New federal regulations which promised to tighten the rules on the use of chemical restraints in aged care actually normalise the practice, a report has said.
The practice of using medication to modify the behaviour of dementia patients has come under scrutiny in recent years, prompting Federal Government to announce the regulation change in July.
But advocacy group Human Rights Watch reports that the regulations do not prohibit or offer any penalties to aged care providers that use chemical restraint, and says that the changes do more harm than good by institutionalising the practice.