Since the Royal Commission into Family Violence and the subsequent ambitious and comprehensive reform agenda, the Victorian Government has been playing a leading role in addressing and preventing elder abuse. In order to continue this role, and to properly support the mental health and wellbeing of older people, the Victorian Government needs to apply the same dedication to reforming the mental health system.
The multiple intersections of mental health and elder abuse are complex, including both the mental health of the older person and the mental health of those who perpetrate elder abuse. Reform of the mental health system to better support older people and their families will also play a vital role in preventing and addressing elder abuse, which is a form of family violence.
This submission from Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV), the state-wide elder abuse service, focuses on three aspects of mental health and elder abuse:
- Poor mental health increasing a person’s vulnerability to elder abuse
- The effect of elder abuse on an older person’s mental health
- The older person as a carer for a family member living with mental illness.
Ageing and gender inequality are considered two of the drivers of elder abuse but research has also identified a number of reinforcing factors that increase the likelihood of elder abuse occurring. As one of these factors is poor mental health (of both the older person and the elder abuse perpetrator) this submission details how the mental health system should be improved to lessen the likelihood of such abuse occurring.
Proper support and treatment for older people with, or at risk of, mental illness makes them less vulnerable to abuse. Mental health for older adults can be improved by addressing loneliness and social isolation, increasing the awareness and diagnosis of depression and anxiety in older adults, ensuring mental health practitioners specialise in the unique circumstances of later life, and ensuring differential diagnosis regarding dementia and depression, which can exhibit some similar symptoms.
The mental health and wellbeing of older people who have experienced elder abuse can be better supported by ensuring adequate ongoing funding of the social work and legal service provided by SRV. Regardless of how strong and resilient they are, people who have experienced elder abuse may be traumatised, stressed and struggling to cope. The Victorian Government has an important role in helping people deal with the consequences of elder abuse, and this includes ensuring mental health care is available and affordable, and that there are dedicated counselling and support group services for people who have experienced elder abuse.
As parents, older people are often placed in a role of responsibility and support for an adult child who is experiencing mental illness. The Victorian mental health system is reliant on family carers to provide housing, living expenses and daily care, yet this is often at great emotional and financial expense for the carer, who is sometimes also at risk of elder abuse. In order to properly support older people who are providing care for family members there needs to be additional service pathways for early access to mental health treatment, universal carer-inclusive practice, and an increased recognition of the potential for elder abuse to occur in family environments where someone is experiencing mental illness.
The following summary of recommendations gives an overview of this submission by Seniors Rights Victoria to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.