World Elder Abuse Awareness Day: 15 June
Supporting older people experiencing domestic abuse relies on the skill, care and commitment volunteers and practitioners bring every day.
Around one in six people aged 60 and over experience domestic abuse each year in the UK, yet many don't report it, or seek support. While attention often focuses on care homes, abuse in later life is a lot more complex. Long term relationships can involve shared finances, ingrained patterns of control and behaviour that has been normalised over time. Family members, such as children and grandchildren, may be involved, either unknowingly or as perpetrators. Health problems, reduced mobility or cognitive decline can also be used to exert control. Many older people are less likely to speak out due to a strong sense of privacy and self-reliance.
To mark World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, Dewis Choice has created two short films exploring one crucial moment: how conversations about domestic abuse can begin.
- Space to Tell shares an older woman's experience of what made it possible to disclose
- Power of Asking focuses on how practitioners can support these conversations safely and sensitively
Together they offer practical insight, grounded in lived experience, into what helps someone feel able to share, and how small moments can make a real difference.
If you have four minutes, they're designed to support the work you're already doing.
Watch here youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuIYgqas6Hr1Jfby1kocSYKwaCcevfTwH
If anything in this video resonates with you, or you're worried about someone else, you can find more information on our dedicated webpage which focuses on this issue
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