annual report - seniors rights victoria...support, and are reflected in the number of advices given...

Seniors Rights Victoria

ANNUAL REPORT1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011

Seniors Rights Victoria

Annual Report 1 July 2010 – 30 June 2011

4 Seniors Rights Victoria – Annual Report 2010–2011

HOURS OF OPERATION

Telephone Information and Referral Service

The Telephone Information and Referral Service operates from 10 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.

Legal and Advocacy Service

The Legal and Advocacy Service operates from 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday.

FUNDING

SRV is funded by the Office of Senior Victorians within the Department of Planning and Community Development and subsequently the Department of Health and Victoria Legal Aid.

Funding Components for 2010/2011

OSV-DPCD / Department of Health: $444,801VLA: $444,801Federal Attorney General $70,000

Other Funding

Vic Legal Services Board: $54,850

Supported by

Seniors Rights Victoria – Annual Report 2010–2011 5

SENIORS RIGHTS VICTORIA

Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV) seeks to empower older Victorians so they can take steps to live in safety, with dignity and independence.

SRV provides leadership across Victoria by addressing and responding to older people experiencing abuse. Abuse may be physical, sexual, financial, psychological, social and/or neglect. Elder abuse is any act which causes harm to an older person and is carried out by someone they know and trust; such as family and friends.

The service operates under principles of the empowerment of older people and recognition of their rights.

The Victorian Government definition of Elder Abuse is any act occurring within a relationship of trust, which results in harm to an older person. Abuse may be physical, sexual, financial, psychological, social and/or neglect (ANPEA 1999).

“ A single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person.”

SRV provides information, advice and support relating to elder abuse and issues relating to ageing to older Victorians, and their friends and family members. This is done through telephone information and referral, specialist legal services, individual short-term advocacy and support.

We engage in law reform activities, systemic advocacy and policy reform activities to advance the rights of older Victorians at risk of experiencing abuse.

Clients are those over the age of 60 years (45 years for Indigenous clients), or approaching that age and have age related disabilities. They have legal issues related to ageing and are experiencing, or at risk of, elder abuse, neglect, mistreatment or exploitation.

SRV is an unincorporated joint venture between four parties; Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria as the lead agency, the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH), Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre (LCCLC) and Eastern Community Legal Centre (ECLC).

The service has a central response team based in Melbourne at COTA Vic. Regional response teams were based in Bendigo at LCCLC and the outer eastern suburbs at ECLC. Pro bono clinics are coordinated by PILCH at a number of sites in Melbourne located in health service settings.


MANAGERS REPORT

In April 2011, Seniors Rights Victoria (SRV) had been operating for three years.

We have gained a good grounding in the concerns of older people experiencing abuse and the solutions they seek. The knowledge that we are accumulating is valuable in informing developments in prevention and better systems for responses. We see an important future leadership role for SRV in systemic advocacy and models of practice around the prevention of elder abuse.

In part, elder abuse arises from ageism in our society which regards older people as incapable of making decisions, dependent and needing care. This approach can take control away from older people. SRV adopts a human rights approach which asserts older people’s entitlements to their assets and income, housing, adequate and suitable services and to making choices and decisions about their lives. Adverse assumptions can be made about the capacity of older people by family, services and legal authorities. Those in a trusting relationship can have a sense of control over the older person’s life and of entitlement to their assets and income.

The main form of abuse reported to us is financial abuse leading to a loss of assets, homes and income. This can impoverish people and force them to find cheaper alternative housing and to rely on government services. Financial abuse is associated with emotional and psychological abuse, as conflict occurs within families and with trusted others. Frequently relationships are re-negotiated and possibly lost. Older people can be reluctant to act on abuse due to their disempowerment, fear and the threat of isolation. SRV works towards enabling older persons to realise the solutions they want.

In 2010 the State Government commissioned KPMG to undertake a review of SRV in order to make recommendations for the governance and service structure of SRV for the next service agreement. The final report was released in February and it made recommendations on: incorporation, contracting and funding, data collecting and reporting, staffing arrangements and service effectiveness. SRV will work with the State Government in the coming year to respond to the recommendations and achieve the next stage of SRV’s development.

One of the main issues is how to have an effective service response to elder abuse across the state. This will need to occur in partnership with other organisations and sectors, such as: community legal centres, family violence services, CALD services and networks.

On behalf of SRV, I would like to thank all the staff, management committee, joint venture partners and volunteers who contributed to the work of SRV during the year. SRV continued to deliver excellent advocacy and legal services, community education and law reform submissions. I thank Seniors Information Victoria (SIV) for their sensitive and consistent intake service for SRV and the law firms who provided their pro bono services for the Seniors Rights Legal Clinics (SRLC).

JENNY BLAKEY

800

500

1500

REQUESTED BY

ISSUES

GENDER

600

400

400

300

1000

200

200

100

500

0

0

0

Business organisation

Financial

Female contact

Relative/friend

Community education

Government department

Physical

Male contact

Self

General information

Non-profit service provider

Emotional/psychological

Health services

SRV worker request


SRV HELPLINE AND INTAKE SERVICE

The telephone information, assistance and support service, the SRV Elder Abuse Helpline, is located at SIV and is the SRV intake service. 1592 telephone calls related to elder abuse were received. Some people reported more than one type of abuse.

Of the calls received, 602 were referred through to the SRV Legal and Advocacy service for legal advice/casework and/or advocacy support. A further 133 were referred through to the service for a range of reasons (including requests for Community Education, or to speak to the Manager or a specific worker). Some of this second group also received legal assistance or advocacy support, and are reflected in the number of advices given by the service (see Legal Services section).

Older people made up 654 (41%) of the elder-abuse related calls to the SRV Helpline, with 414 (26%) being made by a friend or relative. Calls from staff in aged care, health and other service providers were also frequent, making up approximately 493 (29%) of the calls to the service.

In 2010/11 the majority of calls received by the SRV Helpline dealt equally with Financial and Emotional/Psychological Abuse, which amounts to over half of all calls to the service. The graph to the right relates to the main issues discussed during a call to the SRV Elder Abuse Help Line. The most prevalent topics were Financial Abuse and Emotional Abuse; being 490 calls (27%) and 489 calls (27%) respectively. Other abuse issues such as, Neglect 79 (4%) and Social abuse 18 (1%) represent only a small percentage of the total so do not appear on the graph.

Elder abuse-related calls to the service continued to be made predominantly by women, who made up 1148 (74%) of all callers, compared with 396 (26%) for men. This is consistent with help-seeking behaviour in health and related sectors.

100

AGE RANGE

50

0

65–69 80–84

70–74 85–89

75–79


ADVOCACY AND LEGAL SERVICES

Seniors Rights Victoria Advocacy and Legal Service

Seniors Rights Victoria Advocacy and Legal Service is a holistic service that provides advice and casework to clients over the telephone and in person. Clients accessing the service will generally speak to both a lawyer and an advocate, who can provide them with advice in relation to the legal and non-legal aspects of their situation respectively. SRV lawyers and advocates were based in Melbourne, Box Hill, Boronia and Bendigo.

Seniors Rights Legal Clinics (SRLC)

SRV is partnered with the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH) to deliver the SRLC which operates in four allied health service locations in metropolitan Melbourne. Locating the clinics at these sites ensures easy access by clients and facilitates referrals from other service providers with whom the client already has a relationship of trust.

The clinics are appointment-based, with three clients seen on a set day each fortnight. The current partner organisations are Caulfield Hospital (Alfred Health), Bundoora Extended Care Centre (Northern Health), Doutta Galla Community Health (Niddrie) and Western Region Community Health (Footscray).

SRLC lawyers, working pro bono, are from five participating PILCH member firms: Norton Rose, Hall & Wilcox, Herbert Geer, Holding Redlich, and Lander & Rogers. Each of these firms has committed to high level participation and has involved lawyers across diverse areas of practice including at partner and senior associate level. SRLC lawyers are trained by PILCH through a comprehensive training program delivered throughout the year.

CLIENTS

Clients seeking assistance from the joint advocacy and legal service generally contacted the service themselves. This is consistent with SRV’s ethos of direct practice with older people in order to empower them to take control. The age of older people who accessed the service is relatively evenly spread across the age-range as represented in the Age Range graph.

A significant number of SRV clients are from CALD backgrounds. The SRV legal service used telephone interpreters on 158 occasions to assist clients from 20 different language backgrounds: Bosnian, Cantonese (Chinese), French, Greek, Hakka (Chinese), Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Mandarin (Chinese), Polish, Russian, Serbian, Shanghainese, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Croatian, German, Tetum (Timorese) and Hakka (Timorese). The service used interpreters in person on 33 occasions to assist clients from 9 different language backgrounds: Assyrian, Somali, Polish, Greek, Italian, Cantonese, Macedonian, Turkish and German.

SRV also provides assistance to family members (9%) and service providers (36%) who contact the service. In the last financial year there has been an increase in the number of service providers who access the service for advice and information.

350

70

ADVICES BY PROBLEM TYPE

CASES BY PROBLEM TYPE

150

30

200

40

250

50

300

60

100

20

50

1016

53

62

15

0

0

Elder Abuse Neglect

Elder Abuse Physical

Elder Abuse Social

Elder Abuse Social

Elder Abuse Physical

Elder Abuse Psychological

Financial Abuse

Financial Abuse

Elder Abuse Psychological

Elder Abuse Sexual


CASEWORK

ADVICE

Casework is delivered by two methods in SRV. The SRV Advocacy and Legal Service opened 117 new cases, and closed 106 cases. SRLC opened 215 new cases and closed 126 cases.

Advocacy and Legal Service

In most cases SRV clients are facing situations which are complex and multifaceted and raise a number of overlapping issues and problem types. Therefore the number of cases and the number of problem types are not equal. Cases involving Financial and Psychological abuse were the most common. While they are counted separately statistically it is apparent that psychological abuse is a major component of the financial abuse that older people experience.

The SRV advocacy and legal service provided 696 advices. Financial abuse accounted for 39% of abuse reports, making it the most prevalent type of abuse, with emotional/psychological abuse the next most common at 38%. Neglect made up 5% of abuse reports, and physical abuse 15%.

TOTAL CASES OPENED AND CLOSED

New cases 332

Cases closed 232

70

AREA OF LAW

30

40

50

60

20

10

0

POA

Housing/Property

G&A

Debt/Financial issues

Family Law

OtherWills

37

27

2

30

7

22

62

Total number of clients


CASEWORK continued

Seniors Rights Legal Clinics

SRLC currently sees up to 24 clients per month, across all areas of law. Predominant areas of law are simple wills, powers of attorney, guardianship and administration, property and housing and debt matters. SRLC has seen a significant increase in the number of elder abuse financial matters from four in 2009/2010 to 16 in 2010/2011. These issues have generally been very complex involving ongoing file work concerning higher court litigation.


CASE STUDIES

Case Study 1

Client sought the assistance of SRV after she had been placed in an aged care facility by her friend who held her financial power of attorney. Her attorney had felt that the move was necessary given the deterioration in client’s health since an infection. She felt stifled in the facility. She was restricted from coming and going from the facility of her own accord and there was little stimulation for her in the new surroundings. The other residents all suffered from profound dementia and were incapable of engaging in reasonable conversation with our client and there were no outside grounds for our client to spend time in. She was used to spending hours working in her garden at home and felt a sense of ‘cabin fever’ being stuck in the small room at the facility, particularly on sunny days.

With the client’s consent, SRV wrote to the client’s doctor requesting an assessment of client’s capacity to make her own lifestyle decisions. A report from the doctor found that while client was not capable of making her financial decisions, she was still capable of deciding her lifestyle matters. A meeting was arranged with the financial attorney to explain the parameters of the power that she held and how the

client was free to make her own lifestyle choices. As the client still owned her own home, the SRV advocate assisted the client with arranging a trial to see if she could return home given that she appeared to have recovered from the effects of the infection. During the trial, temporary arrangements were made with service providers to see whether there would be sufficient supports for the client to live independently.

The trial was successful and SRV further assisted the client with the preparation of an Enduring Power of Guardianship to avoid any future question of who would have the power to make lifestyle decisions on behalf of her.

Comment:

This case study highlights the issues of ageism within the community as well as the psychological abuse of older people. The case also demonstrates the lack of understanding of the limitations of Financial Power of Attorney by service providers like Aged Care Facilities and the friend or family member who holds the Power of Attorney. The rights of the older person in this case study were being denied on the basis of an incorrectly held notion of who was able to make lifestyle decisions on behalf of the older person.

Case Study 2

Monty agreed to sell his house and use the proceeds to discharge his daughter Natalie’s mortgage. In exchange, she and her husband promised to look after him in their home for the rest of his life.

Not long after he moved in, they started demanding more money from him. Initially, he refused, but they threatened to throw him out of the house so he gave the money over. They continued to ask for more and more money, until there was almost none left.

As the money began to run out, the verbal abuse increased. When he nearly had no money left, Monty was afraid of what Natalie and her husband would do to him, so he fled to his local community centre. They put him in touch with SRV, who assisted him with finding rental accommodation and organised for a private law firm to act pro bono on his behalf to bring a civil action against Natalie and her husband.

Comment:

This is a common story that SRV hears from its clients. Initially, the clients do not suspect that anything will go wrong because they trust their family. For the same reason, they usually do not obtain independent legal advice to put in adequate protections to prevent them from becoming homeless when the situation doesn’t work out. It is very difficult to rectify this type of situation after it has gone wrong and the clients would possibly have been better off if they had obtained a properly drafted family agreement in the first place.


CASE STUDIES continued

Case Study 3

Alice lived on her own for a long time after her husband had passed away. She was managing very well, with little supports. Two years ago, her daughter Narelle came back to live with her on a short-term basis. They had agreed that it would only be for a few weeks while Narelle looked for her own place to stay.

Narelle didn’t have steady work and spent a lot of time at home. She didn’t offer to pay rent or board. She said that she would make contributions to the household expenses, but when the bills came she never had any money left over to pay them. She always said that she would give more next time round, but never did. Narelle always seemed to have debts to pay, such as mobile phone bills and traffic fines.

Narelle never managed to find permanent employment or her own place to live. She took up increasingly more space in the house, taking over a bedroom, then the back rumpus room and finally the garage.

Furthermore, Narelle often had people staying with her, and never sought Alice’s permission to do so. Alice found that these guests would eat her food and leave a mess in her kitchen. She also felt intimidated by the constant presence of strangers in her home.

Alice wanted to be able to support Narelle, her only daughter, but Alice found that she was struggling to make ends meet. On her pension, it was very difficult for her to cover their costs let alone providing food for Narelle’s guests. In addition to this, her health was declining and she was finding it hard to keep the house in order. Despite spending a lot of time at home, Narelle never managed to help with the housework.

Alice started to ask Narelle to find her own place to live. Each time she did so, Narelle would make excuses as to why it was not a good time, and that she just needed a few more weeks. Weeks turned into a year, and Alice sought the assistance of SRV.

SRV sent a letter to Narelle advising her that she had 21 days to vacate the property. Narelle again said to Alice that she needed more time, but Alice insisted that she had given her enough time already. After 21 days, Narelle had still failed to vacate but had gone away to do a job for a few days. SRV assisted Alice to arrange for the locks to be changed.

Narelle returned and tried to break back into the property. Alice called SRV, and SRV told Alice to call the police, and stayed on the phone with Alice while the police spoke to Narelle. No intervention order was taken out, as Narelle agreed to leave peacefully and she went to stay with a friend and has not returned to live with Alice since.

Several months have passed and Alice is faring very well at home on her own. She is managing to put a little money away from her pension each fortnight and her health has steadily improved. Her relationship with Narelle has become strained, but they still have telephone contact with each other and Alice is feeling much happier now.

Comment:

In this case study we see that financial abuse can occur on a small scale but still have a serious impact on the well-being of the older person. We regularly see cases like Alice’s, where an adult child returns home to his/her parent and believes that it is still their parent’s responsibility to provide for them. The child usually has the capability of supporting themselves, but is failing to do so, while the older person is struggling to get by on the pension as their sole source of income.


SRV LEGAL SERVICE

SRV ADVOCACY SERVICE

SRV Legal Service witnessed a trend of issues that demonstrated the widespread lack of understanding by service providers and by the public around the right of older people to self-determination in relation to their lifestyle issues. In particular it is a common misperception that when a person donates a financial power of attorney to someone that they also bestow on that person the power to make their lifestyle and medical decisions as well as their legal and financial decisions.

We have seen a number of cases where an older person’s freedom of movement from an aged care facility has been restricted because their financial attorney has told the facility that they are not to leave the facility unaccompanied. In these cases the attorney did not possess the authority to give this direction as they did not hold power of guardianship. Furthermore, medical assessments concluded that in each case the older person still retained the capacity to make their own lifestyle decisions.

In these cases, we have assisted these clients by empowering them with knowledge about their right to self-determination and the effects of the different powers of attorney, explaining these points to the attorneys and

the service providers and advising the clients on preparing appropriate powers of attorney.

While it is difficult to differentiate between the issues faced by clients in rural areas as opposed to those in urban areas the experience of the service has been that the issues dealt with have been similar for both.

The clients we have assisted have been adversely impacted by the lack of affordable housing. The trend is that the problems faced by our rural clients follow similar trends to those of their urban counterparts. While it is true to say that isolation is a risk factor and that someone may be more likely to be isolated in a regional area this has not been reflected in the casework we have undertaken.

The major issue for regional clients is securing affordable housing into their retirement. Clients are also concerned about how they will manage their care needs as they age. Anecdotally it would appear that clients have not been impacted significantly by their regional location. Having said that it should be noted that most of the clients we have assisted have not been from remote rural locations but rather in larger regional areas such as, Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong.

The advocacy service continued to provide a significant amount of telephone-based emotional support to older people experiencing abuse. SRV advocates were also successful in using their expertise and networks to contribute to the systemic advocacy that SRV engages in.

This year the advocacy service noted a number of trends including an increase in the number of calls from service providers, an increased interest by service providers in Safety Planning for older people and an increase in the need for housing referrals due to financial abuse.

The key challenges that SRV advocates have noted this year include a lack of appropriate and affordable housing alternatives for older people, the ongoing challenge of entrenched ageist or protective attitudes of health and

community care sectors towards older people and the assessments of some older people in hospitals being completed too early, meaning that decisions about their lifestyle and accommodation are made before the older person has had the opportunity to recover or rehabilitate.

SRV’s legal and advocacy staff provided an evidenced report to the Department of Health regarding the amount of calls taken at SRV about hospital-initiated Guardianship applications. The report was titled Hospital Discharge: the right to choose where to live.

Gippsland Region

35

45

COMMUNITY EDUCATION SESSIONS

15

20

25

30

40

10

5

0

Eastern Metro Region

Barwon South Western Region

North & West Metro Region Grampians Region

Hume Region

Loddon Mallee Region

Southern Metro Region

19

15

10 9

17

9

40

19


COMMUNITY EDUCATION

COMMUNITY LEGAL EDUCATION

Community Education delivered 138 sessions across Victoria to 3,436 participants. Of these, 15 sessions were delivered to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) groups, with the assistance of interpreters, to 661 participants.

SRV Volunteer Public Speakers continue to provide many hours of their time delivering talks and presentations across Victoria. There were 8 volunteers involved in the SRV Community Education Program and they contributed approximately 460 hours of their time to deliver talks and presentations. Volunteers have made it possible to deliver the substantial number of sessions across regional and rural Victoria ensuring that the Community Education Program is able to reach seniors in these areas. Of the 138 Community Education Sessions, 60 sessions were delivered in rural and regional Victoria through the Melbourne and Bendigo Offices of SRV, to a total of 1,510 participants. The graph below shows the regions where education sessions were held.

SRV ran Community Legal Education (CLE) workshops again during Law Week in 2011 covering Granny Flat Arrangements (Bendigo) and Boomerang Kids – Adult Children Returning Home (Melbourne). The Boomerang Kids was a trial run based on SRV casework and research and as a result of feedback has been revised. The Boomerang Kids workshop curriculum has also been provided to Advocare in Western Australia for delivery.

The larger number of sessions conducted throughout this financial year is a result of successful collaborations with most Elder Abuse Project Officers employed in Primary Care Partnerships throughout Victoria. As these positions come to an end, it is anticipated that the number of sessions will decrease in the next year.

The Program also attracts a significant number of requests from CALD groups as a result of SRV being able to cover the cost of interpreters for these talks. Liaison with staff and workers in some CALD agencies and service providers has enabled the sessions to be culturally sensitive and relevant.

Eastern Metro Region

Barwon South Western Region

North & West Metro Region

Southern Metro Region

15

25

PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION SESSIONS BY REGION 2010–11

5

10

20

0

Grampians Region

Hume Region

Loddon Mallee Region

6

2 2 2

20

17

4


PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

Professional information sessions were presented to 1531 individuals at 53 sessions (27 in Melbourne and suburbs, 26 in regional Victoria). From late May 2010, provision of professional information sessions became part of the SRV Service Promotion Officer’s role, which enabled SRV to deliver an increased number of sessions compared to last year.

Professional information sessions were delivered by SRV staff in Melbourne and at Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre to a wide range of individuals working for local government, Health and Community Care and Community Aged Care Package providers, community health services and networks, Aged Care Assessment Teams and Aged Psychiatry Assessment and Treatment teams, hospitals (including Hospital Admissions Risk Program and nursing staff, social workers, physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and allied healthcare professionals), aged care providers, and multicultural service providers, as well as to tertiary and Post graduate students (nurses, doctors, geriatricians). Sessions were also delivered to legal practitioners and JPs.

Five of the metropolitan sessions were delivered to CALD service providers or agencies which work with clients from CALD backgrounds.

In 2009/10 Office of Senior Victorians had contracted Victoria University to develop and deliver in-depth professional education in Elder Abuse Prevention for front line health and aged care workers. In 2010/11 SRV continued to liaise with Victoria University (VU) on the development and targeting of its professional education on elder abuse and to promote the availability of that training to service providers. SRV also participated as a presenter in two of Victoria University’s new Industry Training days (to the Volunteer sector and Practice Nurses).

In early 2011 VU and SRV collaborated to produce a DVD about SRV that now forms part of one of the VU Workshops on elder abuse prevention for service providers, and which SRV will also use for service promotion and in community education in 2011/12.

From SRV, service providers can currently access free, short presentations on recognising and responding to elder abuse for their staff ; and 2 free half-day professional education workshops from VU that provide more in-depth training on responding to elder abuse. Services have been encouraged to take up either or both options depending on the training needs of their staff. SRV has found that service providers book the shorter SRV presentation because it fits into their monthly Professional Education calendar, when their staff and managers, in particular, would benefit more from the VU training. Services may need to be encouraged to commit the time needed for the VU training.

SRV staff presenting to service providers encourage them to develop policies and procedures covering elder abuse and they promote the State governments With Respect to Age (2009) guidelines during these sessions. During 2010-11, more agencies became aware of the guidelines and were developing elder abuse policies and protocols. We supported this trend by using one of our World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) Workshop sessions to showcase the Elder Abuse protocol developed by a number of the Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy project officers working within the Primary Care Partnerships.

SRV has also focussed successfully on increasing professional understanding of elder abuse as a form of family violence, and building links with the family violence sector. SRV presented on elder abuse in a family violence forum, and involved police and family violence workers in the safety planning presentation at WEAAD Professional Workshop. SRV will continue to build this relationship with family violence agencies.


WORLD ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) is held on 15 June each year. The day aims to bring greater recognition of the mistreatment of older adults and to highlight the need for appropriate action. In recognition of WEAAD, Seniors Rights Victoria held three events across the State. These were an all-day workshop for health, aged care and other community sector workers in Melbourne; a mayoral proclamation, church service and WEAAD tram in Bendigo; and a training seminar for legal practitioners in Melbourne.

Melbourne

WEAAD Full Day Workshop

SRV hosted its 3rd annual full-day WEAAD Workshop for workers in health, aged care, family violence and community sectors. One hundred people were in attendance at Victoria University’s City Convention Centre to hear presentations and to discuss case studies on aspects of elder abuse.

The keynote speaker at the Opening Plenary was Professor Simon Biggs, who is Professor of Gerontology and Social Policy at the University of Melbourne and is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Ageing Societies and a special adviser to International Network Prevention Elder Abuse (INPEA). Professor Biggs’ address on Elder Mistreatment, International Prevalence and Social Ageism gave an overview of the international research into both prevalence of elder abuse and public perceptions of abuse. He then focussed on how the stereotyping of older people as ‘different’ lets age discrimination be taken for granted and abuse to occur.

Accessing and Supporting Older Clients in Abusive Situations, one of two concurrent morning sessions, looked at how community workers can respond to the situation of an older person who lives with, or is being deliberately isolated by, a violent family member. Participants learned about the Victoria Police’s Code of Practice on Family Violence and how the police can help, from Sgt Diane Ashwell, a Family Violence Advisor with the police in metropolitan Melbourne. SRV advocates Hazel Ingram and Philippa Campbell, assisted by Philippa Bailey from the Domestic Violence Resource Centre, gave a presentation which asked aged care and health service workers to consider issues of ageism, empowerment, older people’s rights and family violence approaches to elder abuse when working with their older clients.

Phil Grano of Victoria’s Office of the Public Advocate in Protecting Older People’s Rights explained Enduring Powers of Attorney and guardianship, while Rachel Ball of the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, spoke of the responsibilities service agencies have to respect and

uphold clients’ human rights under Victoria’s relatively new Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.

In Supporting the Caring Relationship to Prevent Elder Abuse, Dr Briony Dow of the National Ageing Research Institute and Anne Muldowney of Carers Victoria tackled the difficult issue of abuse of an older person in a caring relationship. Their presentation covered the research into risk factors and effective responses, and the Victorian Charter for Supporting People in Care Relationships.

VU presented its Professional Education materials developed for the health and community sector as part of the Victorian Government’s Elder Abuse Prevention Strategy. These materials can be tailored to meet individual agencies’ training needs. A new protocol for responding to elder abuse that health and community services are being encouraged to adopt was also presented during this session.

For the first time at this annual workshop, the State Government Minister responsible for the Office of Senior Victorians, the Honourable David Davis, attended and spoke to those in attendance about the State Governments strategy for the prevention of elder abuse.

Janet Wood (President COTA Victoria) David Davis, Minister for Seniors and Jenny Blakey (Manager Seniors Rights Victoria)

WEAAD Legal Seminar

In addition to the WEAAD Workshop, Seniors Rights Victoria in partnership with the Public Interest Legal Clearing House (PILCH) hosted a legal seminar on Family Agreements. A Collision Between Love and the Law, was presented by Mr Brian Herd from Carne, Reidy and Herd Lawyers, Brisbane. He is Chair of the Queensland Law Society’s Elder Law Committee and an international member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys of America.

Family Agreements are an important tool to protect the interests of both older persons and their families and ensure that everyone’s wishes are accommodated. Mr Herd’s presentation looked at the history of family arrangements and compared the Australian experience with those overseas. He examined the legal background and provided practitioners with some practical information and precedents to apply in their own work.


Bendigo

The theme was A Community Unites for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

The aim of the St Andrews Uniting Church WEAAD service was to raise awareness about elder abuse, celebrate ageing and recognise the contribution that seniors make to the community.

The church service was led by St Andrews new Minister, Eseta Meneilly, and the church’s quilting group Uniting Threads presented SRV with a beautifully hand-made quilt for WEAAD.

Throughout the day, the Bendigo Tourist Trams displayed WEAAD banners on either side of one of their vintage tourist trams. Each of the three trams carried cards explaining elder abuse and promoting SRV.

The Mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo, Councillor Rod Fyffe, made a WEAAD Proclamation at a formal event in the afternoon at Bendigo’s restored Town Hall. The Proclamation recognises the contribution seniors make to the community and their right to live with respect and in safety. This was the first WEAAD Mayoral Proclamation in Victoria.

The event was hosted by Jonathan Ridnell, of local ABC radio’s breakfast program. Special guest Noeline Brown, Australia’s Ambassador for Ageing, said, “Older people should be treated as valued members of our society and it is our collective responsibility to ensure older people live safely and with dignity.”

She said that as a society we must work hard to eliminate any incident of abuse, neglect, mistreatment or exploitation of older people – either as individuals or as a group.

“A society that is based on mutual respect creates in older people a sense of safety and of being valued. And that is how we should regard our older citizens – as people from

whom we can learn – they are our mentors and teachers,” Ms Brown said.

Media coverage included an interview with SRV’s Acting Principal Lawyer, Tabitha O’Shea, on WIN TV and a radio interview with Peter Noble, the Principal Lawyer from Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre.

Jonathon Riddell (ABC Radio), Peter Noble (Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre), Uncle Brian Nelson (Aboriginal Elder), Noeline Brown, Mayor Rod Fyffe and Tabitha O’Shea (Community Lawyer, Bendigo SRV).

The WEAAD Quilt

Uniting Threads’ members range in age from 19 to 92 years and they meet every Wednesday at St Andrew’s Uniting Church Bendigo. Founded in 2009, the group’s mission is to make and give away quilts to various Bendigo organisations.

Historically, patchwork grew out of a desire to make do with what you had at the time. Small scraps of fabric, often left over from dressmaking, were sewn together and then quilted with a filling to provide warmth and beauty in the home.

The quilt made for WEAAD is such an example. The middle block is an ‘orphan block’ donated to, and then finished by the group. It is surrounded by ‘log cabin’ blocks, in purples and creams.


SYSTEMIC ADVOCACY

LAW REFORM

SRV interacts and collaborates with a range of organisations, networks and services, to raise awareness of elder abuse issues, and to identify ways for organisations to work together to combat elder abuse, and maintain and advance the rights of older Victorians.

These groups and organisations include:• Elder Rights Advocacy• Domestic Violence Resource Centre• Dispute Resolution Centre• National Association of Community Legal Centres

(NACLC) Older Persons and the Law Working Group• Australian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse

(ANPEA)• Federation of Community Legal Centres (FCLC) Older

Persons Law Task Group, convened by SRV staff

• Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) Elder Law Committee• Family Violence State wide Advisory Committee

(through COTA)• Victorian Working Group on the Financial Abuse of

Older People• Financial and Consumer Rights Council (FCRC)• Office of the Public Advocate (OPA)• Victoria Police• Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV)• Alzheimer’s Association of Victoria (AAV)• Aged Care Assessment Teams• Carers Victoria• National Ageing Research Institute

Submissions

In February 2011, the Victorian Law Reform Commission (Commission) was commissioned by Victorian Government to review and report on Victoria’s guardianship laws. The Commission released Guardianship Consultation Paper 10 and called for interested parties to make submissions.

In June 2011, the SRV Manager, Acting Principal and SRLC Manager & Principal Solicitor met with members of the Victorian Law Reform Commission as part of the review and SRV subsequently prepared a written submission to the inquiry with assistance from lawyers from PILCH member firm Baker & McKenzie.

The core recommendation of the SRV submission was that the goal of guardianship legislation should be for the represented person to continue to live the life that they would have lived and for decisions to be made as they would have been made by the person but for their incapacity. Key means of achieving this goal include provision for supported decision making by older people, greater participation of older Victorians in guardianship proceedings, increased accountability of substitute decisions makers and improved community education.

The Commission is due to report to the Victorian Government by 23 December 2011.

In August of 2009 SRV made a general submission to the Victorian Parliament Law Reform Committee’s Inquiry into Powers of Attorney, the report was written by SRV with assistance from lawyers at Clayton Utz. Oral evidence by SRV lawyers was also presented along with the written submission.

Subsequently in December of 2010, SRV responded to the Committee’s report endorsing the recommendations specifically a new Powers of Attorney Act to create a consolidated framework to govern Powers of Attorney and Powers of Guardianship so as to introduce better safeguards to protect older Australians. The effectiveness of any new Act will be greatly increased by providing free or low cost legal advice for principals and undertaking education campaigns to increase community awareness of the different powers dealt with under the Act.

The Parliamentary Committee is awaiting the final report from the Victoria Law Reform Committee’s Inquiry into Guardianship.


RESEARCH

SRV LEGAL EDUCATION PROJECT

Development of Infocom client activity database

Commissioned by SRV and under development in 2010/11 for profiling clients and recording client activity, the new Infocom database has as a secondary aim the facilitation of evidence-based research into elder abuse and elder abuse risk factors.

Royal Melbourne Hospital, Research Collaboration

SRV provided de-identified data from Community Legal Service Information System and Infocom for the period July 2009-June 2010 to an Aged Care Registrar and trainee geriatrician at Royal Melbourne Hospital to use in a research project ‘Elder abuse: Towards a better understanding of the dimensions of abuse’. This research is intended to contribute to the development of resources to raise GPs’ awareness of elder abuse risk factors in their patients. The research report will be completed in August 2011 and will be submitted for journal publication.

The Price of Care: older people, financial wellbeing and families.

A successful grant application to the Legal Services Board has enabled SRV to employ a Project Worker who is currently undertaking research and consultation to inform the production of a law reform paper and two educational resources.

1. A practice guide for legal practitioners to broaden awareness and strengthen expertise in relation to the financial abuse of older people.

2. A plain language guide for older people and their families to increase awareness of risks of financial abuse and provide information to reduce vulnerability.

This project recognises the factors that contribute to higher levels of financial abuse of older people – an ageing population, the increase in dementia and the relative wealth held by older Australians including high levels of home ownership.

‘Abuse’ often results from adult children acting on an assumption of entitlement to their parents’ wealth. Their actions, although sometimes criminal, may involve maladministration or exploitative behaviour and lead to their taking control of a parent’s assets in exchange for some kind of care arrangement. These kinds of arrangements are usually done without any record of agreement and when ‘go wrong’, leave the older parent with insufficient or no assets to pay for their needs. It is this kind of ‘abuse’ that is the focus of the SRV project.


MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE & STAFF

Management Committee

Alex MactierMitzi GilliganJanet WoodLeonie BurnhamMichael SmithJenny Blakey (Manager)Peter NobleSue HendyFiona McLeay

Staff (includes people on staff for only part of the 10/11 year)

Dahni Houseman (to Aug 10)Elizabeth Samra (Mat leave from March 11)Gary FergusonIan TurnerJennifer Lord Joe Edmonds (to Aug 10)Kate Siopis (from July 10)Leonie Boyle (to Sept 10)Philippa CampbellStacey van DuerenStefan Pantellis (to April 11)Catherine Triandafilidis (Mar-April 11)Tabitha O’SheaHelena Xenidis (from June 11)Elaine HarringtonLouise Kyle (from May 11)Libby Jamieson (from May 11)Anita Koochew (from Jan 11)Hazel Ingram (from Nov 10 to Sept 11)Rachana Rajan (casual May 11)Janine Campbell (to Aug 10)


FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Audited financial statements for the relevant financial year are available on request.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to our funders Senior Victorians, Department of Health, Victoria Legal Aid and the Federal Attorney Generals Department.

SRV appreciates the support of:

• Victorian Legal Services Board

• SRV volunteers

• Norton Rose

• Hall & Wilcox

• Herbert Geer

• Holding Redlich

• Lander & Rogers

Address: 4/98 Elizabeth St Melbourne 3000

Phone Admin: 96552129

SRV Intake Line: 1300 368 821

www.seniorsrights.org.au

annual report - seniors rights victoria...support, and are reflected in the number of advices given...

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