Oral

Elder Abuse is an under-recognized threat to public health's goal of increasing the number of healthy older adults living actively and independently in healthy, safe communities. Although public health has contributed to the field of Elder Abuse prevention for decades, many public health professionals lack a basic understanding of this phenomenon. As a result, public health's workforce may not be adequately prepared to address Elder Abuse if (1) tasked with taking actions to prevent Elder Abuse from initially occurring, (2) faced by its occurrence during the delivery of other essential public health services, or (3) forced to attend to its impacts on the effectiveness of seemingly un-related health promotion or disease/disability prevention initiatives. To help strengthen public health's ability to address the problem of Elder Abuse, this session provides information about the nature of Elder Abuse in the U.S. Topics to be discussed include but are not limited to: (1) the epidemiology of Elder Abuse, (2) the social, political, and scientific context of Elder Abuse prevention, and (3) public health's shared and unique roles in addressing Elder Abuse. In addition, the session will highlight examples of multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary, multi-agency partnerships and projects focused on preventing, detecting, treating, measuring, and understanding Elder Abuse. Consideration of this information will be facilitated by presenters who have worked to address elder abuse nationally and locally.

Session Objectives: Discuss the public health importance of Elder Abuse and its implications for Older Adult Health Define public health’s current and potential contributions to and roles in Elder Abuse Prevention Identify other sectors and systems considered stakeholders in Elder Abuse Prevention Describe how public health’s approach to Elder Abuse prevention differs from, complements, and intersects with approaches employed by other stakeholders Outline actions that can be taken to help prevent Elder Abuse in state, local, and national settings

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)