Australia has launched a national inquiry requesting that elderly people who’ve faced abuse share their stories to raise awareness of elder abuse amid a campaign to investigate and prosecute such abuses.

The Australian Law Reform Commission has started an investigation of all forms of elder abuse.

From The Canberra Times:

“With Australia’s population ageing, the potential for elder abuse to affect a significant number of people in the community is very real,” commission president Rosalind Croucher said. “It is crucial to look at how we can provide better safeguards for older people from this abuse.”

Figures released on Wednesday by elderly advocacy service Advocare revealed the number of phone calls to elder abuse hotlines around Australia have more than doubled in one year.

While reporting of elder abuse was becoming more common, Council of the Ageing ACT’s executive director Jenny Mobbs said it was “still a hidden issue”.

Ms Mobbs encouraged people to not only make a submission to the law reform inquiry, but to seek help if they felt they were being abused.

The closing date for these submissions is on August 18, 2016.