Eight cases of elderly abuse a month keep services busy
By JINNY REYNOLDS
The Timaru Herald
There are eight active cases of abuse of elderly people being worked on in South Canterbury every month, says Elder Protection Service co-ordinator, Geeta Muralidharan.
Monday is Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and although there was no excuse for abuse of any elderly person happening in New Zealand, Mrs Muralidharan said it did so regularly.
To mark the day, a public forum on aged care and support is being held on Monday at the Caroline Bay Community Lounge.
The forum will run from 9am to 11.45am and will take a "holistic and collaborative" approach to discussing the issue and "tackling root causes".
"[The aim] is help older people to lead a happy, healthy and safe life," Mrs Muralidharan said.
Aged Concern studies on abuse of elderly people found 70 per cent of abusers were family and 40 per cent of those were children of the victim.
Workers who deal with the issue say the problem is under-reported, Mrs Muralidharan said. Many older people don't want to speak about their private lives or subjects that embarrass them, so they brush aside suggestions anything is wrong. They may also fear losing contact with children or grandchildren.
This is where support from professional agencies, family and friends can help them disclose their concerns and seek free and confidential support.
Mrs Muralidharan's work takes her all over South Canterbury, and she puts in place services that victims need to be able to improve their situation.
"I listen very carefully so I can understand the context of the situation and then I can discuss the appropriate information and support," she said.
Services that she organises for her clients include doctors, nurses, police, lawyers, financial advisers, advocates, social workers and visits from the client's family.
Studies by Aged Concern in 2007 showed the most frequent type of abuse experienced by the elderly was psychological abuse, followed by material-financial abuse.
There is also neglect and physical abuse.
Mrs Muralidharan has an advisory group that includes representatives from a wide range of support agencies.
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