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The Herald
March 14, 2001
Elderly sex-abuse victims speak out
by Bridget Carter
Rose told nobody when she was sexually
abused as a 7-year-old.
She didn't dare tell her mother. She also didn't want to be a nuisance, and
feared she might not be believed.
After all, it was an older person's right to tell her what to do.
And if people knew, they might consider her "damaged goods."
But 67-year-old Rose (not her real name) says a huge burden was lifted off
her shoulders when she spoke for the first time last year about being
sexually abused by her brother and a 16-year-old family friend.
She is among hundreds of elderly survivors of sexual abuse who disclose their
traumas decades afterwards.
This is why ACC yesterday released guidelines for counsellors dealing with
adult survivors of child sexual abuse.
ACC spokeswoman Kathryn Griffiths says that since ACC developed a special
sex-abuse unit in 1992, it has accepted over 47,000 claims. About 80 per cent
of those are from adults sexually abused during childhood.
Rhonda Preston-Jones, the senior occupational therapist for Waitemata Mental
Health's services for older people, says the service sees up to 30 women a year
aged over 65 in West Auckland who have been
sexually abused.
"You are talking 100 women a year in the Auckland region who are over 65 [and] that
may only be the tip of the iceberg."
Ms Preston-Jones says the experience of being sexually abused is still the
same, but many women did not want to acknowledge it was happening to their
child 50 years ago.
"Back then there was no DPB. Women had to rely on 'charity.' They stayed
in all sorts of situations."
Telling someone is the most important thing, she says.
There are so many people who live in shame and have to wait until they are
about 82 to resolve it.
And a background with sexual abuse can trigger health problems later on.
Rose, for example, had anxiety attacks and claustrophobia. They turned out to
be symptoms of problems she had not dealt with in the past.
Signs someone has been abused include low self-esteem and passivity.
Rhonda Preston-Jones believes it is a GP's responsibility to ask the right
questions.
"If GPs ask the right questions and family members listened, then a lot
of people could unburden themselves."
She says older people don't want revenge; they just want things resolved so
whatever life they have left, they can enjoy.
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