A New South Wales Upper House inquiry is looking into the physical, financial and psychological abuse against vulnerable elderly people.
The council says it's a huge issue that goes largely unreported
As Bridget Brennan reports.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: It's not clear how many victims of elder abuse are suffering in silence in their own homes, being abused by people they know.
Ian Day believes it could be a significant number.
He's the chief executive of the Council on the Ageing in New South Wales.
IAN DAY: We know that it exists and we know that it's common and many people have at least awareness of it going on or suspicion of it going on.
What we don't have is a way of properly measuring it because people don't necessarily come forward.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: A New South Wales parliamentary committee is investigating the issue of elder abuse, to look at ways to encourage victims to come forward.
Elder abuse can take many forms including psychological, financial, physical and sexual abuse.
As the population ages, John Watkins, from Alzheimer's Australia New South Wales, is concerned elder abuse will become more prevalent.
JOHN WATKINS: Abuse of all forms certainly will be a factor that we need to consider in relation to those people and a subset of that group, those people living with dementia 340,000 Australians and within 15 years, half a million.
My concern is very real for the protection of those people with dementia because they are even more vulnerable.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Academics from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health have been surveying elderly women on the issue of family abuse.
They found the most common forms of abuse is financial exploitation.
Meredith Tavener has assisted with the study, she's a researcher from the University of Newcastle.
MEREDITH TAVENER: They can be exploited, for example being over-charged for things.
Financial abuse would be more likely if you knew someone perhaps because they may have access to that information about you.
If you are receiving care from someone, perhaps they go shopping for you, maybe they don't show you the receipt; Why don't you just write me a cheque and I'll use that instead of the cash?
Things like that, so it can come in very different forms and corners.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Apart from abuse that occurs in nursing homes, there are no laws in Australia requiring people to report abuse of the elderly to police.
John Watkins, from Alzheimer's Australia New South Wales, thinks the New South Wales inquiry should investigate the need legal reform.
But he thinks a large scale awareness campaign aimed at victims could be more effective.
JOHN WATKINS: We've talked about that and we're open minded on it.
We haven't said that it should occur because mandatory reporting will go some way towards helping those cases where people know of it and it is reported to someone in authority.
But at the moment we don't have a regime in place for it to be reported to. Who is it reported to now?
Who would mandatory reporting requirement apply to?
There's a lot more work to be done first in putting in place protective measures before we go to that.
And I think the first thing that we should do and can do is a proper education campaign across our entire community.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Ian Day from the Council on the Ageing New South Wales does not support new laws to make the reporting of abuse mandatory.
He says many elderly people would be distressed to see their family members face criminal charges.
IAN DAY: Forget it.
There's absolutely no way that anybody would support mandatory reporting.
This is something you've got to come back to.
This is the rights of the person. We've got to encourage the person to take the first step.
They're not into retribution, they're not into restitution. They just want it to stop and as a result if there's a risk or if they think there's a risk of their child getting into trouble, that's another reason why they don't report it.
ELEANOR HALL: That's Ian Day from the Council on Ageing New South Wales, speaking to Bridget Brennan.
Full Article & Source:
Elder abuse going unreported: Council on the Ageing
We know it's under-reported because guardianship abuse isn't even considered abuse at this time. How many cases are unreported because the police refuse to write a report?
ReplyDelete