24,000 Older People Are Victims of Abuse in Their Own Homes - (Ireland)

24,000 Older People Are Victims of Abuse In Their Own Homes
June14, 2008
By J. P. Anderson

AS FEW as one-in-20 elderly victims of abuse report their attackers even though the majority of that abuse is taking place in their own home.
The statistics were revealed in a number of seminars taking place around the country to mark World Elder Abuse Day tomorrow. Among the events was the Uncovering Elder Abuse seminar organised by the Health Service Executive in the Silversprings Hotel in Cork yesterday. Participants heard that elder abuse comes in a number of forms including physical, emotional and psychological.

The HSE has said it was difficult to determine the exact scale of the problem in Ireland, but research elsewhere indicated between 3% and 5% of older people living in the community suffer abuse at a given time.
That would mean that of the country’s 480,000 people who are over 65, up to 24,000 are the victims of abuse.

In Galway, delegates were told that the vast majority of those suffering abuse, at least 70%, were women and that 83% of the abuse was taking place in the person’s own home. Bridget McDaid, elder abuse officer in the HSE West said 23 senior case workers with specific responsibility for responding to concerns of elder abuse are now in place nationally.

Abridged
SOURCE: IrelandSpacesLive





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