About this event
WEAAD 2026 Online Forum – "Empower, Prevent, Protect: A Rights-Based Approach to Elder Abuse."
Date: Tuesday, 23 June 2026 | Time: 10am ACST
WATCH THE RECORDING
ARAS held its 19th World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Forum, "Empower, Prevent, Protect: A Rights-Based Approach to Elder Abuse."
The forum generated strong national and international interest and provided a valuable platform for public officials and leaders, advocates, policymakers, researchers and practitioners to share insights, evidence and innovative approaches to addressing elder abuse.
This year's theme, "Empower, Prevent, Protect: A Rights-Based Approach to Elder Abuse," highlighted the importance of upholding the rights, dignity and autonomy of older people while strengthening prevention and response efforts across our communities.
The theme also reflected a shift towards proactive, rights-driven systems that place older people at the centre of decision-making, as reinforced by the new Aged Care Act and its focus on person-centred quality standards. By empowering individuals with knowledge and voice, strengthening safeguards to prevent harm, and ensuring robust protections when abuse occurs, a rights-based approach fostered not only safety but genuine inclusion and respect. It recognised elder abuse as a violation of fundamental human rights and called for coordinated action across governments, services and communities to uphold dignity, autonomy and wellbeing.
The program included an introduction to ARAS by Anne Burgess AM, Chairperson of ARAS, followed by presentations from respected leaders, including Natalie Siegel-Brown, Inspector-General of Aged Care, and Robert Fitzgerald AM, Age Discrimination Commissioner.
Since 1990, ARAS has been empowering older South Australians to uphold their aged care and human rights. As the SA member of the Commonwealth-funded Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN), ARAS continues to lead the conversation on elder abuse prevention.
See it. Stop it. Prevent it. There's no excuse for abuse.
