‘How can we redress and repair violence, abuse and neglect of people living with dementia in residential aged care?’

People living with dementia have been subject to significant harm, including violence, abuse, and neglect in aged care in Australia. Yet, this harm is rarely recognised and redressed. People living with dementia in aged care, as well as care partners and family members, encounter ineffective complaint and prosecutorial processes, including barriers to reporting harm to the police, and difficulty accessing justice through the courts. The systems that allow harm to occur remain unchanged and continue to perpetrate further harm. People living with dementia and their care partners and family members await accountability, justice and change.

Australian focused launch

Linda Steele and Kate Swaffer in conversation with: Yumi Lee (Older Women’s Network of NSW), Bill Mitchell OAM LLD (Townsville Community Law), Theresa Flavin (dementia human rights activist and advocate)

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International human rights focused launch

Linda Steele and Kate Swaffer in conversation with: Professor Claudia Mahler (United Nations Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Older Person), Professor Israel Issi Doron (University of Haifa), Bethany Brown (International Disability Alliance)

More info and register

Access the report and principles

If you cannot attend this event but would like to read our report and the Dementia Reparations Principles, you can register to access them (they will be publicly available on 13 March 2023): https://www.dementiajustice.org/get-involved

Contact: Email Associate Professor Linda Steele for more information: linda.steele@uts.edu.au

About the Dementia Reparations Principles

During 2021 and 2022, we (Linda Steele and Kate Swaffer) explored how to redress the harm experienced by people living with dementia in residential aged care. We heard from people living with dementia, care partners and family, advocates and lawyers. We also considered what international human rights say about the need and design of redress. And, we looked at the design and lived experiences of other Australian redress schemes such as the National Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

We developed a set of principles to guide the design and operation of reparations for people with dementia. These principles were informed by our empirical research with people living with dementia, care partners and family, advocates and lawyers. They were also informed by international human rights law and the design and lived experiences of other Australian redress schemes. We workshopped a draft of the principles with people living with dementia, care partners and family, advocates and lawyers.

Our new report called Reparations for harm to people living with dementia in residential aged care provides an evidence-base for the Dementia Reparations Principles. The report finds that government, the justice system, health care and aged care providers are failing to recognise, redress and repair this harm, and hold those responsible to account. The report also finds that people living with dementia, and their care partners and family, want reparations that will bring about recognition, accountability and change, now.