By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
IT’S called elder abuse and its happening in Casey homes now more than ever.
In charge of the Casey Family Violence Unit (CFVU), Sergeant Ian Lane calls elder abuse an “emerging trend” which hits the one person that loves the offender the most, their parent.
Elder abuse is when an adult child, still living at home with their parent or parents commits emotional and psychological, physical and financial abuse against them.
“People prefer to think that elder abuse doesn’t happen,” Sgt Lane said.
“But in the past two years I have been in charge of the CFVU, without a doubt, I’ve seen more cases of elder abuse now than ever before.”
“It’s incredibly sad because parents have gone through most of their lives nurturing and providing for their children and when they get to a point where they need that support, they are being taken advantage of financially and physically.”
Sgt Lane said he is unsure whether the increase in elder abuse reflects the fact that children are staying at home longer or if more people are reporting incidents to police.
“If people are reporting elder abuse more it’s a good sign as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
A father in his fifties was recently subjected to physical abuse from his adult son in a Casey suburb due to drugs, a factor Sgt Lane sees all too often.
“Alcohol and drug addictions, family separations and mental health are all common factors in family violence,” he said.
“In this case the young man was constantly harassing his father for money to sustain his drug habit and, of course, the father didn’t want to give him money, saying that there must be a better way.
“Which is what most parents would do, but this has obviously been building up over time and the son has pushed the father up against a fridge, he has fallen to the ground and required medical treatment.
“This is a fairly standard type of event we would attend but we would like to think people have more respect for their parents.”
Sgt Lane said elder abuse, which is centred on control, severely affects parents physiologically.
“We see a lot of psychological abuse where threats are made, the emotional side is huge,” he said.
“And this type of elder abuse from a policing perspective is the most difficult to deal with.”
Anyone with information about elder abuse is urged to call police and support the parent by listening to their concerns.
