How we are responding to elder abuse

Ageing and Disability Abuse Helpline

The NSW Ageing and Disability Commission provides the Ageing and Disability Abuse Helpline 1800 628 221 (Monday – Friday, 9–5). If you require an interpreter, first call 13 14 50 and tell the operator your preferred language.

Ageing and Disability Commission

The Ageing and Disability Commission is an independent agency of the NSW Government. Its role is to better protect older people and adults with disability from abuse, neglect and exploitation from someone they know living in their home or community, and to promote their fundamental human rights. For further information visit the Ageing and Disability Commission website.

Elder Abuse Interagency Policy

The Preventing and responding to abuse of older people Interagency Policy (2020) (PDF, 834.0 KB) sets out the approach for preventing and responding to abuse of older people for NSW Government agencies. The abuse of older people is often called ‘elder abuse’.

Reporting abuse

Any incident of harm to an older person in our community is of great concern.

All serious crimes, whether committed in the home, community or in residential aged care, should be reported to the NSW Police Force for investigation and appropriate action.

NSW Government commitment

The NSW Government's ongoing commitment to identifying and preventing elder abuse is demonstrated through Ageing Well in NSW: Seniors Strategy 2021–2031 (PDF, 3.4 MB). Our performance is also demonstrated through the NSW Elder Abuse Inquiry Progress Report (PDF, 1.6 MB) and NSW Elder Abuse Inquiry Final Report (PDF, 454.5 KB).

Other resources

Compass – a national resource guiding action on elder abuse
Compass website

National Elder Abuse Helpline
1800 ELDERHelp (1800 353 374)

Domestic Violence Line
1800 656 463

Link2home Homelessness
1800 152 152

Link2home Veterans and Ex-Service
1800 326 989

Child Protection Helpline
13 21 11

For other Department of Communities and Justice contacts, please visit the Contact us page.