WEAAD-Logo-400Today, June 15th, is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, offering an opportunity for all of us to join a global chorus calling for more awareness and action to end all forms of elder mistreatment.

As a clinician with expertise in caring for older adults, I have made elder mistreatment a priority in my research and practice. It is a common and even deadly problem, but it all too frequently goes undiagnosed and unreported. It has also too often been ignored as the true public health concern that it is.

An estimated one in ten older Americans suffer elder mistreatment, defined as physical, psychological, or sexual abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, or abandonment. I’ve seen it in clinical practice; we sometimes see it in the news. It is horrifying and awful, yet there is much we can immediately do to protect older adults, support their family caregivers, and prevent abuse and mistreatment from occurring.

In particular, health care, emergency services, social service, and law enforcement professionals, who are on the front lines with older adults every day, should use each interaction with an older person to screen for possible mistreatment. One simple yet powerful way to do this is by asking the question: ‘Are you safe at home?’

Especially for older people who may be isolated, frail, cognitively impaired, or who may rarely get a chance to communicate outside the company of their abuser, these are important opportunities that cannot be missed. Resources for training and the development of models that help these front line workers are needed.

Terry Fulmer attends a White House Conference on Aging Forum on Elder Justice Terry Fulmer attends White House Conference on Aging Forum on Elder Justice

Elder mistreatment is an incredibly serious public health issue, and merits the same level of response as child abuse or domestic abuse. I have worked on this problem for many years and I have seen encouraging progress. The 2015 White House Conference on Aging included elder justice as a primary topic. The Elder Justice Act was passed as part of the Affordable Care Act and established the Elder Justice Coordinating Council.

The work of the Elder Justice Act falls under the purview of the Administration for Community Living and the bold leadership of Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee, who shares my passion for this issue. We are so fortunate that the ACL has created the National Center on Elder Abuse, which is a major resource to the nation. You can hear Assistant Secretary Greenlee speaking with John Feather of Grantmakers In Aging and myself on a recent GIA webinar, “Making Elder Justice a Reality: the Federal and Philanthropic Perspectives.”

To overcome the nation’s reluctance to talk about this issue as the major societal problem that it is, we need to reframe the public discourse about elder abuse. As part of that effort, a group of foundations have supported a major communications project from the renowned FrameWorks Institute, which recently issued a report, “You Only Pray that Somebody Would Step In: Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Elder Abuse in America.”

The John A. Hartford Foundation Change AGEnts Initiative has also produced an excellent issue brief on elder justice that I recommend to you.

Here at The John A. Hartford Foundation, we are engaged right now in site visits and hosting convenings in four states with experts who will help us define better models of clinical intervention for elder mistreatment. We look forward to sharing more about that work with you as it progresses.

As a country, there is still much more we can do, particularly at a federal policy level, to help support all the other promising work on the ground. In particular, each of us can join forces as advocates for policies and funding that continue the trend toward ending elder mistreatment. Specifically, we encourage you to contact your legislators and raise the following critical issues:

  • First, Congress must appropriate full funding for the newly reauthorized Older Americans Act, to increase prevention, screening, and training, including in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
  • Second, we should expand support for the Department of Justice’s efforts to train prosecutors on elder mistreatment and financial exploitation.
  • Third, we need more research funding for best practices for clinical prevention, detection, and screening.

This World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, the National Center of Elder Abuse offers more ideas about how to be involved. We are grateful to the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations for organizing this crucial opportunity for all of us to increase our vigilance.

We should be aiming for the best possible quality of life for older adults. Elder mistreatment is its antithesis and it must end.