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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Abuse by marriage
— the exploitation of mentally ill older people | | Author(s) | Carmelle Peisah, Henry Brodaty, Marie Bridger |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 23, no 9, September 2008 |
| Pages | pp 883-888 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Elder abuse ; Mental disorder ; Marriage ; Law ; Legal services [elderly] ; Case studies ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Older people with impaired judgement and inability to appraise others due to mental illness may be persuaded to execute legal documents such as marriage certificates. The authors (including a barrister at law) aim to raise awareness of this, by outlining key legal cases from common law countries and by providing guidelines for health care professionals who encounter this issue in practice. They present two cases. The first involved an 87 year old widower who married his carer - 50 years is junior - in a marriage ceremony while hypnotic. The second case involved an 82 year old widow with moderate dementia who married her boarder; the marriage subsequently being found void in the Family Court of Australia on the basis that her consent was not real because she was incapable of understanding the nature and effect of the marriage ceremony. Abuse by marriage may be of a psychological, sexual, social or financial nature. Health care professionals may have a role in the identification and management of this kind of abuse. There are legal means to deal with the problem ranging from guardianship and financial management, to family law court applications to seek a decree of nullity or invalidity of the marriage. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-081009201 A |
| Classmark | QNT: E: SL: VR: JV: 69P: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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