225949 Social Marketing Efforts Related to Elder Maltreatment

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 : 2:00 PM - 2:15 PM

Stephanie Whittier Eliason, MSW , Office of Elder Rights, Administration on Aging/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC
Despite over 30 years of research and efforts, elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation (collectively, elder maltreatment) are still considered under-recognized and under-reported problems. Many advocates and professionals working with victims attribute this lack of progress to insufficient public awareness efforts and messages. Seeking to address this gap, the U.S, Administration on Aging (AoA), through its National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), awarded funding from 2007-2009 to expand its efforts develop nationwide attention to the issue of elder maltreatment. This presentation will discuss the results of the NCEA's work to (a) develop the first national elder abuse prevention health communication campaign, which included an inventory of existing elder abuse public awareness campaigns, a meta-analysis of those campaigns in terms of theories of effective health communication and social marketing campaigns, and field research to assess popularly-held beliefs about risk, causes, and prevention strategies; (b) enhance the use of web technology to communicate information about elder maltreatment; and (c) provide targeted training to health professionals on the identification and appropriate response to suspected elder maltreatment. A discussion of plans for future efforts in the arena of health communications related to elder maltreatment is also included.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Communication and informatics
Public health or related education
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe effective communication strategies for prevention of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

Keywords: Aging, Health Communications

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked at the Administration on Aging, Office of Elder Rights for over five years and have an extensive knowledge of elder mistreatment from a national perspective.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4188.0: Elder Abuse Symposium