Seniors Rights Victoria works with older people living in the community who are experiencing elder abuse. Services include a telephone helpline, legal assistance, education and advocacy, or support to enable older people make decisions about regaining safety, confidence and control of their lives.
This study aimed to better understand the older person’s experience of elder abuse, the interventions used to address elder abuse and the outcome of the intervention for ex-clients who contacted Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV).
Using semi-structured interviews, past clients of SRV were asked questions aimed to address key research questions.
The participants, the perpetrators and the abuse
Twenty four interviews were conducted with 28 participants whose ages ranged from 62 to 89, most were women, and 10 came from a non- English speaking country. All perpetrators were family members, mostly adult children (16 sons; 8 daughters) who were often living with the older person at the time of the abuse.
Psychological (21) and financial abuse (19) were the most common type of abuse reported, followed by physical abuse (7) and social abuse (3).
Consistent with the literature, the participants reported a range of perpetrator attributes that they felt contributed to the abuse, including confirmed and suspected mental health issues, substance and gambling addictions, financial and relationship difficulties, personality traits, greed and trauma. Other evident factors included family violence and conflict, inheritance issues, power and control dynamics, lack of support and the experience of other life trauma.