The Hear Our Voices website brings together available resources on sexual assault, safety and support for older women in one place. We curate materials developed by specialist agencies, research organisations, advocacy bodies, and frontline services, alongside the tools and resources created by OWN NSW through our work with communities, partners and sector experts.
Here you will find:
- evidence-based reports and national research
- training videos and educational content
- survivor-informed stories and insights
- practice guides, checklists and tools for frontline workers
- sector resources developed through initiatives such as Ready to Listen
You can also find a list of useful links on resources addressing sexual assault of older women here:
Our goal is to make vital information easy to find, easy to use, and grounded in the real experiences of older women — so workers, advocates and communities can strengthen their practice and improve safety outcomes.
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This tool provided by the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission, is designed to support your reflection and learning as a professional working with older women and women with disability who may be experiencing domestic, family, and sexual violence (DFSV).
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The answer sheet, a resource created by the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission, offers guidance using reflective practice. This may be helpful if you feel unsure about how to respond to a question, or if you would like to use it after completing your own reflections to compare different perspectives.
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This resource has been created by the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission for DFSV workers as a tool to support assessing and planning for safety and considers the additional circumstances, barriers and risks that older women and women with disability may experience, or be at risk of experiencing.
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A Fact Sheet created by the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission. Providing information about the available support and what to expect during the reporting process can help reduce fear and empower the person to feel more in control of their situation.
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Tips provided by the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission on how to respond if an older woman, or a woman with disability you are supporting, tells you that they are experiencing DFSV.
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The NSW Ageing and Disability Commission provide tips to help keep clear and accurate records to ensure consistent and informed support, provide evidence, support effective safety planning, and help identify patterns of abuse over time.
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Use this checklist, created by the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission, to ensure referrals are safe, person-centred, and trauma-informed. It’s important to recognise that older women and women with disability may face unique barriers to accessing support.
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This fact sheet, created by the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission, looks at some of the most common and harmful stereotypes about older women and women with disability. These stereotypes can affect how people respond when an older woman or woman with disability makes a disclosure about DFSV.
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To commemorate International Women's Day, join us to shine a spotlight on service provider leadership in preventing the sexual assault of older women. The aim of the webinar is to share practical strategies for change - to encourage replication and further prevent sexual assault of older women.
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Authors: Dr Catherine Barrett, Yumi Lee and Deborah Barndon
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This resource has been developed for service providers working with older women who are victim-survivors of sexual assault. It aims to strengthen understanding of older women’s experiences, the drivers of sexual violence in later life, and the systemic barriers that prevent access to justice, safety, and recovery.
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Historic gender inequalities shape contemporary experiences of sexual assault for older women. Understanding these inequalities is essential for improving recognition, reporting, and service responses.
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Older women experience a unique and harmful intersection of ageism and sexism that undermines visibility, safety, and access to justice.
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Contemporary inequalities increase vulnerability to sexual assault, reduce access to safety and justice, and shape the ways older women understand and respond to violence.
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Older women living with dementia—and older women caring for partners with dementia—face significantly elevated risks of sexual assault.
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Older women living in residential aged care experience some of the highest rates of sexual assault in Australia. Most victim-survivors are older women with cognitive impairment.
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Improving responses to sexual assault against older women requires accurate, inclusive, and age disaggregated data. Without reliable data, older women remain invisible in policy, service design, prevention frameworks, and funding decisions.
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Healing and recovery for older women who are victim survivors of sexual assault requires trauma informed, age aware, and rights based approaches that recognise the lifelong impacts of inequality and the unique barriers older women face.
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Outreach is essential for ensuring older women understand their rights, recognise sexual assault, and know how to access support.
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Inclusive services recognise older women as a distinct and diverse group with specific rights, needs, and experiences.
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This Facilitator’s Guide provides a trauma informed, age aware, rights based framework for engaging workers across sexual assault, domestic and family violence, aged care, health, community services, disability, and advocacy sectors.
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Sexual violence against older people remains one of society’s most hidden and misunderstood forms of abuse. It happens in homes, care settings, hospitals, and communities — often at the hands of trusted people.
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A framework for improving responses to, and preventing, sexual assault in residential aged care.
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A life stages approach for the national plan to end violence against women and their children.
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