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Aged care chaplain Reverend Kirsty Brown said that one of the biggest challenges for people experiencing elder abuse was feeling that they didn’t have anyone they can talk to.
“But in a church community, hopefully there’s trust built, and trusted relationships, that means that people might open up about elder abuse,” she said.
Ms Brown said that the elderly who were part of church communities were well-placed when church worked as it should.
She said that she had experienced in many different congregations a sense that the people were looking out for their elderly members.
Elder advocate Reverend Ben Boland said Christians are called to love their neighbours, that it could be as simple as knowing someone’s name.
“There’s a responsibility for us as the church corporate to be looking after old people and be engaging with old people,” he said.
Mr Boland said that one of the challenges was the way the education system and churches segregated people into age groups.
He noted that from their school years, people are put into age groups, and in churches there were children’s church, youth groups and young adult groups.
While these groups are important, Mr Boland pointed out that it was difficult to expect people to be multi-generational when they were trained for 20 years not to be.
He also said that carer stress and isolation were predictors of elder abuse and that more support needed to be given to carers.
“It takes a village to care for people who are living with frailty,” he said.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that 1 in 6 Australians experienced elder abuse in the past year and this number is likely to rise.
This form of abuse occurred in relationships where there was an expectation of trust, the AIHW report said.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies report on the national prevalence of elder abuse noted that patterns of secrecy about elder abuse were difficult to overcome because most people didn’t speak out.
Ms Brown said that it was often not be the person themselves who raised the issue, but someone who was looking out for them. Churches can play an important role in giving voice to their elderly neighbours.