1. Abuse of Older People: A Community Response Russell Westacott, CEO, Seniors Rights Service

2. Seniors Rights Service: Who are we?

3. Brief background to Seniors Rights Service…
30-years providing quality rights-based services to older people across NSW
3,000 legal services provided/year
4,000 people/year provided aged-care advocacy – optimising people’s aged- care services
800+ rights-based community forums & events/year: >27,000 attendees
Active participation in several strategic national structures
SRS has a 30-year history of providing rights-based services to older people across NSW
Per year, we provide around 3,000 legal services
SRS serves around 4,000 people per year by providing aged-care advocacy – thus optimising people’s aged-care services
We conduct more than 800 rights-based community forums and events each year that attract over 27,000 attendees
Our agency actively participates in several strategic national structures to influence federal/Commonwealth policy and programmatic development

4. Recent national responses to elder abuse
2012: Community-organised national elder abuse conference, Brisbane – 50 delegates
2016: National inquiry into elder abuse announced by Commonwealth Attorney-General
2016/17: Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) conducted an extensive national inquiry
June 15, 2017: Findings and recommendations handed down (WEAAD)
Feb 19-20, 2018: Seniors Rights Service hosts 5th National Australian Elder Abuse Conference, Sydney
FY 2018/19: Federal budget - Suite of new funding announcements
What’s happened recently in Australia regarding responses to elder abuse?
In 2012, 50 delegates attended a community-organised national elder abuse conference in Brisbane
At the 2016 event the Commonwealth Attorney-General Hon Senator George Brandis QC announced a national inquiry into elder abuse
The Australian Law Reform Commission conducted an extensive and rigorous national inquiry in 2016/17
Findings and recommendations from this process were handed down on June 15 (WEAAD) in 2017
Seniors Rights Service hosted the 5th National Australian Elder Abuse Conference in Sydney during February 2018
Suite of new funding announcements in federal budget for 2018/19 year

5. v
Elder Abuse – A National Legal Response Australian Law Reform Commission
Released mid-2017
Largest public inquiry into elder abuse in Australia
Provides a platform of evidence -- multi-sector consultations

6. v
Elder Abuse – A National Legal Response Australian Law Reform Commission
Key recommendations:
National Plan or strategy
Uniform laws across Australia
Focus on financial abuse
National prevalence study

8. What happened at the 5th National Elder Abuse Conference in Sydney, February 2018?
Two-day event; diverse program and delegation
Approx. 570 attendees
Another 500 attended range of community-focused satellite events
New Commonwealth Attorney-General announced $15 million for National Plan to tackle elder abuse in Australia
Delegates endorsed a final conference communique
Day #3 community strategy event: 70 high-level leaders across multiple sectors attended
Around 570 people attended the two-day event; diverse program and delegation
Almost an additional 500 people attended a range of community focused satellite events
The new Commonwealth Attorney-General Hon Christian Porter MP announced $15 million for a National Plan to tackle elder abuse in Australia – this was announced at the closing plenary of the conference
Delegates endorsed a final conference communique
70 high-level leaders from across multiple sectors attended a Day #3 community strategy event – this was held immediately after the conference

9. 5th National Elder Abuse Conference Together Making Change
Key outcomes:
Terminology: Abuse of Older People
Likely prevalence in Australia ~10%; 400,000 people
General agreement that financial abuse is most common
Commitment from banking sector to reform
Final communique

10. OUR CALL TO ACTION TO ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT
There is no excuse not to act nationally NOW against Elder Abuse.
Come together to create and fully resource the strong, effective, nationally consistent and accountable change needed to:
Create respectful cultures that value older people within our diverse country and communities (whole of community shift) to prevent an epidemic of abuse against older people
Deliver early intervention and empower older people
Support and safeguard those older persons experiencing abuse
Involve older people and all key stakeholders in developing the National Plan to address Elder Abuse, ensuring all older people experience dignity, their rights and personal well-being as a daily way of life.

11. Day #3 Community-led Strategy Event: How we got there?
We consulted with 30 high-level community leaders based on key themes that emerged from the Australian Law Reform Commission
All 570 conference delegates were given the opportunity to participate in an online survey
Both sets of research data formed the basis of bringing together a cross-section of 70 leaders from multiple sectors
Sectors included: legal; aged-care providers, public guardians; police forces; aged- care advocacy; human rights agencies; health providers

13. Purpose of Strategy Day: Gain Broad Community Consensus
Based on the pre-conference research it was clear…
Community sector was galvanized around a common set of key issues
There were no significant points of diversion from the Australian Law Reform Commission’s finding from its broader public inquiry released six months earlier
Community was eager to be given a platform so that its priorities and recommendations could be delivered to governments across Australia

14. Elder Abuse: Community-led Strategies for Change Discussion Paper

15. Community Recommendations to Government – Slide #1
Closing conference communique was underscored and reiterated
A call to ALL governments throughout Australia to decisively act now and develop a National Plan
National Plan needs endorsement of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG)
An Australian elder abuse framework of National Plan should be based on human rights principles

16. Community Recommendations to Government – Slide #2
National consistency should be achieved regarding standardising law reform
All governments should reduce “perverse” cost shifting
Conduct a well-resourced nationwide community awareness education campaign focusing on ageism; elder abuse prevention

17. Community Recommendations to Government – Slide #3
Conduct further consultations to resolve ongoing differences:
Relationship between elder abuse and family violence
Enhancing safeguarding powers
Improve existing laws or create new laws
Degree of regulation within the banking and finance sectors
Degree of monitoring and compliance within aged-care services
Improve health/justice partners – how do we do this?

18. ABUSE OF OLDER PEOPLE: A COMMUNITY RESPONSE – FINAL REPORT
52 organisations have endorsed the report
Includes peak consumer groups representing diverse communities
Final report has been presented to both Commonwealth and state/territory governments
Report provides a ‘community blueprint’ to governments and policy-makers

19. ABUSE OF OLDER PEOPLE: A COMMUNITY RESPONSE – FINAL REPORT
Download the report:

20. RESPONDING TO THE ABUSE OF OLDER PEOPLE: WHAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?
Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department has:
Begun initial stages of developing National Plan
Funding to conduct national prevalence study
Funded of new peak body: Elder Abuse Action Australia
$22 million extra funding for new community-based services, January 1:
Elder abuse units in community legal centres across Australia
Health/justice partnership models
Mediation services
Begun the initial stages of developing a National Plan
Announced funding to conduct a national prevalence study
Funded a new overarching community peak: Elder Abuse Action Australia
Highlighted $22 million of new funding to have new community-based services in place by January 1:
Elder abuse units in community legal centres across Australia
Health/justice partnership models
Mediation services

21. RESPONDING TO THE ABUSE OF OLDER PEOPLE: WHAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?
Commonwealth Department of Health has:
Recently increased funding to aged-care advocacy services
Provided additional funding for these advocacy services to better respond to the abuse of older people
Ensured that aged-care advocacy services in each state/territory now have greater flexibility to support older people who are victims of abuse regardless of whether they are aged-care recipients or not

22. RESPONDING TO THE ABUSE OF OLDER PEOPLE: WHAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?
What’s happening in various states and territories?
Each state has/is developing their own strategy groups in preparation to feed into the National Plan
State and territory Attorneys-General have commenced dialogue regarding law reform across Australia to ensure uniformity
Due to national leadership some jurisdictions are committing less funding to elder abuse responses

23. OUR CALL TO ACTION TO ALL GOVERNMENTS IN AUSTRALIA
There is no excuse not to act nationally NOW against Elder Abuse.
Come together to create and fully resource the strong, effective, nationally consistent and accountable change needed to:
Create respectful cultures that value older people within our diverse country and communities (a whole of community shift) to prevent an epidemic of abuse against older people
Deliver early intervention and empower older people
Support and safeguard those older persons experiencing abuse.
Involve older people and all the key stakeholders in developing the National Plan to address Elder Abuse to ensure all older people experience dignity, their rights and personal well-being as a daily way of life.

24. Thank you
And thanks to our key sponsors:

25. Legal | Advocacy | Education