If you think this illustration is over the top, read on to see why it is not:
The Australian Human Rights Commission is concerned about statistics released in June 2024 showing that one in six older Australians experience elder abuse – mostly psychological – in a given year.
Many are placed in aged care homes by families who want to ‘get on with their lives’. Resulting infrequency of phone calls and visits, causes major psychological distress among seniors who feel they have been ‘left for dead’.
Age Discrimination Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald AM stated, “There is also the growing phenomenon of ‘inheritance impatience’, where adult children, frustrated by the longer waits for wealth transfer from parents who are living longer, resort to elder abuse for financial gain.”
Commissioner Fitzgerald said he was concerned by the latest figures from the National Elder Abuse phone line, which recorded 9,085 calls from July 2023 until the end of May 2024 – a 36% jump from the same period the previous year.
By December 2024, as an urgent response, the commission announced the establishment of the Financial Elder Abuse Action Collaborative with representatives from the banking and financial services and peak community sectors, to work together to improve the prevention and response to financial elder abuse.
And so, there is some hope.
REFERENCES:
https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/new-project-tackle-financial-elder-abuse