Harrowing stories: Qld seniors neglected, isolated and drained of finances

An ongoing statewide inquiry into elder abuse has unearthed harrowing stories of neglect, isolation, withholding grandchildren and financial manipulation to gain assets and control.

Megan Ross, with her sister Julie Quealy, testified at recent Elder Abuse Inquiry. Picture: Evan Morgan

Queensland’s elderly residents are suffering psychological and financial abuse and manipulation – often at the hands of close family members or care facilities in positions of trust and power.

An ongoing statewide inquiry into elder abuse by the Queensland Parliament’s Education, Arts and Communities Committee has unearthed harrowing stories of facilities neglecting open wounds and family members withholding access to grandchildren or isolating older relatives in order to manipulate them into giving them money, assets and control.

The family of a 76-year-old woman living in a nursing home, who gave evidence in Townsville, said they were forced to lie to the facility and say they were taking their mother out for ice-cream so they could instead take her to a doctor to be treated for cellulitis.

Townsville sisters Megan Ross and Julie Quealy said their mother Stella Kennedy, who had Alzheimer’s, had blood and puss oozing from her leg when they were told by nurses on site there was “nothing wrong”.

They were frequently concerned about Stella’s welfare including in the days leading to her death following a brain bleed a year ago, but continuously felt stonewalled by administration.

They believed legislative change was needed to ensure people’s concerns about alleged elderly abuse and neglect were taken seriously.

“We reported it to Centrelink, they did not care, we reported it to the police, it fell on deaf ears,” Ms Quealy said.

“People who suffer dementia, Alzheimer’s and all that do not always recognise what is happening to them, and if they do they do not know how to get that across to them.

“If you have a voice sitting there screaming at you that something is wrong, chances are there is something wrong.”

In a separate hearing, medical receptionist Suzanne Mills said she felt powerless to stopped suspected decades-long abuse against an isolated couple, perpetrated by a neighbour and a gardener.

The inquiry has uncovered harrowing stories of abuse.

Ms Mills, who held the position of the couple’s enduring power of attorney, said the neighbour, who claimed to be a police officer, exploited them by charging a hefty fortnight fee to provide intelligence on people within the community and used this to isolate them further by flagging threats such as herself.

She said the neighbour took their money from a property sale and influenced them to buy him a new car, while the gardener was also pressuring for money while overcharging for her services.

She said she gave up the enduring power of attorney within a year believing she could not protect them, which was soon granted to the perpetrators.

“I often saw unexplained bruising on both [of them],” Ms Mills said.

“These people got away with decades of social isolation, emotional, psychological, and financial abuse.”

A handwritten note by an unidentified elderly Bundaberg resident tabled in the inquiry claimed they are living afraid and disconnected, after refusing to give up financial rights.

The senior citizen was 83 when they were urged by their son to uproot from their Gold Coast community to move onto his other property to build a house.

They claimed that he was then pressured to hand over $100,000 and their property rights.

“Then the second week he told me, ‘I want to handle all your money and you do what I say’,” the resident said.

“It was downhill from then on.”

They said, when contact with his grandchildren was being withheld, he moved to a Bundaberg unit.

They said in the letter they were afraid, alone and depressed.

Another aged couple, who spoke as part of the inquiry, said their grown-up children began threatening to cut contact with the grandchildren if they did not meet demands including doing everything asked of them, and at short notice.

Many elderly are being denied access to grandkids.

“They competed for our attention, and it was impossible to meet their demands, so we were cut off,” they said.

“We must never say no.

“If we didn’t drop everything and do what they said, we would be verbally abused even if we were at work or sick.”

A Cairns nurse said her widowed mother-in-law living on her Dalby farm was abused after distant relatives moved onto the property.

The claimed her mother-in-law had food, finances and possessions restricted, and her cattle sold or killed without permission.

She said she and her husband felt they could do little to stop it from a distance.

After falling ill and becoming hospitalised in 2022, her mother-in-law was moved to an aged care facility where she remained until her death.

But the nurse believed the Elder Abuse Hotline and police did not take complaints of coercive control seriously.

“The onus is on the victim to report the abuse which is a crime in itself,” she said.

One 77-year-old grandmother said she reported her teenage granddaughter to the domestic violence police.

She allowed her granddaughter to live in her home while she travelled across Australia for about a year, and returned to find her property to be a “total home disaster”.

She said her granddaughter became erratic over the next few weeks after she set boundaries such as refusing to let the boyfriend move in.

Queensland victims’ commissioner, Beck O’Connor.

“She was behaving wildly, throwing things around, and threatening me,” the grandmother said.

She reported her granddaughter to the police who moved her from the property, but was afraid she might return to abuse her.

The woman said she needed to see a psychologist afterwards.

An aged care resident said they were afraid of becoming homeless after the residence increased its body fees by 21 per cent within a year.

The fees had doubled to $10,000 since the resident signed the contract to move in four years ago, and despite the building being new it was already falling apart.

This required additional repair fees.

“I suffer of anxiety to find myself in the street in the next five years,” the resident said.

“I am having sleepless nights very financial meeting waiting anxiously to see how much more the fees will be.

“I knew it was a deal made with the devil.”

Queensland Victims’ Commissioner Beck O’Connor said the social system was working against elderly people, with the underlying issues being ageism, power imbalances, and social connection.

“Ageist attitudes can present as dismissive treatment, taking away their decision-making power, or the belief that older people are less credible or less deserving of protection,” she said.

“This creates a culture where abuse is more easily ignored, excused or overlooked.”

Australian Institute of Family Studies data showed at least one in six people over 60 experienced abuse, with only one in24 cases being reported.

Inquiry committee chairman Nigel Hutton said the stories heard so far in hearings across Queensland were “eye opening”.

He believed worsening economic and housing conditions had intensified elderly Queenslanders’ living conditions.

“The committee has travelled across Queensland and heard the voices of the State’s most vulnerable, and their unique stories of these challenges and heartbreak,” Mr Hutton said.

Attwood Marshall Lawyers partner Debbie Sage said the most common form of abuse the practice saw was financial, through unauthorised access to bank accounts, pressure to sign legal documents, and exploitation of attorney powers.

“We find that elder abuse typically occurs within the family, setting, usually it is the spouse or adult child or children,” Ms Sage said.

“And also in a home care setting, so carers and cleaners.”

She said there needed increased oversight of the enduring power of attorney system which were “powerful legal instruments” being used against elderly Queenslanders instead of for them.

The hearings have been held throughout Queensland, including in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Townsville and Cairns with further hearings set to take place in Ipswich and Logan in June.

The committee is due to table a report in December.

Originally published as Harrowing stories: Qld seniors neglected, isolated and drained of finances