This is the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria response to the National Plan to End the Abuse and Mistreatment of Older People 2024-2034.
As the peak body for Victoria’s migrant and refugee communities, promoting the rights and interests of older people in these communities has long been an organisational priority.
Since our founding in 1974, we have advocated for multicultural seniors by producing research to inform government policy, and running programs to promote seniors rights and support them to lead fulfilling lives.
To assist with this submission, we consulted member and associated organisations, professionals working with older people from multicultural backgrounds and community leaders. The actions they thought most important related to raising community awareness, strengthening legal safeguards, increasing corporate responsibility, and building the knowledge and capacity of frontline services and professionals to respond appropriately when there is risk of elder abuse.
Ageism and the under-valuing of older people was identified as a key factor behind the abuse and mistreatment of older people. For seniors from multicultural backgrounds there are additional factors relating to language and culture. To address this, older people must be valued, supported, empowered and proactively included in society, regardless of their background.
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