Elderly abuse: Police find similar characteristics between abusers of the elderly and domestic violence offenders
A Gold Coast detective says those who abuse the elderly have been found to have similar characteristics to domestic violence offenders, as a program to crack down on the abuse of elderly people is extended.
Gold Coast
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GOLD Coast police have been prompted to place more focus on the growing prevalence of abuse against the city’s vulnerable elderly.
A three-month trial to crack down on abuse of the elderly and people with disabilities started back in November, last year, but has been extended to the end of this month.
The trial — to get a better understanding of the investigative and social needs in the elder abuse space — has been inspired by the city’s pioneering Domestic Violence Taskforce.
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Detective Inspector Marc Hogan, integral to the DV Taskforce which launched in 2016, said the same characteristics of abusers were being found between DV and elder abuse cases.
“DV is by and large about power and control and that can be exerted through things like financial abuse, isolation, violence, or all of those things together.
“Again we are finding much the same traits in the elder and disability space, with strong leanings towards financial abuse in those environments.”
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He said it would take the same sort of collaboration between police, Government and non-Government agencies to confront elder abuse, the way they’ve targeted domestic violence.
Det. Insp. Hogan said the same issues they were seeing in domestic violence relationships, they were seeing in elder abuse cases.
“Issues started to emerge around elder and disability abuse and from there we noticed that there were matters that fell within the range of violence and abuse that police were attending,” Insp Hogan said.
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For the elder abuse policing trial — called the Disability and Elder Abuse Trial or DEAT — police are working with the Department of Communities.
“We took the issues and rolled them into the systems and structures we have for the DV Taskforce, so that now it’s looking at all those issues across the board and applying different responses to different people.
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“Our response is one of collaboration across Government and non-Government agencies, and that’s where the eyes and ears sit in terms of not only dealing with it, but seeing it.
“Our responses are really now multifaceted with different stakeholders, although from our point of view there is a lot of work done, which is done in a traditional policing sense and that is holding people to account for abuse or violence.
“A lot of it is also around making people safer and making their lives better and to do that, a lot of times we lean on our partners for help.”
WHERE TO GET HELP
Elder Abuse Helpline - 1300 651 192
Police - 000 or 131 444
Gold Coast Community Legal Centre - 5532 9611
Relationships Australia - 1300 063 232
Lifeline - 13114
Originally published as Elderly abuse: Police find similar characteristics between abusers of the elderly and domestic violence offenders
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