Making A Difference: Older People's Community Engagement Project

This interim report documents the rationale, background, approach, activities and findings of the multi-agency ‘Making a Difference, Older People’s Community Engagement Project’ developed and supported by Age UK Cornwall, Safer Cornwall and the Women’s Centre Cornwall.

The project was a result of recognition and concerns about the lack of understanding of older people’s experiences of domestic abuse and sexual abuse - often overlooked by professionals and underrepresented among service providers.

The intention of the project is to; contribute to better understanding the experiences and thoughts and beliefs of older victims/survivors who are living, have lived in Cornwall or are associated with the county; develop a better understanding of what older people want from engagement and services; what the current barriers are locally; how we can better communicate with older people and improve responses to older people impacted by DASV. At the heart of the information and messaging contained in this report is the belief that older people must have a voice in explaining what the impact of DASV has been on their lives, telling us about what has been helpful but also what was not.

The OPP team made efforts to speak to survivors from protected characteristic groups and encouraged men to participate to ensure that their experiences and views were heard. The team spoke directly with 33 participants, consulted with 30 professionals and ran 10 introductory presentations for a range of groups. We also compiled and conducted an online survey and received 47 responses.

The project findings evidenced that the impact of DASV can be diverse and devastating for older survivors. The abuse experienced by older people, as with others, can vary from emotional abuse to physical, sexual, financial, psychological abuse and neglect. Many victims will often experience a combination of these behaviours. In our conversations, 22 older people out of 33 participants identified living as children with abuse - a range of all the different types.

All 33 participants in our 121 conversations talked about a wide range of impacts on their mental and physical health and wellbeing. All of this complexity surrounding older people and DASV needs to be understood by professionals and risk assessments used that specifically factor in older people specific issues.