First published in 1999. Research on elder abuse in the United States has made great strides in recent years. As a result, we have been able to define and discover the causes of elder abuse, design tools to assess the risk of abuse, develop and implement treatment and prevention strategies, and evaluate programs for victims and perpetrators. However, this research has been derived from studies whose subjects were primarily Caucasian. This is not because elder abuse does not take place in minority communities, but rather because researchers wanted first to study the issue in its broadest sense.

Helping mental health clinicians anticipate, recognize and respond to elder abuse, this book quickly summarizes risk and protective factors, the important role of cognition and capacity and clinicians' legal and ethical obligations to report suspected or known elder abuse.

Elder Abuse and Its Prevention is the summary of a workshop convened in April 2013 by the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Global Violence Prevention. Using an ecological framework, this workshop explored the burden of elder abuse around the world, focusing on its impacts on individuals, families, communities, and societies. Additionally, the workshop addressed occurrences and co-occurrences of different types of abuse, including physical, sexual, emotional, and financial, as well as neglect. The ultimate objective was to illuminate promising global and multisectoral evidence-based approaches to the prevention of elder maltreatment. While the workshop covered scope and prevalence and unique characteristics of abuse, the intention was to move beyond what is known about elder abuse to foster discussions about how to improve prevention, intervention, and mitigation of the victims' needs, particularly through collaborative efforts. The workshop discussions included innovative intervention models and opportunities for prevention across sectors and settings. Violence and related forms of abuse against elders is a global public health and human rights problem with far-reaching consequences, resulting in increased death, disability, and exploitation with collateral effects on well-being. Data suggest that at least 10 percent of elders in the United States are victims of elder maltreatment every year. In low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of violence is the greatest, the figure is likely even higher. In addition, elders experiencing risk factors such as diminishing cognitive function, caregiver dependence, and social isolation are more vulnerable to maltreatment and underreporting. As the world population of adults aged 65 and older continues to grow, the implications of elder maltreatment for health care, social welfare, justice, and financial systems are great. However, despite the magnitude of global elder maltreatment, it has been an underappreciated public health problem. Elder Abuse and Its Prevention discusses the prevalence and characteristics of elder abuse around the world, risk factors for abuse and potential adverse health outcomes, and contextually specific factors, such as culture and the role of the community.

Since the late 1970s when Congressman Claude Pepper held widely publicized hearings on the mistreatment of the elderly, policy makers and practitioners have sought ways to protect older Americans from physical, psychological, and financial abuse. Yet, during the last 20 years fewer than 50 articles have addressed the shameful problem that abusersâ€"and sometimes the abused themselvesâ€"want to conceal. Elder Mistreatment in an Aging America takes a giant step toward broadening our understanding of the mistreatment of the elderly and recommends specific research and funding strategies that can be used to deepen it. The book includes a discussion of the conceptual, methodological, and logistical issues needed to create a solid research base as well as the ethical concerns that must be considered when working with older subjects. It also looks at problems in determination of a report's reliability and the role of physicians, EMTs, and others who are among the first to recognize situations of mistreatment. Elder Mistreatment in an Aging America will be of interest to anyone concerned about the elderly and ways to intervene when abuse is suspected, including family members, caregivers, and advocates for the elderly. It will also be of interest to researchers, research sponsors, and policy makers who need to know how to advance our knowledge of this problem.

Product Description: Addresses key issues facing older people and our entire society. Topics include care pathway model, guidelines for health care professionals, understanding elder abuse in minority populations, moral and ethical implications of elder abuse, sexual violence against elderly women, helping victims, and more. For public health personnel.

Understand violence within its cultural context! To reduce violence, we need to understand what it is, where it comes from, and what it means in cultural context. Violence: Diverse Populations and Communities provides new empirical research and theoretical models to help you understand the impact of violence on various ethnic and cultural groups. From the effects of abuse on Latino children to aged Korean-American women's perceptions of elder mistreatment, this comprehensive volume covers all ages, many ethnic groups, and multiple types of violence. Violence: Diverse Populations and Communities looks at such neglected populations as Mexican, Korean, Vietnamese, and Cambodian immigrants as well as Black, Caucasian, and Latino cultures. The forms of violence studied range from the devastation of war to keeping elders isolated for long periods of time and culturally specific forms of abuse. This comprehensive volume also includes a thorough literature review, stressing the need for more research, especially into the needs and experiences of neglected populations, and suggesting fruitful areas for further inquiry. Violence: Diverse Populations and Communities asks and answers complex questions, including: Is war or street violence more traumatic for adolescent refugees from the Khmer Rouge? What social support benefits do street gangs offer their members? How do cultural expectations of male and female roles affect dating violence? What culturally sensitive interventions best address the needs of a Latina rape survivor? How do women of various Asian cultures respond to spousal battering? How can practitioners working with elder abuse victims define their roles, objectives, and interventions to accommodate cultural differences? The groundbreaking research in Violence: Diverse Populations and Communities provides an illuminating exploration into the cultural meaning of violence. By questioning standard assumptions and discovering what violence means to those who suffer from it and perpetrate it, practitioners can better serve multicultural client populations. This book will change the way you see violence by helping you understand its manifestations within various cultural contexts.

This scoping study reviews the literature on the definition and prevention of elder abuse. It investigates how elder abuse is conceptualised across different dimensions and settings, risk factors for abuse, what mechanisms and interventions have been used to ameliorate abuse, how effective these interventions have been, and current Australian state and territory policy. The study focuses on abuse by family members and close friends, and prevention efforts within the family setting rather than broader community or professional campaigns or schemes. The study finds that while the term 'elder abuse' is useful to describe a broad range of behaviours the actions required to address this social problem are many and varied, and blanket approaches are unlikely to be successful.