Calls made to elderly abuse hotline soar
SOARING pleas for help being made to an elderly abuse line has forced the State government to appoint a caseworker to help with referrals.
NSW
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SOARING pleas for help being made to an elderly abuse line has forced the State government to appoint a caseworker to help with referrals.
The caseworker will be positioned in the NSW Elder Abuse Helpine and Resource Unit, with callers referred to the appropriate agencies and each complaint followed-up and monitored.
The launch of the $150,000 trial comes amid an almost doubling of complaints to the elder abuse helpline with more than 7,000 calls logged since it was established five years ago.
Last year, there were 2120 complaints made, up from 1200 in 2012-13.
A breakdown of complaints made last year shows more than half related to psychological abuse.
One-third of complaints were of a financial nature, with the remainder being neglect and sexual.
Some of the calls have triggered police investigations, with family members being charged with offences relating to neglect, domestic violence and intimidation.
The trial is based on similar programs operating in the US, Canada and New Zealand.
State Ageing Minister Tanya Davies said it was hoped the trial would help empower elderly people.
“It’s completely unacceptable that family members, friends or complete strangers could take advantage of older people,” she said.
“Older people are often reluctant to report their own children or relatives and often don’t have the means to address these problems on their own, we hope this trial will be evidence we can change this.”