Elder Abuse Prevention
The Inner East PCP has been identified as lead PCP for the roll out of the Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy (EAPS) to address the issue of Elder Abuse across the Eastern Metropolitan Region.
IEPCP has established a partnership with Eastern Community Legal Centre (ECLC) to implement the program.
Project Background
The Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy (EAPS) has been developed to protect and safeguard the rights of older Victorians. The fundamental principle underpinning the strategy is that every Victorian has the right to live safely and to be treated with dignity and respect. However some senior Victorians are affected by elder abuse and this is unacceptable.
Project Aim
The strategy aims to address elder abuse by:
- Working with families, service providers, professionals and the community to increase awareness of elder abuse and the devastating impact it can have on the individuals involved.
- Empowering older people and their families by enhancing their understanding of older people’s rights, promoting community awareness of services available to support older people, and developing the capacity of local agencies to respond appropriately to suspected cases of elder abuse.
- Developing and implementing a range of initiatives to reinforce the unacceptability of all forms of abuse, by identifying key stakeholder channels and target audiences for the delivery of information and key messages pertaining to the prevention of elder abuse.
What is Elder Abuse?
The Victorian Government’s definition of elder abuse is: Any act occurring within a relationship where there is an implication of trust which results in harm to an older person. Abuse may be physical, sexual, financial, psychological, social and/or neglect (Australian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (ANPEA), 1999).
Research indicates that between one and five per cent of senior Victorians may be experiencing some form of harm or abuse and older women are two or three times more likely to experience abuse than older men.
Elder abuse can occur in a range of relationships and environments but research has found that close relatives, often sons and daughters, are most likely to be responsible for the abuse.
Elder abuse affects the entire community because it occurs in all areas of society regardless of location, socioeconomic and health status, age, culture, sexual identity, ethnicity or religion.
Project contact