Resource to help 'invisible' victim-survivors of sexual abuse — older women
Around one in six older Australians will experience psychological, financial, physical or sexual abuse. (Getty: Jose Luis Pelaez)
In short:
A website to help frontline workers identify signs of sexual violence against older women is being launched.
The resource comes as experts warn that reports of elder abuse are set to skyrocket over the next five years.
What's next?
The age discrimination commissioner says more awareness of the severity of elder abuse is needed in the community to curb the increase in such crimes.
A new resource is being launched to help frontline workers identify the "invisible" victims of sexual abuse — older women.
The website Hear our Voices features stories from women with lived experience of sexual violence, as well as resources for frontline workers to help them identify signs or disclosures of abuse.
"For too long, older women's experiences of sexual assault and gender-based violence have been overlooked or dismissed, leaving survivors invisible within services, policy and public consciousness," CEO of Older Women's Network, Yumi Lee, said.
"When we did this project to develop the resources, we found that there was another big gap, and that was frontline services don't really know how best to respond to disclosures of sexual assault by older women," she said.
Yumi Lee says older victim-survivors need specialised support. (Supplied: Yumi Lee)
Ms Lee said older women might not feel comfortable with or understand the language around domestic, family or sexual violence.
"The way that older women talk about their sexual assault and sexual violence is very different to the way that a younger woman may report it or may disclose it,"Ms Lee said.
"As part of the training resources, we are giving frontline workers an opportunity to understand this, to fully understand this, and to give them suggestions as to how they can go about talking about this really sensitive topic."
Age Discrimination Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald says shame plays a big role in why older women do not report sexual violence.
"At the moment, it's less than 5 per cent of the matters that are reported to the statutory agencies. My view is that's a gross underestimation of what's occurring," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Elder abuse to 'grow significantly'
The 2020 Elder Abuse Prevalence Study found that one in six Australians aged 65 and older had experienced psychological, financial, physical or sexual abuse.
Psychological abuse, including coercive control, and financial abuse make up the majority of the reported cases of elder abuse.
In 2019, the federal government set up an elder abuse hotline, which directed calls to state or territory services.
In its first year of operation, the hotline received just under 500 calls, but in 2024 that number jumped to more than 10,500.
Last year, that number fell to just under 9,000.
"We've got very substantial increases. I think they [reports of elder abuse] will grow significantly in the next five years," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Robert Fitzgerald says more than half of all cases of elder abuse happens at the hands of adult children. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)
He says the expected increase will come from institutions like banks getting better at spotting the abuse of its clients, as well as what he calls "inheritance impatience" and "inheritance maintenance".
Inheritance impatience occurs when adult children predominantly take money and assets from their elderly parents, and inheritance maintenance occurs when adult children do not allow elderly parents to spend money, even on essentials like healthcare.
More than half of all cases of elder abuse happens at the hands of adult children, with another 20 per cent or so coming from intimate partners and other relatives, Mr Fitzgerald said.
"We don't want to believe that the majority of abuse is by adult children, by sons and daughters,"he said.
"We're not doing enough to meet the expected surge in demand. And that's not only a government response but a community-wide response."
Ms Lee said support services were not meeting the unique needs of older women in particular.
"The first thing services can do is actually to acknowledge that this is a distinct cohort with very different needs," she said.
Hear Our Voices is an initiative of the Older Women's Network and funded by the New South Wales government as part of the Sexual Violence Project Fund.
If you, or someone you know, has experienced elder abuse or domestic, family and sexual violence as an older person, we’d like to hear from you.
What is your story? Did you reach out for help, and did it meet your needs? If not, what stopped you from reaching out?
Your submission will only be accessible to a handful of experienced investigative reporters who specialise in this issue. It will be stored securely and promptly deleted at the end of the project.
We will only contact you at a time and via a method deemed safe and appropriate by you. No information will be shared outside the newsroom, or published, without contacting you first.
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