Adult Safeguarding Unit’s first report reveals risks to elderly South Australians

Elderly South Australians are being abused or neglected by their own children almost half of the time, a new report warns.

Adult sons and daughters were allegedly responsible for almost half of all concerns about elder abuse or neglect raised with a new watchdog unit last financial year.

The Adult Safeguarding Unit was set up in the wake of the Oakden aged care scandal to better protect vulnerable older South Australians.

It has delivered its first annual report showing there were 946 calls made to the SA Elder Abuse Prevention phone line in 2019-20.

Of those, 306 cases were reported to the unit for further investigation.

In 27 per cent of calls, adult sons were identified as the alleged perpetrator of abuse or neglect of an older person, while adult daughters were named in 19 per cent of calls.

The annual report, tabled in Parliament this week, does not detail who the alleged abusers were in the remaining 54 per cent of cases and in many cases a specific person may not have been named.

The most commonly reported type of abuse was financial (43 per cent) followed by emotional or psychological (36 per cent), neglect (14 per cent) and physical violence (13 per cent).

More than one type of abuse could be mentioned in the same report.

Adult sons and daughters were allegedly responsible for almost half of all concerns about elder abuse or neglect raised with a new watchdog unit last financial year.

In one case an adult son had locked his 84-year-old mother inside her house and disconnected her phone.

A neighbour reported concerns about the woman, known as Penny, and investigations by the unit found she “required full assistance with personal care, was at high risk of falls and became disorientated when alone in the community”.

Penny’s son told unit staff he worked full-time and kept the house locked over “concerns about his mum becoming lost when out alone”.

He disconnected the phone because his mother made frequent calls to police which prompted unnecessary welfare checks, he said.

Officers from the unit counselled the son and were able to arrange modifications to Penny’s home and monitoring to ensure her safety.

In another case a hospital social worker made a report about a woman, known as Julie, who repeatedly presented to the emergency department for self-harm following arguments with her daughter.

Julie said her daughter, who lived with her, had access to her bank account, received her carers pension and had accumulated thousands of dollars of debt in her name.

Unit staff helped Julie to reclaim her finances and move to a public housing property.

The report notes that over time there has been a “noticeable increase in the complexity of reports, particularly related to neglect and family complexities”.

In 21 cases unit staff took action without an older person’s consent, usually because their decision-making capacity was impaired.

The unit began operating in 2019, following a series of damning inquiries which found evidence of systemic abuse and mistreatment of elderly dementia residents at the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service.

Abuse Prevention hotline: [phone]