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Posted 12 November 2009

Health Minister announces national research centre for protection of the elderly

According to international research, between 1% and 4% of over-65s experience some form of abuse in the community. This would translate to somewhere between 5,000 and 21,000 older Irish people being abused in their community.

In order to help policymakers understand, locate and tackle elder abuse in Ireland, the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney TD officially announced the establishment by the Health Service Executive of a National Research Centre for the Protection of Older People (NCPOP) at University College Dublin on 11 Nov 2009. It is being established in response to issues of elder abuse and the recommendations of the Report of the Working Group on Elder Abuse.

The Minister noted the significant progress by the Health Service Executive in developing a coherent service to tackle elder abuse. “While there is more work to be done in this area, we have a good foundation in place from which the service can be developed further” the Minister said. She particularly welcomed the proposed work by the Centre on prevalence.

Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney TD (centre-right) and Proffessor Desmond Fitzgerald, Vice-President for Research, UCD (centre-left) pictured at the announcement of National Research Centre for the Protection of Older People (NRCPOP)
Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney TD (centre-right) and Professor Desmond Fitzgerald, Vice-President for Research, UCD (centre-left) pictured at the announcement of National Research Centre for the Protection of Older People

The NCPOP brings together leading experts from across the fields of Nursing, Medicine, Economics, Social Science, and Public Health and was established by the Health Service Executive.

One of the first tasks of the NCPOP is to identify the prevalence of elder abuse in Ireland. At present there are no scientific statistics available on the numbers of older people being abused in Ireland.

The number of older people in Irish society will rise sharply as the population structure ages. In 2006, there were 467,900 people aged 65 and over in Ireland which accounted for 11% of the population (CSO, 2007). By 2061 this figure is expected to reach 1.8 million.  

Experts at the NCPOP in University College Dublin will work to develop ways to prevent and manage elder abuse in the community. A key element of the work of the NCPOP is the involvement of older people themselves. The idea is to offer older people a voice to express their experiences and attitudes towards elder abuse, and to enable them to alert older people to the issue of elder abuse through existing older people networks and agencies.

Elder abuse comes in many forms: psychological abuse, physical abuse, financial abuse, neglect and sexual abuse. According to international research, family members are the most common perpetrators of elder abuse, and victims are mainly older women or older people unable to care for themselves.

 “There is a lack understanding as to what actually constitutes elder abuse but this is an issue which affects each and every one of us, either directly or indirectly, through our family, our friends and our local community” says Dr Jonathan Drennan, co-director of NCPOP.

“It is important that we continue to learn more about elder abuse in Ireland, not just the extent of the abuse, but also the types of elder abuse and the circumstances under which it occurs so that risk factors for elder abuse can be clarified and strategies identified for its prevention and management.”

“We must protect older people from all forms of abuse. We need to identify how, when and where elder abuse takes place. We need to offer older people a voice to be heard. And we must introduce standards and interventions to prevent this form of abuse.”

The NCPOP brings together a combination of expertise from the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Systems; the UCD School of Applied Social Science; the UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy, and Population Science; the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science; and the UCD Geary Institute.

(Produced by UCD University Relations)

 

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