Christmas is not always festive for all

Hillary Thole

For too many of Rotorua's elderly, Christmas can be a time of loneliness and abuse, according to Age Concern.

"Elderly abuse and neglect rises dramatically over Christmas time. It's really easy to intimidate an elderly person into giving money to the family, and the term that is often used is 'you don't need it'," said Age Concern Rotorua elder abuse and neglect prevention co-ordinator Hillary Thole.

"If you have children you want to buy Christmas gifts for and are running out of money ... many people say to them [elderly] 'it's just a loan'."

Mrs Thole said elderly family members often gave in to financial pressure to avoid isolation, but regretted it later.

"Often the issue is social isolation, and social isolation is elderly abuse. In the past year I have dealt with 80 cases, and 90 per cent of those were financial abuse, and a lot of it goes unreported.

"One of the big things is if they don't give in to family demand they will get isolated, and they don't want that social isolation," she said.

"Family members think it's their right to take their money. If an elderly person is receiving money from the government, which is taxpayers' money, family members might take this but also be on financial assistance themselves, so the taxpayer is being hit twice by the same person."

Age Concern accredited visiting service co-ordinator Joanne Bryant said loneliness was an issue all year round, but was certain to worsen around Christmas time.

"We have a number of older lonely people in our community, and it is consistent over the year. Around 200 people say they are lonely in Rotorua and need someone to see them.

"Around Christmas lots of neighbours leave the community and they usually keep an eye on the older people."

Mrs Bryant said elderly people needed to be proactive in putting structures in place to make themselves safe.

Forty people in Rotorua were currently receiving visitors through the Age Concern Visiting Service, but she expected that to double over the year, she said.

She said national figures showed one in six elderly were lonely.

For more information, to report elder abuse or if you would like to participate in the visiting service, call Age Concern Rotorua.