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Intimate partner violence in older cohorts tends to fall between the cracks and its true frequency is unknown, as most research excludes older age groups.
These concerns prompted the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District’s Aged Care Psychiatry Service to host the Domestic Violence and Older People forum on Wednesday 21 June 2017.
The team invited along people working in health care, aged care, mental health, domestic violence services and legal services.
The forum aimed to stimulate discussion among clinicians and community services to improve the recognition and management of intimate partner violence of older people.
Associate professor Chanaka Wijeratne, a psychiatrist with the Aged Care Psychiatry Service, said the characteristics and implications of domestic violence in older people are very different to other cohorts. “There are age-specific issues that an older victim must contend with, such as physical illness, frailty, dementia and social isolation. A victim may be required to provide care for a longterm perpetrator of domestic violence.”
Nursing Review spoke with Wijeratne after the forum to find out what clinicians and community workers should know about intimate partner violence in older cohorts and how it may differ to the narratives they’re used to.
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