A Brisbane law firm has worked with a major aged care to provider to develop residential aged care agreements that are written in plain English but are still legally binding.

The collaboration between McCullough Robertson Lawyers and the Domain Principal Group has seen standard agreements slashed from 40-50 pages to fewer than 10.

McCullough Robertson partner, Tim Longwill said agreements produced under the Aged Care Act had been a source of confusion for providers and residents since they were introduced in 1997.

“When providers first started to use the agreements they took a very legalistic approach which was understandable because they were heading into new territory,” said Mr Longwill.

“These agreements can be 30, 40 or 50 pages long and they are written in very legalistic language. They are not really doing the right thing by older care recipients. They tick all the legal boxes but they do not communicate anything to the consumer.

“Now that we are older and wiser and we know more about how things work, I think it makes sense to be more client focused.”

Mr Longwill pointed out that there is a requirement in the Aged Care Act that resident agreements be readily understood by the people who are signing them.

He also suggested that providers could put pressure on their representative bodies to recommend simpler agreements.

“It’s a bit of a sleeper issue, in that most older people don’t ask questions about the agreements,” Mr Longwill said. “But that’s often because people of that generation trusted that they were going to be looked after and simply sign on the dotted line.

“I’m not suggesting that they won’t be looked after but there is a real responsibility here to communicate better with consumers about what is going on when they enter residential care.”