In 2019, the Southern Melbourne PCP Elder Abuse Primary Prevention network conducted a literature review concerning prevention of elder abuse. The review called for a framework to prevent violence in all its forms against older people.
This issue is gaining significant attention from State and Federal Governments, as well as community leaders and policy makers.
The review concluded that despite widespread recognition of elder abuse as a prevalent issue, there is a lack of evidence and clear direction on effective prevention strategies.
Victoria's Royal Commission into Family Violence includes elder abuse in its definition of family violence, highlighting its serious impact.
“up to one in 20 older people can experience elder abuse, and for about half of them that abuse might be in the form of financial abuse” (Lord, et al., 2019).
Research in Australia has primarily focused on specific types of elder abuse, such as financial abuse, and has relied on qualitative studies and administrative data from community services. These studies cannot accurately gauge the overall prevalence of elder abuse, or the extent of under-reporting.
14.8%
prevalence of Australia's elder abuse.
62%
of older people reporting abuse who have a disability.
2.5 times
the higher rate of older women reporting abuse than older men.
Social Inclusion
Current narratives continue to disadvantage women by failing to recognise the lifelong impacts of inequality that are further compounded in the later years.
Women's Health East, 2019
The gender inequality that women may have experienced at earlier stages in their lives becomes sharper and more pronounced as the age.
Women's Health East, 2019
Evaluating access to health services and understanding the wellbeing and health of older women from a social inclusion perspective matters.
Those who are socially excluded do not have the resources, capabilities and opportunities to learn, work, engage and live healthy and well lives.
Women:
- Make up the majority of the oldest population in Australia.
- Make up the majority of carers across all age groups.
- Make up the majority (60%) of aged care residents
- Are less likely to volunteer than men with volunteering being associated with better health
- Have higher levels of anxiety and depression and live with more chronic disease than men
Research undertaken by Women’s Health East unpacks specific gendered drivers which highlights the impact of exclusion on older women. Women’s Health East describe social exclusion as a process rather than an outcome. The cumulative effects of gender on health compounds the lived experience of many women in older age cohorts.
Older women are more likely than older men to:
- Experience entrenched poverty
- Experience housing stress and homelessness, and be less able to maintain homeownership and afford private rental accommodation if they are living alone (a common situation given the lifespan of women compared to men)
- Have poor financial literacy due to stereotype expectations of gender roles throughout a woman’s life
- Be perceived as having outdated skills, too slow to learn new things or deliver an unsatisfactory job due to the negative impact experienced by women during their lives due to caring responsibilities, larger gaps in their work career, and other associated impacts due to the low value placed on caring duties
- Experience invisibility in society due to social pressures on women’s appearance
- Be digitally disengaged and have lower levels of digital literacy
- Have a higher chance of not having a driver’s license
- Have higher rates of dementia and live with severe or profound core activity limitation
- Live with a higher prevalence of disability and less likely to receive support services