Mitchell, Bill (2018) Identifying Institutional Elder Abuse in Australia through Coronial and Other Death Review Processes. Macquarie Law Journal, 18. pp. 35-56.

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Abstract

Coronial and other death review systems can help identify institutional elder abuse if they are aligned to intercept appropriate cases. While retrospective in nature, coronial and other death review systems help us understand how and why a person died. Poor understanding of the nature and characteristics of institutional elder abuse, limited epidemiological, prevalence and incidence data and missing or misaligned reporting systems have hampered our ability to understand and address institutional elder abuse in residential aged care services (RACS). It is important to identify why deaths in RACS are not investigated, particularly deaths that arise from institutional elder abuse. This analysis involves examining coronial and other death review processes, and in particular the ‘triggers’ that initiate those processes. The analysis involves considering what we already know about deaths in RACS. We also need to understand how our systems’ response to deaths by institutional elder abuse is potentially impacted by other factors including constitutional confusion and entrenched ageism. This paper suggests law reform solutions and legal process alternatives to improve our understanding and our approach to institutional elder abuse.

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