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Risk factors
Top risks for elder financial abuse identified .
By Conor Burke
The prevalence of elder abuse is
hard to quantify in Australia due to a lack of data , but new research has identified the top risk factors for elder financial abuse .
In an analysis of complaints reported to a Queensland older persons advocacy agency in 2020 , Griffith Business School researchers found that people with a history of family conflict , living alone or being isolated and dependent on others were more likely to have suffered this type of abuse .
While data is sparse , The Australian Institute of Family Studies states that elder abuse is likely to affect between two and 14 per cent of over 65s , while similar nations such as the UK and Canada indicated between 2 and 8 per cent of their over-65 population experience abuse every year .
Financial abuse could be misuse of a person ’ s property , theft , forgery or changes to a will . It could also include withholding of funds and unsurprisingly can often happen to older people with some wealth .
“ Usually the perpetrator has a history of violence , aggression or conflict in the family ,” Dr Tracey West , who is compiling a report for Aged and Disability Advocacy Australia ( Australia ), told Aged Care Insite .
“ Victims are often people living independently which means they do depend on others to take them to the shops , to do things for them , to do their banking , which is what exposes them to this vulnerability , and it limits the access to information as well .
“ They have difficulties navigating information on the internet and if they can ’ t physically go to the shops themselves and they can ’ t access information that they need . Also these abusers tend to isolate them , and they gradually take them away from other friends and family .”
Associate Professor Bianca Brijnath , Director Social Gerontology at the National Ageing Research Institute ( NARI ), says that previous NARI research of 3000 cases of elder abuse complaints in Victoria found that financial abuse was found in 62 per cent of cases , second only to psychological abuse which was present in 63 per cent , and they often go hand in hand .
“ Usually the
perpetrator has a history of violence , aggression or conflict in the family .
She says that to combat this , we need to increase awareness among older people as to what actually constitutes elder abuse .
“[ It ’ s ] The biggest issue , in my view , where I think government really could intervene and do a lot more . Very often older people are abused and they don ’ t even realise it ,” she told Aged Care Insite .
“[ We need ] to make them recognise that they could be in an abusive situation , to empower them to seek help , and to build capacity in frontline services , especially in aged care , community health , those sorts of settings where older people are more likely to disclose that they often feel abused or are in an abusive situation .
“ I think a lot of services find this area very confronting and very difficult to navigate .”
Brijnath suggests that aged care workers need to bring any suspected abuse to their supervisors , with the resident ’ s permission , and approach the situation as delicately as possible .
“ You want to be really logical and calm in your approach . Talk to the older person in a way that is safe . Sometimes that may not be in their own home , it might have to be somewhere else .
“ Offer to connect the older person to independent financial and legal advice . There are a lot of free independent financial and legal advice services and you can access some of them through Centrelink or My Aged Care or a community financial counsellor . The idea is to get the older person prepared to receive that assistance in order to understand what their rights are , what the laws and rules are around certain things and it ’ s often good to get that legal advice .
“ The last thing I ’ d suggest is also to refer older people , and in some instances , the family , which may also include the perpetrator of the abuse , to family mediation and counselling where relevant . Sometimes that is the preferred pathway of many older people because the abuser is known to them and , most often , it ’ s family members and if you can achieve it through family mediation and counselling and achieve a good outcome that is satisfactory to the older person , that ’ s what defines as a good intervention .”
West says that more comprehensive Australia-wide data is needed to grasp how pervasive this abuse is , which is something that Brijnath says is on the way .
“[ NARI is ] involved with that work . It ’ s being led by the Australian Institute of Family Studies and they ’ ve done a national prevalent study of elder abuse .”
And to reduce risk of financial abuse , West says that elderly people must keep in regular contact with their financial institution .
“ Have bills such as telephone and utilities automatically paid from your bank account , seek information about legal and financial matters and get independent advice before signing any documents . ■
agedcareinsite . com . au 7