Supporting older people to make decisions
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety noted the importance of supported decision-making to ensure people have control and choice over their own life and care.
The new Act puts the rights of older people first. It aims to ensure aged care services are safe and older people are treated with respect.
Everyone has the right to make decisions about their life, including the support and services they receive from aged care. A key change under the new Act is that every older person is presumed to have the ability to make decisions.
Some older people may want or need support to make these decisions. Supported decision-making is the process of providing support to older people to help them to make and communicate their own decisions and remain in control of their lives.
When the new Act starts, older people can still choose who can support them to make decisions, if they want or need support. These people can be registered supporters.
Not every older person will want or need someone to support them. Some older people might feel they are already supported by their carers and other significant people in their lives, without needing them to become registered supporters. Carers and other significant people in an older person’s life can continue to play an important role in supporting an older person.
A new registered supporter role for aged care
The registered supporter role is one of the changes under the new Act that aim to promote older people’s right to be supported to make decisions.
A registered supporter can be a trusted family member or friend of an older person’s choosing. An older person can have more than one registered supporter.
Registered supporters help older people to make and communicate their own decisions in aged care.
Some registered supporters also have guardianship, enduring power of attorney or similar. These people are appointed decision makers for the older person and can make decisions on behalf of the older person under state or territory arrangements. An appointed decision maker can only make decisions on the older person’s behalf in line with their active, legal authority.
Becoming a registered supporter does not provide a person with decision-making authority for the older person. A registered supporter’s role is to support the older person to make their own decisions.
Having a registered supporter does not prevent an older person from doing something they can do themselves. Older people can continue to request, receive and communicate information and make decisions.
The new registered supporter role will start in line with the new Act.
What older people and representatives in My Aged Care need to do now
To get ready for the new registered supporter role, older people and their representatives might like to review their existing relationships in My Aged Care.
Currently, older people can have people registered with My Aged Care to support or act for them in My Aged Care. These relationships are called regular representatives and authorised representatives.
Most representative relationships in My Aged Care will go through changes to come under the new Act. Regular and authorised representatives active in My Aged Care on 30 June 2025 will be known as ‘registered supporters’ from 1 July 2025.
If an older person has a regular or authorised representative active in My Aged Care on 30 June, they will become a registered supporter under the new Act. This ensures that older people seeking or receiving aged care services will continue to receive decision-making support.
How to opt out of the registered supporter role
Regular representatives, authorised representatives, and older people with regular representatives can opt out of having or being a registered supporter between now and 30 June.
They can opt out at any time before 30 June:
- by calling My Aged Care on 1800 200 422
- through their My Aged Care Online Account.
Opting out will also end a representative relationship in My Aged Care. When opting out, the older person or representative may be asked if they want their representative relationship to end immediately or on 30 June.
There is no financial cost to opting out of the transition.
On 1 July, representative relationships that are active in My Aged Care and have not opted out will transition to supporter relationships.
After 1 July, older people and registered supporters can still ask to end their supporter relationships online or by calling My Aged Care.
What the registered supporter role replaces
The registered supporter role in the new Act will replace the existing regular and authorised representative relationships in My Aged Care.
Additionally, from 1 July, representative arrangements made under the Quality of Care Principles 2014 will no longer exist. These arrangements will not transition to the new Act.
Before 1 July, an older person and their representative under the Quality of Care Principles 2014 should discuss if the representative should become a registered supporter. They can do this by:
- registering a regular or authorised representative relationships in My Aged Care by 30 June. These relationships will then transition to supporter relationships on 1 July
- planning to register a supporter relationship after 1 July.
What is staying the same
Other nominee or representative relationships are unchanged by the new registered supporter role. This includes nominees or representatives for Medicare, Services Australia (including Centrelink) or the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
A registered supporter may also be a representative or nominee for these other schemes – however, if you are a nominee or representative, or would like to appoint one, you will need to engage separately with the relevant agencies and appointment processes.
For more information on the upcoming changes to support roles and relationships in aged care, visit the My Aged Care website.