Out of the shadows, part two: Difficulties in identifying elder abuse

In matters involving financial abuse, it may be easy to establish that abuse has occurred by following the money or paper trail. Where there has been physical abuse or neglect, there may be physical signs or clues that may alert other parties as to the existence of elder abuse. However, there are forms of abuse that are harder to spot or identify due to underreporting and the statistics show that certain groups are less likely to report elder abuse.

Culturally and linguistically diverse and First Nations people

There is a general reluctance among older people to report elder abuse. The reasons range from a desire to protect the perpetrator to feelings of ‘shame’. In her experience, McKenzie agrees that there is an element of shame which has been a “real factor” in people from certain cultural backgrounds not reporting elder abuse.

For First Nations people and those from cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, there are various cultural reasons they might not report elder abuse or even seek help.

As people grow older, their needs inevitably change and the level of care that they require increases with age. McKenzie finds that some people are reluctant to seek help from external services even if their needs are too much to handle. “There’s a real variety and … complexities to it and [it depends] also on the particular cultural background that the person comes from,” she says.

Around 3.7 per cent of reports to the ADC in the July to September 2024 period, related to older people who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. This was higher compared to the previous quarter (3.2 per cent) and 3.7 per cent in 2023-2024. The data also shows that in 6.4 per cent of reports to the ADC in the same period, the older person was identified as having a CALD background with the most common languages spoken at home being Greek, Arabic and Hindi.