This study aims to explore the views of professionals about specialist services supporting older people in England and Wales who have experienced current sexual violence and answer the following questions: Research questions: What are the barriers to accessing support for older victim survivors? Is there any best practice that can be identified? Specialist Services refers to Sexual Assault Referral Centres and support services such as Rape Crisis.
The methodology used in this research involved semi-structured interviews with four professionals working in roles where they have provided direct support to older survivors of sexual violence and abuse and one academic conducting research around survivors of abuse. Data collection was qualitative and identified barriers to disclosure, seeking and accessing support for older victim survivors, along with some examples of best practice.
The findings are grouped into nine themes spanning barriers to initial disclosure through to barriers encountered in the criminal justice system for older survivors. Examples of best practice are also presented, detailing opportunities to improve support for older survivors. The research found that, whilst there are some unique barriers that older victim survivors of sexual violence and abuse experience, some of these barriers could be overcome by replicating the good practice identified and by professionals working closely with specialist sexual violence support agencies.
This research was conducted with five professionals so is limited in scale. It also only covers practitioners working in England and Wales. Despite these limitations, some common themes emerged that identify barriers to seeking and accessing support for older survivors of sexual violence as well as some good practice examples. These findings could be used to improve policy and practice to support older survivors.
The findings of this research could directly improve practice across a range of services including adult social care, adult safeguarding and specialist sexual violence support services with potential implications for improvements to national practice in agencies such as the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Removing barriers to reporting and seeking support, along with replicating examples of good practice in service provision, could lead to more older victims of sexual violence feeling able to disclose and begin a journey to recovery.
This research offers current perspectives from front line professionals working with older survivors of sexual violence alongside real life examples of good practice that can be used to form new perspectives for professionals working with older people. The identification of themes relating to barriers to seeking and accessing support reflect the current situation within a range of agencies and the impact this directly has on victims’ recovery.
