Elder abuse is everybody’s business. I am here wearing several hats – as a psychologist, an academic, a former Cabinet Minister and now as Age Discrimination Commissioner. As the Age Discrimination Commissioner – the hat I’m wearing for this event – elder abuse is a serious human rights issue.
Over 50 years ago, when I was studying child development, one of my lecturers was severely criticised by her colleagues for showing us a US 16mm black and white film of children who had been abused. They told us that she was an alarmist and that those sorts of things happened in the US, but not in Australia.
We have since seen how wrong they were. Elder abuse is now at the stage in public awareness and political consciousness that child abuse was at many years ago, and family violence was until relatively recently, and it is essential that we all act, together, now, to prevent it, halt its spread, and build into our community and relationships robust protective features.
– Dr Kay Patterson, Age Discrimination Commissioner
:format():fill())