Community Empowerment: Promoting the Safety and Minimising the Abuse of Older People

Abstract

Elder abuse is a taboo topic that older people talk about in hushed whispers and community workers are hesitant to raise. Nevertheless the abuse of older people is a social issue and a tragedy of an ageing population. To promote the safety of older citizens health professionals cannot stand by and allow clients to be abused where they experience harm at the hands of someone they know and from whom they should be able to expect safe care. The harmful and damaging nature of elder abuse compels practitioners to work with the community to address and resolve this social problem. Evolving from focus group discussions with older people in Perth, Western Australia, a series of community education and empowerment forums were held under the auspice of The Council on the Ageing (WA) Inc. The forums used an innovative drama format to illustrate the issues of elder abuse and demonstrate potential solutions. Forum evaluation indicated that this format was successful in raising awareness of elder abuse, what it is, why it happens and what resources are available to deal with it. From the forums caregivers and older people learned new strategies on how to minimise their risk of abusing or to resist becoming a victim of abuse.