Identifying, Reporting and Responding to the Abuse of Older People in Care (Awareness Training)

Identifying, Reporting and Responding to the Abuse of Older People in Care (Awareness Training)Welcome to the Identifying, Reporting and Responding to the Abuse of Older People in Care course. This course has been designed to provide you with an understanding of how to identify, report and respond to the abuse of older people who are in a care relationship. After completing this course, you will have an understanding of the: background to and the definitions and prevalence of the abuse of older people in Australia types of abuse most commonly

Welcome to the Identifying, Reporting and Responding to the Abuse of Older People in Care course. This course has been designed to provide you with an understanding of how to identify, report and respond to the abuse of older people who are in a care relationship.

After completing this course, you will have an understanding of the:

• background to and the definitions and prevalence of the abuse of older people in Australia
• types of abuse most commonly experienced by older people
• requirements for the reporting of abuse of an older person in your care
• roles and responsibilities of staff around the abuse of a person in their care
• barriers to staff reporting suspected and actual abuse, and
• actions to take if there is imminent threat to an older person.

In this part of the course we’ll take a look at the background to and the definitions and prevalence of the abuse of older people in Australia.

Abuse of older people in Australia

As the Australian population ages, the number of people requiring care will increase. This means that the number of people who experience abuse is also likely to increase.

In Australia, the true incidence of abuse is difficult to determine. There are a number of reasons why elder abuse is not reported and these will be explored later. It is currently believed that as many as one in twenty older people may be experiencing abuse of one kind or another.

Older people may be vulnerable to abusive situations because growing older can lead to:

• shrinking social and friendship networks
• reduced access to information
• an increased risk of cognitive impairment
• an increased risk of being perceived as mentally incompetent
• loss of economic power, and
• a reduced familiarity with contemporary knowledge about how to access help.

A Certificate of Completion is issued on successful completion of the course and you are required to get an 80% pass mark to be deemed as understanding the content. It is recommended that training is conducted every 2 years to stay refreshed.

Run time 75 minutes.