Covid-19: Abuse of the elderly will rise

Isolation during the Covd-19 pandemic will act as a “pressure cooker,” making abuse of the elderly and vulnerable more likely, a charity warns.

Abuse and neglect is expected to rise as the nation practises social distancing and the most vulnerable stay indoors for months, the safer ageing charity Hourglass said.

It believes older people will be at risk because they will be without the safeguards offered by regular day-to-day contact with the outside world.

Any lockdown measures will exacerbate tensions and societal unease and become a recipe for disaster, making abuse more likely but “harder to spot”, it warns.

A poll for the charity paints a disturbing picture of attitudes towards the elderly, with more than a third of respondents not believing acts of domestic violence towards an older person count as abuse. And almost half felt that “not attending to an older person’s needs in a timely fashion” did not constitute abuse.

Hourglass chief Richard Robinson said: “What we have here is a recipe for disaster.

“Even under the best of circumstances, we know that more than a million older people experience abuse or neglect in the UK every year.”