AN estimated 21,000 Irish pensioners are being physically, mentally or sexually abused by their adult offspring in their homes every year, a conference on abuse of the elderly will be told this week.

The conference, to be held in Dublin on Wednesday to mark the first World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, will warn that thousands of elderly people fear for their welfare, despite being cared for by relatives and friends.

Financial abuse tops a list of complaints by older Irish people, many of whom are forced by their adult children to hand over their pension books, revise their wills, release equity on their homes or sell their property to defray care home costs.

“Abuse in nursing homes is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Amanda Phelan, chair of the group that is staging the conference. Phelan, a co-ordinator of public health nursing at University College Dublin who is researching care of the elderly in the community, said people wrongly assume families are the safest people to care for the elderly.

“We assume that offspring or siblings won’t harm or neglect their parents, but it is frightening what can happen in the home,” said Phelan. “The vast majority of abuse and neglect occurs in the home, despite the impression, created by the Leas Cross scandal and poor care in other institutions, that abuse of the elderly is confined to nursing homes.”

There are no government statistics on abuse of the elderly in Ireland, where 12% of the population is over 65. In the absence of quality data, experts are forced to rely on case studies and anecdotal reports received through abuse hotlines.

International studies on abuse indicate that up to 6% of old people living in a community or home are subject to abuse, either physical, sexual, emotional or neglect. About 500,000 of Britain’s elderly are subject to abuse by relatives and carers. This revelation prompted a parliamentary inquiry, which said abuse of the elderly was Britain’s “last hidden abuse scandal”.

Older people are reluctant to report abuse because it occurs in family settings. “Vulnerable and elderly people trapped in their homes are reluctant to complain because they are dependent on their families to care for them,” said Avril Dooley, of Age Action Ireland, a member of the strategy group. “They may be extremely fearful, but they maintain silence.”

Last year the Irish public was encouraged to inform on friends and neighbours they suspected were abusing elderly people, using a new hotline. Funded by a British charity, it was set up after several old people were found dead in tragic circumstances at home.

Three years ago, Agnes Lyons, 70, was found in the home she shared with her elderly brother and sister, near Ballyhaunis in Co Mayo. She had been dead for up to a year.

Mary Nally, the chief executive of the Senior Helpline, [cor] which receives more than 2,000 calls a year, said calls from worried older people increased during the holiday months.

The helpline receives more than 2,000 calls a year. Most of those who make contact are lonely, but 17% have family problems and 9% have reported fear or abuse.

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