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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Elder abuse and neglect - 'old phenomenon': new directions for research, legislation and service developments
— (2008 Rosalie S Wolf Memorial Elder Abuse Prevention Award - International Category Lecture) | | Author(s) | Ariela Lowenstein |
| Journal title | Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, vol 21, no 3, 2009 |
| Pages | pp 278-287 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Elder abuse ; Neglect [care] ; Services ; Social policy ; Literature reviews ; International. |
| Annotation | Is elder abuse and neglect a social problem? The author poses this question and shows that it is. Elder abuse, though, is still the most hidden form of mistreatment and a key to governmental responses to an ageing population. It is an important facet as a family violence problem, an intergenerational concern, as well as a health, justice and human rights issue. Because the phenomenon of elder abuse and neglect is so complex and multi-dimensional, it has to be addressed by multiprofessional and interdisciplinary approaches. Raising awareness is a fundamental prevention strategy and an important step in causing changes in attitudes and behaviours. This has been accomplished by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA). This article was developed from the lecture given by the author on receiving the International Rosalie Wolf Award from INPEA. The discussion focuses on elder abuse as a product of global ageing, stemming from population ageing, which is consistent with an increased prevalence of abuse of all vulnerable groups, older people among them. It is pointed out that baseline and rend data on the nature and prevalence of elder abuse are crucial to policy responses and the development of appropriate programmes and services. Difficulties in assessing the scope of the phenomenon, though, are due to: problems in definitions and methodology, which create difficulty in comparing data from various countries; lack of social and familial awareness; isolation of some elders, especially migrants; elder abuse as a "hidden issue" that usually occurs in the privacy of the home and is viewed as a family affair; and limited access to institutional settings. Difficulties also exist in constructing a unifying research framework in order to study the phenomenon due to a lack of comparison groups, a lack of representative national surveys, and difficulties in measurement. There is currently, however, an increase in prevalence and incidence studies from both sides of the Atlantic and especially from Europe. But while prevalence studies provided base-data on numbers, little is known about key conceptual issues for policy, practice and the understanding of different forms of abuse and neglect. Theoretical under-development hampers the collection of systematic cumulative knowledge which is based on universally agreed upon and standardised tools, and reduces the ability to discover unifying themes and the relationship to local idiosyncrasies existing in the field. Additionally, there has been no attempt to develop theoretical knowledge grounded in data from the study of elder abuse itself. The following vehicles for action are thus suggested: developing international, national and regional agenda and databases; developing policy and legislation; developing services and interventions; and developing educational courses. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-100111213 A |
| Classmark | QNT: QNR: I: TM2: 64A: 72 |
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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