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Upcoming webinar – Responding to violence in later life: Evidence, priorities, and opportunities

 

Thursday 14 May 2026, 13:00  – 14:30, online

The VISION research consortium invites you to a free webinar looking at violence and abuse experienced by those in their later years. What is the current evidence of exposure and health outcomes? What should the violence prevention research and policy priorities be for an aging population? And what are the opportunities to improve our knowledge about this issue?

The event will include:

Patterns of violence and discrimination exposure across the life course and their associations with health in later life, Dr Anastasia Fadeeva, VISION Research Fellow, City St George’s, University of London

  • Dr Fadeeva will share results from her study which used data from wave 11 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which included information about Life History events, such as multiple types of violence and discrimination over the life course. Distinct patterns of violence and discrimination experiences were identified using the Latent Class analysis, followed by analysis of the associations between the profiles of violence experiences and health outcomes.

Listening to Older Survivors: Informing Support and Interventions for Domestic Abuse in Later Life, Dr Vasiliki Orgeta, Associate Professor, University College London

  • Dr Orgeta will present quantitative and qualitative research on psychological trauma and abuse in older women. She will explore their experiences and the perspectives of professionals supporting them, highlighting barriers such as stigma, isolation, and lack of recognition. The findings are informing a psychological advocacy intervention for older women, funded by the NIHR and led by UCL, designed to provide tailored, long-term support that promotes safety, autonomy, and wellbeing.

Later life adversities and their relationship with health outcomes: evidence from Wales, Dr Kat  Ford, Research Fellow, Bangor University and Professor Karen Hughes, Bangor University

Supporting older survivors of Sexual Violence- barriers and good practice, Amanda Warburton, Independent Researcher

  • Amanda will present findings from her MA in Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse dissertation study which gathered the views of professionals who have supported older survivors of acute sexual Violence. The presentation will cover barriers to seeking support and highlight good practice to enable older survivors on their journey to recovery. 

This webinar will be of interest to stakeholders involved in violence prevention research, policy and practice who work with older people and / or are interested in lifecourse violence and abuse prevention.

Join us at this free webinar on 14 May, 13:00 – 14:30. To book your place and receive the Teams link, please email VISION_Management_Team@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Photograph provided by Age Without Limits image library

Carers’ increased risk of domestic violence and poor health outcomes

The poor health of unpaid carers is well-established, and evidence also shows they experience high levels of domestic violence. However, the links between domestic violence and carers’ poor health remains overlooked. The study, Health morbidities in carers with experience of domestic violence and abuse, led by Drs Juliana Onwumere and Emilie Wildman of King’s College London along with research team member Professor Sally McManus, VISION co-Deputy Director, and others, examined this relationship using the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS), a representative sample of the adult population of England.

The results show that carers are more likely to be female, older, economically inactive, and in debt than non-carers, and that carers tend to have worse mental and physical health. One in three carers reported having had experience of domestic violence. With adjustment for confounders, carers were more likely than non-carers to be victims of physical, emotional and sexual forms of violence and abuse. People with experience of both caring responsibilities and domestic violence had particularly poor mental and physical health outcomes (compared to carers and non-carers without experience of domestic violence, as well as non-carers experiencing domestic violence).  

NICE guidelines state that carers should be offered training to help them to provide care safely, including support around managing challenging behaviour from the person being cared for. However, professionals can struggle to identify and respond to carers’ experiences of domestic violence. Facilitating routine enquiry in carers is essential, particularly given that carers often delay seeking support for their own needs carers and may not readily and independently disclose their experiences of violence to professionals.

Recommendations

Efforts to incorporate inquiry into experiences of domestic violence into carers’ needs assessments, which unpaid carers are entitled to, may help facilitate identification and referral to appropriate support services.

Carers high risk of domestic violence goes largely unrecognised in UK policy and practice. This is a sensitive and hidden topic; these findings suggest that addressing carers’ poor health requires also identifying – and addressing – their experiences of domestic violence.

To download: Health morbidities in carers with experience of domestic violence and abuse

To cite: Wildman, E.K., Dickson, H., MacManus, D. McManus, S., Kuipers, E., Onwumere, J. Health morbidities in carers with experience of domestic violence and abuse. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (2025). Https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-025-02959-4

For further information, please contact Juliana at juliana.1.onwumere@kcl.ac.uk

For further information about APMS, contact Sally at sally.mcmanus@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Photograph from Age Without Limits