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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Barbara Herbert, MD, Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Elder Tales - Department of Emergency Medicine, 726 Cambridge St, Boston, MA Ma, 617-789-3139, barbara.herbert@gmail.com

Persons combating intimate partner violence in the US and internationally have used human rights analysis to expand the framework for understanding interpersonal violence cross-culturally. The human rights lens has also provided a platform for culturally specific interventions although most analysis is directed to younger women,. The “demographic imperative” projects an elder population increasingly heterogenous by race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender identity, ableness and socio-economic status. Interpersonal violence against elders occurs at a complex intersection of personal history, relation to family and community, available psychological, physical and material resources, ethos of the culture and administrative reach of the state. The particularities of “domestic violence” may span the entire spectrum of elder abuse, involving children, partners or other relatives, in interconnected physical, sexual, emotional or financial abuse or neglect; these often trigger governmental engagement. Personal history clearly influences the impact of abuse for some individuals with a childhood history of violence producing excess comorbidity in chronic disease in ageing. Post-traumatic mental health problems cross the life span. New models of eliciting information about histories of violence, continuing experience of violence, resilience in the face of violence are necessary to fully engage the persons affected as well as service providers in novel, effective and efficacious interventions. This is a review of available information about utilization of a human rights lens to describe elder abuse, and a first attempt to suggest ways in which it can be employed to augment collecting histories of violence from elder patients presenting to an emergency department

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Identify the basice principles of a human rights analysis of violence
• Describe ways in which violence impacts the lives of elders
• Explore novel means to elicit information about histories, experience and resilience to the multiple interrelated forms of violence that constitute elder abuse using a human rights framework.

Keywords: Violence, Oral History

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation