New elder abuse laws to target the coercive control of seniors, with mandatory reporting

Plans for Government’s national policy on adult safeguarding also in an ‘advanced stage’, following rise in reports of safeguarding issues

Elder abuse is to be made a specific criminal offence by Government, with the new laws targeting the coercive control of seniors by their children or relatives.

There has been an alarming rise in reports of elder abuse, with complaints doubling since the start of the Covid pandemic to more than 7,500 in a year.

Coercive control is already a crime, but efforts are under way to widen these laws to include adults looking after their parents or older relatives.

The Coalition is planning a national safeguarding body for elders, with input and ties to the Department of Justice.

‘My elderly mother says cash keeps going missing from her house – and the only people who visit are her carer, a neighbour and us siblings. What can I do?’

Legislation on safeguarding adults has been before the Oireachtas since 2017. However, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have now agreed to act on the issue as a matter of urgency.

Ministers believe the patchwork of current legislation has allowed abuse to flourish in the gaps – which extend to the family home.

Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and junior minister for ­older people Kieran O’Donnell met with the Law Reform Commission last month on the issue.

The Irish Independent has learnt there will be a new power of entry, applying to private, public and voluntary homes for older people.

The Government is also to introduce new laws to ensure the mandatory reporting of elder abuse where it becomes known to institutions, managers and medical practitioners.

This is particularly intended to address the coercive control of elders – even by their children – with pensions or bank account manipulation that might come to attention.

There will be a basket of policy initiatives and legislative measures to expand and beef up adult safeguarding measures across the health and social care sector. The moves will extend the scope of safeguarding from an existing focus on the HSE to encompass private and voluntary providers, crucially including private nursing homes.

“This will involve a significant expansion on current arrangements,” a senior source said.

“Subsequent underpinning legislation will also apply across the full sector.”

It is understood there will be a range of legal duties on health and social care providers, including mandatory reporting.

But it is giving powers of entry to inspectors for the first time that is likely to mark a sea change in how the entire sector operates.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) currently has powers of entry, but “respectfully”, in liaison with managements, not on foot of an acute abuse complaint.

Only since February this year can Hiqa enter a premises grounded on the belief “that an unregistered residential centre is being operated”.

The new moves will strengthen and clarify entry powers across the board, and grant the right to a no-notice swoop to the HSE as a whole. Full details will be announced in the autumn.

It comes after an RTÉ exposé recently revealed a litany of repeated care failings in two nursing homes, Beneavin Manor nursing home in Glasnevin and The Residence in Portlaoise.

The imminent plans are said to be “in the context of the RTÉ programme and the Farrelly Commission report” into the treatment and oversight of ‘Grace’, a vulnerable young woman in the care system.

There has been an alarming rise in ­reports of elder abuse, with figures showing that psychological abuse is the most common form deployed against the over-65s.

Figures from the HSE show there were 7,503 safeguarding notifications relating to elder abuse reported in 2023 – the latest year for which figures are available.

This is a rise from 5,582 notifications the previous year, and more than ­double the 3,412 in 2020 – the first year of the Covid pandemic when a loss of independence among many older people resulted in a spike in cases.

Psychological abuse is the main category of elder abuse notifications made to the HSE, accounting for 2,708 of complaints.

The figures, provided to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly, showed there were 4,264 complaints of abuse relating to people aged between 65 and 79 years old, and 3,239 relating to people over 80.

Preliminary assessments are carried out by HSE teams, and these found that in 66pc of cases there were reasonable grounds for a complaint, in 20 cases there were no grounds and the rest required further information.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Farrelly said two-thirds of cases having reasonable grounds “is a very high mark”.

The Kildare North TD asked the Government whether it plans to make abuse or controlling behaviour of a parent by a caring adult child or relative an offence.

In a recent response to a parliamentary question, before the Dáil summer recess, Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said: “While criminal offences in general – including coercion, harassment, theft and so on – apply across the board, including where the victim is an elderly relative or in other situations related to elder abuse, the coercive control legislation specifically applies to a spouse, civil partner or a person who is or was in an intimate relationship with another person. It does not extend to children taking care of parents.”

The current Government has made a commitment to publish a national policy on adult safeguarding in the Programme of Government, with the Department of Health saying policy plans are at an “advanced stage”.

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