Key findings from the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report on older adults’ experiences of ageism in health care
The Australian Human Rights Commission released a report in November 2025 on older adults’ experiences of ageism in health care.
The report, which reflected on findings from engagement with older adults, their families, and stakeholders; as well as a review of existing research, found that “older adults perceive ageism as occurring at interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels of the healthcare system”.
Report findings
Some of the main findings of older people’s perception of ageism in healthcare included:
- Age-based assumptions in healthcare interactions
- Perceived invisibility of older adults in healthcare settings
- Dismissal or attribution of health concerns to age
- Limited participation in decisions regarding their own care
- Perceptions of age influencing clinical decisions
- Structural barriers reinforcing perceptions of ageism
These experiences were found to have negative impacts on older people including “emotional distress, a sense of disempowerment, and internalisation of negative beliefs”, and even reducing engagement with health services.
First Nations people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and people from LGBT+ communities, faced even greater impacts and increased feelings of exclusion.
The report noted the cumulative effect that experiences of ageism and racism can have on older people from CALD backgrounds – highlighting the added layer of discrimination faced by older people from CALD backgrounds.
For example, language barriers were perceived to increase the already present risk for older people of being overlooked or dismissed in healthcare settings (when interpreters weren’t present). Interestingly, the report acknowledged its own limitation in directly engaging with older people from CALD backgrounds with limited English, reflecting the real-life challenges face by these groups.
The report also discussed how healthcare workers’ assumptions relating to older people’s cultural identity can influence how older people from CALD backgrounds are perceived or even treated in the healthcare system. Some older people from CALD backgrounds reported changing their behaviour to reduce cultural discrimination.
Older people from CALD backgrounds were also reported to be ‘bypassed’ by health care workers as interactions were directed to their adult children, even when the older person could participate in the conversation in English.
The report also highlighted the negative impacts that can be related to some cultural norms that place doctors as authority figures, which can contribute to a lack of agency and reduced active participation in older people’s health care experience.
These findings highlight the unique experiences that older people from CALD backgrounds can face when accessing health services, as age and cultural-based discriminations and challenges can overlap and intertwine.
Implications for cultural safety in aged care
This report is about older people using health care services however, it does not take much to extrapolate this across to aged care.
The Centre’s conclusion from the findings of this report is the need for continued vigilance to engage directly with the older person, especially the older person who may not speak English or the language used by aged care staff. This means for example, to avoid bypassing the older person and just speaking with their family when negotiating and signing service agreements, developing a care plan, or discussing critical health management matters including end of life planning and palliative care.
Section 23 (8) of the New Aged Care Act under the Statement of Rights states that “An individual has a right to communicate in the individual’s preferred language or method of communication, with access to interpreters and communication aids as required”. It’s imperative for aged care providers to support CALD older people in communicating with staff directly, including through use of an interpreter. This is not withstanding that some older people may have underlying communication and cognition problems due to advancing dementia and/or adverse impacts of strokes and other medical conditions.
An additional skill in communication is therefore to ensure that what you are trying to communicate fits to the person’s ability to comprehend the information regardless of the language spoken. Commissioner Fitzgerald’s report does include instances where older people felt that they were being spoken down to. There is a difference between speaking down to people versus using simpler English or concepts that the person is able to understand. This highlights that communication is very much a two-way street and involves receiving feedback to confirm that the older person is comprehending the information that you might be trying to convey. It is also equally important that the older person is able to tell aged care personnel what is important for them and in turn that we have thoroughly understood that.
Effective communication is a very important competency. Language differences add a further layer to this process. Allocating sufficient time and using qualified interpreters will help ensure that aged care personnel and the older person in front of them have both engaged in a constructive dialogue where both have been able to be properly understood. This helps to ensure the best chances of meeting the older person’s expectations, getting services right and having the older person experience services in ways that are culturally safe.
Click here to visit the Australian Human Rights Commission’s website to read the full report.
