Seen Not Seen: Understanding and Responding to Abuse of Older People - (30/06/2026)

Target Audience:

This webinar is suitable for all multi‑agency practitioners involved in Safeguarding Adults, including registered and regulated professionals, frontline staff, managers, commissioners, and volunteers working across statutory, voluntary, community, health, housing, and care settings.

Overview:

Seen Not Seen: Understanding and Responding to Abuse of Older People is a one‑off webinar designed to strengthen awareness, confidence and practice in recognising and responding to abuse affecting older adults. Abuse of older people is widespread yet frequently hidden, minimised or misunderstood, with many people experiencing harm never disclosing or receiving support. This webinar brings together specialist presenters with expertise in older people’s safeguarding, sexual violence, mental capacity and complex co‑occurring needs to explore why this abuse frequently remains unseen.

Aims:

• Raise awareness of the internal, relational and systemic barriers that prevent older people from reporting harm, including fear, stigma, dependency, cognitive bias and professional uncertainty.
• Draw on case studies, research, and safeguarding reviews, the session outlines the scale and forms of abuse affecting older people and its links with complex needs such as dementia, mental ill health, frailty, fluctuating capacity, and coercive control.
• The session will challenge myths around sexual violence in later life.
• Using a Mental Capacity Act lens, practitioners will consider lawful and proportionate safeguarding responses where capacity is decision‑specific, unclear, or disputed, including when individuals refuse support or may be subject to undue influence.
• Overall, the webinar supports lawful, person‑centred, and defensible safeguarding practice while raising awareness of specialist services that enable effective, compassionate multi‑agency responses.