Lone worker safety

Safety for home care and support workers.

Aged-care and disability support workers do some of the most personal work there is, alone in clients' homes, sometimes with clients whose behaviour is unpredictable and sometimes simply far from anyone who could help. The NDIS and aged-care sectors both name worker safety as a duty, and in-home visits are where it's hardest to cover.

The risk

What home care and support workers are actually up against

Isolation and unpredictable in-home environments - a support worker alone with a client, often with challenging behaviours, sometimes in remote locations, across long or after-hours shifts.

  • An in-home visit where a client's behaviour escalates and the worker needs help fast
  • A missed check-in that means nobody knows a worker hasn't left a property
  • A remote or evening visit where help is a long way off and the shift runs late

Community-sector organisations were the heaviest users of automatic protection in the FY26 data - a quarter of their alarms were raised by timers, check-ins or fall detection, because the work is exactly the kind where a worker may not be able to press anything. See the data ›

Questions

Common questions

What safety device is best for home care and support workers?
A safety app with automatic check-ins and timers, paired with a discreet wearable trigger for the workers most exposed to aggression. The automatic escalation matters here: in-home work is precisely where a worker may be unable to raise the alarm themselves.
Does the NDIS require duress alarms for support workers?
The NDIS Commission places worker-safety obligations on providers and specifically references systems like check-ins and duress alarms for people who work alone. Duress is one control within a compliant safety system - see our lone worker safety guide for how the controls fit together. This is general information, not legal advice.

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