Older People Have Difficulty Reporting Abuse (Scotland, UK)

Shame of new ‘at risk’ registers for elderly

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·         Older people have difficulty reporting abuse because of the poor response they get

BY Lucy Adams, Chief Reporter

13 Oct 2009

Elderly people across Scotland are now being placed on “at risk” registers because of neglect and abuse fears.

Many local authorities are creating lists of older people in danger, similar to those for vulnerable children, because of growing concerns and evidence of maltreatment by relatives, professionals and friends.

Experts say the cases reported to councils are just the “tip of the iceberg” and that the actual abuse figures are far higher and growing.

Ann Ferguson, of Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland, said: “When we spoke to older people ourselves we found they had a lot of difficulty reporting abuse because of the poor responses they got.

“We also found strong parallels with domestic abuse in that the abuse itself stripped away people’s self esteem so they didn’t have the confidence to report it or ask for help. Many of the older people we spoke to believed that mistreatment was just an unavoidable consequence of growing older”

Abridged

SOURCE:    The Herald, Scotland, UK

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