Elder abuse
Published on 08 February 2011 02:00 PM
Age Cymru has welcomed a Welsh politician's call for action to tackle elder abuse in Wales.
National Assembly Member Mohammad Asghar recently urged the Assembly Government to do more about the problem of elder abuse.
Speaking in the Senedd, the South Wales East AM expressed his deep concern that:
"Wales has the highest prevalence of elder abuse in the United Kingdom".
He added:
"The importance of this issue was flagged up in the findings of the recent all-Wales symposium, which found that awareness must be increased of the abuse that many elderly people suffer".
Later, the Shadow Minister for Heritage & Equality said:
"Elder abuse levels in Wales are very, very worrying. The Assembly Government needs to do more to tackle the challenges posed by elder abuse in Wales".
Louise Hughes, Age Cymru's Elder Abuse Programme Manager, commented:
"Elder abuse is an unacceptable and ugly truth affecting an estimated 39,000 older people in Wales.
"Age Cymru has spent four years consulting experts across Wales about how to tackle this problem and published a manifesto.
"Elder abuse cannot be allowed to continue to blight the lives of tens of thousands of older people in modern Wales"