Your work will require you to uphold legislation related to discrimination. Discrimination is the act of excluding or treating a person differently based solely on an attribute such as disability, age, gender, race or sexual orientation. 

Image by Benjamin Clapp, Shutterstock, Shutterstock licence

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Select each bar to expand and reveal some of the legislation that applies to community services in Australia.

Human rights are the fundamental rights and freedoms that apply to all people, setting norms for standards of human behaviour.  

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You can find more information about Legislation regarding discrimination at the Australian Human Rights Commission website. 

Duty of care and dignity of risk

Duty of care refers to the legal and ethical obligation to ensure the safety and wellbeing of individuals under your care, while dignity of risk means recognising that a person has the right to take reasonable risks. These principles encompass a range of responsibilities.

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Select each bar to expand and reveal some of these responsibilities.

Overall, duty of care and dignity of risk in aged care and disability settings are about promoting the highest quality of life for clients while ensuring their safety and respecting their individuality and rights. We will look at this more in later topics.

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