Surge in demand for advocacy service

There has been a surge in demand for a national advocacy service supporting older and vulnerable adults, with an “unprecedented” 350 people on its waiting list.

There has been a surge in demand for a national advocacy service supporting older and vulnerable adults, with an “unprecedented” 350 people on its waiting list.

Sage Advocacy received its highest ever number of referrals in the third quarter of this year at 649, since it was first established over nine years ago.

Speaking at the inaugural International Adult Safeguarding Conference at Trinity College Dublin last Friday, Sage’s assistant executive director Bibiana Savin said that such advocates have gone from “being the ones not necessarily wanted at a table to being in such demand”.

“Our mission is to promote, protect and defend the rights and dignity of vulnerable adults,” she said. “Our focus will remain providing service for older people.

“We support the person to express their views about a decision that affects their life. We listen to their story. We help them work through the options that they have available. We explain the likely consequences of each of their choices and we support them to to make a choice.” 

The conference heard from multiple speakers who said that greater legislative protection is required for adults who may be at risk of abuse, and to create a culture where they feel able to report it can be supported.

Independent researcher Michael Browne told attendees, for example, that “at-risk adults living in vulnerable situations should have same protection as children under child protection legislation.” 

Yongjie Yon, a technical officer on ageing at the World Health Organization, said that one in six older people experience abuse each year and that countries have to step up to tackle the problem. 

At the event organised by the TCD School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ms Savin also provided a number of examples where the organisation had stepped in to provide support.

She described the situation of John*, who was referred by one of his relatives. Ms Savin said there were concerns regarding “undue influence” from his wife. John had been diagnosed with a number of conditions and was quite frail. His phone was taken away and the line was disconnected, as his wife was planning to move abroad.

“We've had situations where the care staff is trying to access the house to visit him and they were denied access, or in some instances there was physical or verbal abuse from his wife towards the professionals trying to access him,” she said.

Initially, John was reluctant to make a decision that would go against what his wife had told him, but he slowly began to speak up to the advocate about what was happening at home.

His wife had convinced him to sell a property they owned in another jurisdiction and bought another property in her own name only.

“She took all the credit cards and all the currents accounts and he no longer had any access to his finances,” Ms Savin said. “We realised that he was very much afraid that he will be asked to move to a different country and he really didn't want to do that.” 

John was then linked in with a solicitor and the arrangements were put in place to open a new bank account for himself in his own name.

She added: “He's still happily in the nursing home so we were able to support him to implement a decision that he finally had the courage to do himself.” 

*Names have been changed