New resource to help 'invisible' victim-survivors of sexual elder abuse

Older women are the "invisible" victims of sexual abuse, and a new resource aims to help frontline workers identify them and respond appropriately.

Published: 19 February 2026
  • national
  • 19 February 2026
  • ABC News

The website Hear our Voices features stories from women with lived experience of sexual violence, as well as resources for frontline workers to help them identify signs or disclosures of abuse.

"For too long older women's experiences of sexual assault and gender-based violence have been overlooked or dismissed, leaving survivors invisible within services, policy and public consciousness," said the CEO of Older Women's Network, Yumi Lee.

"When we did this project to develop the resources we found that there was another big gap, and that was frontline services don't really know how best to respond to disclosures of sexual assault by older women," she said.