Page 3613 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 September 2019
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which the caller is located. In the ACT the call is redirected to OPALS. The data collected by OPALS is de-identified and provided to the commonwealth, along with data from all jurisdictions, to help in the effort to develop a national picture of elder abuse. This national data picture will greatly contribute to our understanding of the nature and pattern of elder abuse and help to shape effective responses to it.
Early data and recent studies have indicated that financial abuse may be the most common form of abuse experienced by elderly people. This abuse is often perpetrated by family members or others that an older person knows and trusts. This trust can be abused to take control of their financial affairs.
The Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended consistent national reforms of enduring powers of attorney legislation to provide greater protections for people granting a power of attorney and a national register for all powers of attorney documents. This was adopted in the national plan’s fourth priority area. To progress this recommendation, the Council of Attorneys-General established the enduring power of attorney working group to consider harmonisation of enduring powers of attorney laws and develop a proof of concept register for enduring powers of attorney documents.
Within the working group, the Justice and Community Safety Directorate is working very closely with our jurisdictional counterparts to examine and resolve complexities around the differing power of attorney legislation in each state and territory and what would be included in a register. It is certainly not an easy exercise, but we are working hard to get there.
I mentioned earlier that building community awareness is essential in driving a cultural change to stop elder abuse. We have funded a number of initiatives to build awareness across government services and in the community. ACT domestic and family violence front-line worker training is being rolled out to equip ACT government workers with the ability to recognise and respond to domestic and family violence and to refer on to relevant supports.
Foundation training will be rolled out for all ACT public servants. This training includes content on elder abuse and how ACT employees can respond and refer to appropriate support services. It will also help workers to understand the barriers that might inhibit older people from disclosing elder abuse. A second tier of more detailed training for key services will include a module on elder abuse for occupational groups that work with older people on a regular basis.
Our grants funding program is another key mechanism for addressing elder abuse. A total of $80,000 in grant funding is provided annually through the ACT seniors grants program, which funds community organisations to complete projects in priority areas which include addressing elder abuse and promoting supported decision-making for older people.
The first round of the 2019-20 ACT seniors grants program closed on 2 September, and I look forward to announcing the projects which will be funded through this grant round. The 2018-19 grant round provided funding for a number of projects related to
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