With funding from the State Trustees Australia Foundation, in collaboration with Senior’s Rights Victoria (SRV), NARI analysed seven years of data to better understand elder abuse in Victoria.

• In 91% of cases the abuse was perpetrated by a family member of the clients, most commonly sons (39%) or daughters (28%).
• 72% of advice call clients were women, mostly in their 70s.
• 60% of clients had one or more disabilities.
• Psychological abuse (63%) and financial abuse (62%) were the most commonly reported types of abuse followed by physical abuse (16%) and social abuse (11%), with many clients experiencing more than one type of abuse.

There was an increase of 17% in the proportion of perpetrators experiencing mental illness and also in those with a gambling or substance abuse problem (increase of 7%).

Seven Years of Elder Abuse Data in Victoria