Research shows that psychological abuse is widespread in retirement villages – operators must now take a zero-tolerance approach, so is developing an Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy the answer to tackling this issue head-on?

Elder abuse is on the rise in the community – and retirement villages are no exception.

This article is part of a special four-part SATURDAY project on elder abuse – look out for the next instalment with an exclusive interview with the former NSW Ageing and Disability Commissioner, Robert Fitzgerald AM.

A NSW Retirement Village Residents Association (RVRA) survey conducted last year found 40% of village residents reported experiencing at least one type of psychological abuse.

“We were receiving an increasing number of calls from our members saying that they were facing abuse in the village,” RVRA President, Craig Bennett told SATURDAY.

A total of 1,259 village residents completed the online survey, which was funded by the NSW Fair Trading Better Regulation Division, in March 2023.

70% of reported abuse was resident-on-resident

The findings – published in the RVRA’s 43-page ‘Ageing Without Fear’ report – were disturbing.

44% of women and 34% of men said they had been the subject of abuse in the village, mostly commonly in social and common areas.

Over 70% of respondents reported that another resident was the source.

The findings are consistent with those made to the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission, where most reports involve allegations of psychological abuse of older people. 

The Ageing and Disability Commission is an independent NSW Government agency supporting older people and adults with disability who are risk of, or are experiencing abuse, neglect and exploitation in their family, home and community which was set up in 2019.

In 2022-23, its Ageing and Disability Abuse Helpline received 4,258 statutory reports about allegations of abuse, 75% of which (3,207) related to older people.

The largest proportion of these reports (20%) related to people aged 80-84 with the most commonly reported types of abuse being psychological abuse and financial abuse; with most allegations made against family members, mainly adult children.

A separate 2021 National Elder Abuse Prevalence Study found that one in six older Australians living in the community self-reported that they had experienced abuse.

Psychological abuse can look like:

• pressuring, intimidating or bullying
• name calling, and verbal abuse
• treating the adult person like a child
• stopping someone from making their own choices.

Financial abuse can look like:
• helping an older person to set up Internet banking and then using the access details to obtain funds
• taking control of the person’s finances against their wishes and denying access to their own money
• abusing Powers of Attorney
• stealing goods, for example jewellery, credit cards, cash, food, and other possessions.

Village operators and their staff therefore need to be prepared to confront this issue.

NSW legislation requires villages to have an Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy

In NSW, the regulators took a proactive approach to elder abuse through the Rules of Conduct, which was introduced through the Retirement Villages Regulations 2017. 

Under Rule 10 of the Rules of Conduct, an operator must prepare an Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy. 

This must include examples of common forms of elder abuse as well as specific retirement village examples and information on how to identify and respond to elder abuse including procedures for escalating issues to other organisations.

The operator must ensure that this policy is posted on the notice board of the village and that all village staff are familiar with the strategy.

Yet over two-thirds of the RVRA survey sample said they were not aware of their village’s Elder Abuse Policy.

Developing your strategy is key to identifying and addressing abuse in your village

“The opportunity is there for village operators to be proactive about having strategies in place to identify and respond to elder abuse as well as educate their staff and residents,” the outgoing Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald AM told SATURDAY.

Operators must also make an ongoing commitment to their Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy. Under Rule 10, operators are legally required to review their Strategy every two years to ensure it is appropriately identifying and responding to the abuse of residents.

Village operators may soon have another reason to ensure that their Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy is implemented.

There is currently a review of the regulation underway through the Department of Customer Service – and the feedback is pushing for the regulator to include penalties for operators without an elder abuse policy in place.

With NSW leading the way on retirement village legislation – see the rollout of mandatory buybacks across the country – should all operators get on the front foot and ensure their staff are equipped to deal with this issue now?

The NSW Ageing and Disability Commission has developed a 24-page guide for village operators to meet Rule 10 which you can download from their website here.

You can also contact the NSW Ageing and Disability Abuse Helpline on 1800 628 221 (Mon-Fri, 9-4pm) for information, support or to make a report. Anyone can call, and you can be anonymous.