How the Seniors Legal and Support Service can help me or an older person I am supporting?  

Anyone can make contact with the Seniors Legal and Support Service.  Call 1800 954 494 or (07) 3187 7187 or speak to a health professional if currently in hospital.  Assistance can be provided by phone or via visits to hospitals, aged-care facilities, a person’s home or other safe location.   

The Seniors Legal and Support Service (SLASS) provides free social support, practical assistance and legal services for older persons at risk of or experiencing elder abuse, mistreatment, neglect or financial exploitation. The SLASS staff will assist and support older persons to make decisions and empower them to resolve their legal and non-legal issues.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers are available to speak with. 

Secondary consultations can be provided to health workers, aged-care providers, police and other professionals who are concerned about an older person. 

The Seniors Legal and Support Service and Caxton Community Legal Centre cannot provide assistance with estate planning or estate disputes.   

What is elder abuse?  

The abuse of older persons usually occurs within the family, but older persons may also experience abuse from carers, neighbours or friends. 

Common situations where elder abuse occurs include:  

    • a family member (usually son, daughter or grandchild) living in the home and being verbally abusive, not contributing financially or not agreeing to move out when requested
    • a breakdown in family agreements to loan money, build a granny flat, provide money/assets in exchange for care
    • long-term abuse or violence from a partner
    • denial of opportunity to spend time with grandchildren
    • misuse of a power of attorney or denial of an older person’s right to make their own decisions and control their finances
    • receipt of a carer’s pension without providing the care
    • older people being forced to sign legal documents.  

Read the discussion papers from the National Elder Abuse Conference 2019 here.

Multidisciplinary model

Caxton’s SLASS services are multidisciplinary, bringing together lawyers, social workers, community and health professionals.  Read about the SLASS multidisciplinary model here.

Health justice partnerships   

To increase early identification of elder abuse, SLASS is also delivered via three health justice partnerships between Caxton Community Legal Centre and:

Older persons can be assisted in all of these locations. 

Enhanced hospital referral pathway for Metro South Health and Metro North Health 

Any hospital and community health staff within Metro South and Metro North will be able to refer you to SLASS regardless if you are an inpatient or outpatient. 

Service providers can use this form to refer their patients or to see contact details for accessing the SLASS team. 

You can also email them at slass@caxton.org.au.

Education and training 

The Seniors Legal and Support Service can provide free community legal education and professional training about elder abuse, guardianship, human rights, supported decision making and future life planning.

You can access the Human Rights in Practice: Capacity, Decisions and Options modules for free.

The five modules are:

  1. Human Rights Practice, Older People and Adults with Disabilities
  2. Supported Decision Making
  3. Future Planning and Enduring Documents
  4. Assessing Capacity for Decision Making: foundational
  5. Assessing Capacity for Decision Making: advanced.

Seniors Financial Protections worker

Persons who are nearing retirement or older persons who want assistance with managing finances (including prevention of financial elder abuse) can contact our Seniors Financial Protections Service. 

Useful information 

SLASS publishes valuable factsheets to provide easy access to information on common legal matters for seniors.  

A number of factsheets have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Serbian and Tagalog.

SLASS also publishes helpful factsheets for professionals, including:

Acknowledgement of funders   

The Seniors Legal and Support Service is funded by the Queensland Government and the Metro South HHS arm of SLASS is funded by the Commonwealth Government.