MORE than a quarter of people calling the Adult Survivors of Child Abuse hotline are over 60, as calls for a national redress scheme to support adult victims intensify.
Adults Surviving Child Abuse president Dr Cathy Kezelman said as people aged and prepared to enter aged care, traumatic issues from the past were likely to resurface.
She said the figures on the age of people seeking help - with more than half over 50 - lent urgency to calls for national redress.
"With the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse we have seen many public hearings which focussed on historical cases from the 50s-70s, with older people providing testimony," she said.
"As more people have spoken out, others have been given permission to speak as well.
"I think community attitudes are changing, but slowly, as the resistance to speaking out about abuse is entrenched, and the stigma is substantial.
"Older people who may have kept this secret their entire life are now ringing up and reaching and seeking help.
"We have people in their 80s ringing our line and saying they have never told a soul, but then hearing how it has profoundly affected their life."
Dr Kezelman said the growing numbers of older callers meant a redress scheme was needed soon.
"As people age they become more isolated and sadly, many survivors can be quite alone, compounding the isolation," she said.
"As people age and become more dependent people can feel disempowered all over again and if they are facing residential care and have been abused in institutions, this can be a real trigger.
"Issues of the past can come to the fore, with fragments of memory returning, and when they are traumatic it can be very confusing and distressing.
"Many people don't seek help and often also don't have the capacity to access it or afford it."
She said older survivors had waited decades to be heard and find some justice and support.
"It's time for the Federal Government to show leadership, to commit, to talk to the states and then the institutions so we have a scheme that is equitable and fair."
Care Leavers Australia Network spokeswoman Leonie Sheedy said recognition of the harm done was long overdue.
Ms Sheedy, who has welcomed the Labor Party's promise to commit $33 million to set up a compensation scheme which would be funded by the institutions responsible for the abuse, said a bi-pasrtisan approach on the issue was essential.
The government is yet to respond to the Royal Commission's report on redress, which was released in September.
- ASCA's counselling and support line operates from 9am-5pm Monday to Sunday on 1300-657-380.
