Elder Abuse in Australia

Abuse of the older peoples

Abuse of the older peoples has been defined as the act of omission or commission to harm the physical, psychological or emotional nature of the elderly. This violation on the elderly population can be dated back to ancient time. No much consideration had been given to this social problem for it was associated with old age ever complaining nature until the advent of child welfare society in the last quarter of the 20th century. Overtime elderly abuse across the globe and Australia has grown into public health and criminal justice concern thus changing the broader perception of the impact of elderly abuse, how to analyse it and deal with it. As a result over 20,000 cases of adult abuse have been reported in Australia for the last ten years. Despite this good progress in the issues, many cases happen without any reporting thus rendering the work of adult abuse protection difficult. According to the Australian Elderly Abuse Fact Sheet, about four time the number of reported cases of adult abuse goes unreported thus projecting a large number of elderly abuse cases (Australian Association of Gerontology, 2015).

Development of Policies

Due to the fragility of the issue of elderly abuse, several policies have been developed by different levels of the government and non-profit organisation to help protect such generations. Senior Citizen Polich which is currently the primary policy in protecting the elderly cuts across social issues and looks at the elderly people abilities and resources in the process of defending themselves. This policy is supported by different parliamentary acts which have eased the process of protecting the elderly from physical and emotional abuse while at home or care facility. The senior federal act and federal high citizen advisory council provide opportunities for the senior citizen to participate in the process of making decisions. This policy promotes old age learning to help the older generation hand first-hand experience on how to cope with the changing needs and overcome abuse (Cotterell et al., 2015).

Austrian senior citizen council

The strive to overcome the menace of elderly citizen abuse saw the formation of Austrian senior citizen council which has been credited for the formulation of proposals on social, health and cultural policies measures to be employed to help protect the status quo of the senior citizens across the country. The input of this organisation has resulted in the formulation of bills in the national parliament to protect older adults from abuse in home and hospital cares facilities while receiving the best essential human right services.

Political System and Laws

The political system of the country over time has tried to prevent the occurrence of elderly abuse by formulating different acts like age care act 1987which helps identify and prevent elderly mistreatment in an aged care facility. In this, they have also adopted international regulations the poster the well being of the elderly population in general and tried to provide all legal grounds for elderly protection. Although the elderly issue is a sensitive issue, many political figures have come out openly to protect the interest on the elderly generations by championing for the formulation of such laws. This grants them the power to seek for their vote during electioneering period a factor which has seen the elderly population benefit dearly. It is not the desire for everyone to be older; therefore, the protection from sexual abuse of the elderly generation is a paramount priority for any society (Bagshaw, Wendt & Zannettino, 2009).

References

Australian Association of Gerontology, (2015). Inquiry Into Elder Abuse in New South Wales: Submission to Legislative Council Inquiry Into Elder Abuse in New South Wales (Submission No. 23). Sydney: NSW Legislative Council

Bagshaw, D., Wendt, S., & Zannettino, L. (2009). Preventing the abuse of older people by their family members (Stakeholder Paper 7). Sydney: Domestic Violence Clearing House.

Cotterell, E., Leonardi, S., Coward, D., Thomson, J., & Walters, A. (2015). Elder abuse in the ACT: A literature review. Canberra: Council on the Ageing ACT