Annual Report 2020–2021

Elder Abuse Action Australia is finishing its third year of funded operations in this reporting period. The organisation has established itself as a vital peak body representing more than 50 stakeholders across Australia, each with the vision and passion to end elder abuse in our society. EAAA is the community sector’s conduit to federal government.

In 2020-21, EAAA continued to roll out its national knowledge hub addressing elder abuse, www.compass.info. This resource is at the centre of the organisation’s reach across the country. The site was used by more than 35,500 people during the year and we continue to build and enhance this new tool to raise awareness of elder abuse in Australian society and understand mechanisms that prevent abuse.

EAAA has been working with Council of the Ageing Tasmania to plan the 7th National Elder Abuse Conference ‘Walk the Talk’ to be held in Hobart in February 2022. The event had been postponed due to COVID-19 but we are confident it will go ahead in 2022, albeit as a hybrid in-person and online event. The organisation has focussed on planning an event that draws together presenters who will showcase abuse prevention work from each state and territory, and high-profile keynote speakers to ensure the conference is engaging and furthers the work of elder abuse prevention. We look forward to identifying a new state or territory partner at the 2022 conference so we can plan the 8th annual event thereafter.

EAAA would like to thank the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department for funding our operations and sponsoring the conference. Also, EAAA benefited from a funding enhancement in the reporting period. The elder abuse prevention and awareness service trials that received funding in each state and territory as part of the National Plan also received extensions to their funding. This was welcome news, in that each elder abuse service trial could continue service delivery and more could be learned about each project for evaluation purposes. Nonetheless, EAAA is eager to learn which elder abuse service trials evaluate well so that state-wide and nationwide services can be developed based on best practice learnings.

Russell Westacott and Diedre Timms

Co-Chairs Report

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE ANNUAL REPORT HERE:

https://eaaa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/eaaa_annualreport2021.pdf