Tuesday, 26 March 2024
    Most common kinds of elder abuse
    27
    Jul
    Aged Care

    Most common kinds of elder abuse

    A small study of home care providers, aimed at helping guide the introduction of a serious incident response scheme, has revealed that elder abuse is occurring in home care settings, as well as residential aged care, HelloCare reports.

    A study by KPMG of 151 home care providers found that in the six months from 1 November 2020 to 30 April 2021, 161 ‘serious incidents’

    The most common serious incident was stealing and coercion, which accounted for 69 incidents or 43%.

    The second most common serious incident was neglect, with 50 cases, accounting for 31% of incidents.

    The remaining 42 reports were of unreasonable use of force (14 reports, 9% of incidents), psychological or emotional abuse (10 reports, 6%), unexpected death (nine reports, 6%) and unlawful or inappropriate sexual contact (eight reports, or 5%).

    Encouragingly, 118 providers (78% of participants) reported zero incidents, and there were no reports of physical or chemical restraint among the home care providers surveyed.

    By comparison, in the first six weeks of the Serious Incident Report Scheme (SIRS) for residential aged care (ending 12 May 2021), the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission received 4,496 notifications of serious incidents, including 778 cases of unreasonable use of force, 448 instances of neglect, 192 cases of unexpected death, and nearly 150 cases of inappropriate sexual conduct.

    The Serious Incident Response Scheme for residential aged care began collecting reports from 1 April 2021, but no such scheme exists for home care.

    However, the government allocated $14 million for the expansion of SIRS into home care in the 2021-2022 federal budget. KPMG was commissioned to study the prevalence of serious incidents in the home care setting and to develop options for expanding the SIRS into home care.

    It’s currently estimated that between 2% and 14% of older Australians experience elder abuse across the population.

    FULL STORY

    The 6 most common types of elder abuse in home care (Hello Care)

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