Missing Voices Views of Older Persons on Elder Abuse

Abstract

Elder abuse, the mistreatment of older people, though a manifestation of the timeless phenomenon of inter-personal violence, is now achieving due recognition Prevalence studies concerning abuse of older persons have so far been restricted to developed nations. In developing countries, though, there is no systematic collection of statistics or prevalence studies, crime records, journalistic reports, social welfare records and small scale studies to provide evidence that abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of elders are widely prevalent. The World Health Organization(WHO) has recognised the need to develop a global strategy for the prevention of the abuse of older people. This strategy is being developed within the framework of a working partnership between the WHO Ageing and Life Course unit of the Department of Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the WHO Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse(INPEA), HelpAge International and partners from academic institutions in a range of countries. The initial step towards developing the global strategy was the set up of a study in eight countries: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, India, Kenya, Lebanon and Sweden. The study`s main approach involved the conduct of focus groups with older persons in the community, and with primary health care workers, in order to establish components of elder abuse as identified by older people themselves and by those forming the primary health care teams. A focus on primary health care context was chosen as it is within this context that elder abuse can first be identified - or overlooked altogether. Making primary health care workers aware of the problem is thus a crucial step in preventing and/or managing elder abuse. This report presents the design and findings of the study, and the conclusions of a meeting(Geneva 11-13 October 2001) aimed at identifying the indications for policy, research and action emerging from these study findings. Reports from each country prepared by the national teams were reviewed and analysed at the meeting. Analysis of the major themes revealed remarkable similarities across the participating countries. Older people perceived abuse under three broad areas: ·Neglect - isolation, abandonment and social exclusion ·Violation - of human, legal and medical rights ·Deprivation - of choices, decisions, status, finances and respect The conclusions contain recommendations for action, some of which are already being implemented, with others to follow in the near future. These recommendations can be summarised as follows: ·To develop a screening and assessment tool for use in primary health care settings ·To develop an education package on elder abuse for primary health care professionals ·To develop and disseminate a research methodology `kit` to study elder abuse ·To develop a Minimum Data Set concerning violence and older people ·To ensure dissemination of the research findings through scientific journals ·To develop a global inventory of good practice ·To mobilize civil society through raising awareness of the widespread magnitude of elder abuse