The National Plan has 4 important goals.

In this section we explain:

bullet  our goals

bullet  what we will do to achieve our goals. end of list

We want everyone in the community to help stop older people experiencing abuse.

We want to help everyone understand:

bullet  what ageism is

bullet  what abuse is

bullet  how to stop them from happening. end of list

We also want everyone to understand the rights of older people.

Rights are rules about how people must treat you:

• fairly
• equally.

For example, the rights of older people to make their own decisions about their life.

For example, where they want to live.

We will check information we share with the community to make sure it’s:

• clear
• easy to understand
• up to date.

We will also make sure this information helps the community understand how to stop older people from experiencing abuse.

We will support events and activities in the community that teach people:

• what abuse looks like
• what they can do to stop abuse
• how they can support older people who experience abuse.

We will work with older people who have a higher risk of experiencing abuse.

This includes:

bullet  First Nations people

bullet  people from different cultures. end of list

Culture is the way a group of people live and what they believe.

We will work with people from these groups to make sure we are communicating with them in the best way.

We will support older people to connect with the community.

We will find the best ways to stop older people experiencing abuse.

We will share these different ways with the community.

We will find out why older people experience abuse.

We will keep improving our Compass.info website that shares information and support.

We want to make sure laws and ways of working:

• protect the rights of older people
• keep older people safe.

We want better ways to find out if an older person is experiencing abuse.

We also want better ways to manage what happens after we find out an older person is experiencing abuse.

We will keep working to improve the laws that protect older people across Australia.

This includes the laws about enduring power of attorney

An enduring power of attorney is a legal document that says:

• a person can make decisions for you when you can’t
• what decisions they can make.

We will help teach people why it’s important to plan for making decisions as you get older.

For example, who would make decisions for you if you can’t anymore.

We will update information about where and how an enduring power of attorney can be used in different states and territories.

We will look at what actions we can take from different royal commissions.

A royal commission is how the government looks into a big problem.

It helps us find out what:

• went wrong
• we can fix.

This includes the royal commissions into:

• disability
• aged care homes.

We will teach people how to report the abuse of older people.

We will make sure people understand when they must report abuse.

We will look at how different services can help stop older people experiencing abuse.

This includes police and banks.

We will look at how banks can help stop financial abuse.

We will keep supporting the rights of older people across the world.

We want older people to get the right supports when they need them.

We want services to know what they should do if they find out about abuse.

We want services to have the right skills to support older people who experience abuse.

We will work out the best ways for community legal services that protect older people experiencing abuse to do their work.

We will look for ways to make the 1800ELDERHelp support phone line better.

We will look at ways to make sure everyone can use support services for older people who experience abuse.

This includes making these services easier to find and use for people in different areas across Australia.

We will look at how staff in services for older people can learn more about supporting:

bullet  people from different cultures

bullet  people who have experienced trauma. end of list

Trauma is a very bad experience that can affect how someone feels or behaves for a long time.

We will look at how we can work together more with First Nations organisations.

We will look for ways to improve training for services in the community that support older people.

For example, doctors.

We will make sure this training gives services the tools they need to stop older people experiencing abuse.

We will help police better understand:

• what abuse looks like
• what police can do to stop it
• what services police can use.

We will work with education providers to make it easier for people to learn:

• about ageism
• how to stop older people experiencing abuse.

We will find ways to stop older people experiencing abuse:

• as early as possible
• before it gets worse.

We will look at how services can work with people who harm older people to stop the abuse.

We want to collect more data to support our work for the National Plan.

Data includes information and facts we collect to help us learn about something.

Data helps us find out the best ways to stop older people experiencing abuse.

Data will also help us know if the National Plan is working well to stop older people experiencing abuse.

We also want governments and the community to work better together to stop older people experiencing abuse.

We will use data to create guidelines to help stop:

• ageism
• older people experiencing abuse.

We will create a way to check how well the National Plan is working.

We will check our data to make sure we are collecting:

• the right data
• enough data
• data in the best way.

We will find out what other data we need to better understand older people experiencing abuse.

This data will also help us better respond to older people experiencing abuse.

We will look at ways to make sure governments and the community can work together to stop:

• ageism
• older people experiencing abuse.

This includes:

bullet  supporting groups where people can share ideas

bullet  making sure people who experienced abuse are part of these groups. end of list

We will help governments and the community to work together to support older people.