A groundbreaking initiative aimed at stopping elder abuse will be launched in Springwood on July 4.
Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman, Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle and deputy mayor Chris Van der Kley will officially launch the elder abuse resource kit prepared by the Blue Mountains Elder Abuse Collaborative.
The kit is the first of its kind for the Blue Mountains, and will assist services and the community to identify what constitutes elder abuse and who to contact in the Blue Mountains for assistance.
It will be launched at 11am on Wednesday, July 4 at Springwood Sports Club.
The event will feature case study presentations on elder abuse, the role of the local collaborative and mark the appointment of Blue Mountains Amabassador and television personality, Julie McGregor.
The 2016 Australian Bureaus of Statistics identified that people over the age of 65 comprise 18.7 per cent of the population, or nearly one in five people living in the Blue Mountains. People aged 80 years and older suffer abuse and neglect two to three times their proportion of the older population.
The kit will be available on the day and distributed to aged care facilities and services across the Blue Mountains, the Blue Mountains Anzac Memorial Hospital, local neighbourhood centres, the local area police command, doctors’ surgeries, the Elizabeth Evatt Legal Centre and council libraries.
For catering purposes RSVP by Thursday, June 28 to Prue Hardgrove by email: phardgrove@bmcc.nsw.gov.au.
