
• expect privacy and confidentiality and access to all personal information held about you by the provider
• have another person of your choice support you and advocate (speak up for you) on your behalf
• have your comments and feedback valued
• to make a confidential complaint if you are not happy with the services you receive.

Service providers must respect your ideas and the decisions you make about your life. They should listen to what you have to say, and show courtesy in their behaviour toward you. Here are some questions about this right that you can ask service providers:

• Will your staff ask my permission if they want access to my personal belongings, such as my clothes?
• Are staff expected to listen to what I have to say about my care?
• Are staff expected to talk to me and members of my family in a respectful way?
• If I think that staff are not treating me with respect and dignity, what can I do?
• Who should I speak to in the agency if I have any queries or problems?
• Who could I speak to outside of the agency if I don’t feel comfortable about speaking to an agency employee?
• How familiar is your service with my cultural background/religious beliefs?
• Will staff respect my cultural and religious beliefs?

You have the right to be informed about the service available to you, and about your rights. You can ask questions to make sure you receive a good service.

Complaints

Every Community Care service user has the right to lodge a complaint about the service they have received. You may wish to do this in writing, by telephone or in person. If you wish, you can involve an advocate. An advocate can be a family member or a friend, or an agency such as Queensland Aged and Disability Advocacy Inc.

In the first instance, complaints should be directed to the organisation providing the service, to give them a chance to fix the problem.

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction by the Community Care service provider, you may wish to have the complaint dealt with by the Central Complaints and Review Unit.

*This is a charged at the cost of a local call, but calls from mobile phones are charged at applicable rates.