Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore professionals’ perceptions of the barriers to help-seeking for victim-survivors of domestic abuse aged 60 years and over. Help-seeking as defined by Anderson and Saunders (2003) is not a single act or decision, but a complex and continuous process, victims engage in when seeking support. Design/methodology/approach A total of 50 qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with statutory practitioners and managers from 21 out of 22 local authorities in Wales. The research team worked collaboratively to produce a coding scheme which was subjected to a systematic coding exercise using the software package NVivo. Findings Professionals believed that older people’s “interconnectedness” with family, social embeddedness in the community and “meanings of the home” influenced help-seeking. The research suggests that for older victim-survivors of domestic abuse, age discrimination by practitioners, compounds older people’s experiences of help-seeking, restricting the range, quality and type of support provided. The paper demonstrates that a significant shift is required in practice to ensure that older people are in a position to make informed choices and their wishes are central in the decision-making process. Research limitations/implications Further qualitative research is needed to explore what older people themselves believe are the factors that impact on statutory service engagement. Originality/value This study is the first in the UK to conduct Pan-Wales research on professionals’ views on help-seeking behaviours of older people. One of the key findings from the study is that professionals from the statutory sector feel that connections to the home and social networks strongly influence help-seeking for older victim-survivors of domestic abuse.

The abuse of older people in domestic settings is both a public health problem and a human rights issue. In 2013, the Welsh Government used its new legislative powers and embarked upon two initiatives in the areas of adult safeguarding and domestic abuse, leading to the introduction of two pieces of primary legislation. First, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, which placed safeguarding 'adults at risk' on a statutory basis and imposed new duties on local authorities. Second, the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, which addressed how public-sector bodies responded to domestic abuse and introduced a more strategic approach. Using research based in Wales, this article discusses the extent to which the two pieces of legislation promote a collaborative and integrated response from adult safeguarding and domestic abuse services and highlights some implications for practice. More strategic alignment between the two Acts will create an environment within which older victim-survivors of domestic abuse have equal access to justice options and support services as their younger counterparts.

This article explores 12 female victim-survivors’ experiences of seeking protection from criminal justice agencies in Dyfed-Powys, an area in Wales. The discussion draws on rich qualitative data, from a series of narrative interviews held in 2015, which offers new insights into how coercive and controlling behaviours influence ‘help-seeking’. The findings suggest that for 12 women, deemed to be high-risk, the experience of actively engaging with criminal justice agencies, served to instil in them a sense that they were alone at the most dangerous period in their help-seeking journey, namely the juncture of leaving, without formal protection. Under-enforcement by justice agents resulted in what Stubbs terms ‘non-feasance’: a process whereby women are unable to access protection from the law, thus potentially increasing the propensity for lethal violence.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the use of coproduction to create a film “Do You See Me?”, to amplify the voices of a “hard to reach” group: older lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) victim-survivors of domestic abuse (DA). Design/methodology/approach Qualitative methods were used as part of the co-production, which included two practitioner focus groups and 14 narrative interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning persons or the community (LGBTQ+) victim-survivors. Findings Despite differences in gender, sexualities, roles and “lived experiences” across stakeholders, there was a shared aim to ensure victim-survivors had a sense of ownership in this endeavour. Consequently, a positive reciprocity existed that helped to foster effective communication, allow for capacity building and subsequent knowledge exchange. The collaboration produced a nuanced meta-narrative making visible the “lived experiences” of LGB victim-survivors’ perceptions of perpetrator behaviours. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original in two ways, firstly, providing insights into the “lived experiences” of an invisible group; older LGBTQ+ victim-survivors, and secondly, in involving them in the co-production of a film. The paper aims to reveal how interdependencies that developed between stakeholders helped to disrupt understandings, develop new ways of knowing and build levels of trust. Group interactions helped to dismantle hierarchies, so those with experiential knowledge: the survivors, had greater control throughout the research process. The paper is significant in providing a critical reflection on the ethical, methodological and resource challenges involved in co-production. It also makes recommendations for researchers and funders about the value of using co-production as a method to engage with hard-to-reach groups.

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