Authors: Megan Wolfe, JD Senior Policy Development Manager and Karon Phillips, PhD, MPH, CHES, Policy Development Manager at Trust for America’s Health, Ruthann Froberg, MPA, Research Associate and Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD, Distinguished Medical Scholar at Education Development Center
Elder Mistreatment (EM) prevention is fundamentally an issue of the public’s health and, as such, the public health sector has important roles to play to prevent mistreatment and coordinate support for victims. According to Drs. Jeffrey E. Hall and Pamela B. Teaster, elder mistreatment is public health’s problem “because it impedes progress toward ensuring optimal health in older adulthood… and is itself a source of injuries, disabilities, and dysfunctions that compromise health, create functional impairments, and reduce quality of life.”[i]
Elder mistreatment affects the health, safety, and well-being of older adults, their families, and the communities in which they live.
It can have profound and long-term impacts on the emotional, mental, physical, and financial health of victims. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines EM as “an intentional act or failure to act by a caregiver or another person in a relationship involving an expectation of trust that causes or creates a risk of harm to an older adult.” Mistreatment is further subcategorized by physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, and neglect.
EM is a prevalent and serious public health issue, as these key facts demonstrate:
- One in ten people ages 60 and over experience some form of EM, but it’s estimated that the actual number of people experiencing mistreatment is 14 times greater than that. [ii]
- Only 1 in 24 cases of EM is reported to the authorities.
- EM is associated with a 300% increase in the risk of death.
- The estimated cost of the medical burden of EM is $5.3 billion.
However, public health practitioners may lack expertise or be unaware of the resources that can help prevent EM and support survivors and their families. To strengthen public health’s response to EM, Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) partnered with the Education Development Center and the National Alliance for Caregiving to build the Elder Mistreatment Prevention Toolkit for Public Health. This Toolkit is designed to build awareness and understanding of public health’s many roles in preventing mistreatment and mitigating its effects when it does occur. The Toolkit is one of the resources developed in alignment with TFAH’s Age-Friendly Public Health Systems 6Cs Framework and includes strategies such as:
- Ensuring that public health agencies and practitioners have the authority and resources to address EM, promote interagency collaboration, and incorporate EM awareness and prevention into existing aging and health promotion programs
- Raising awareness about ageism and how it may increase risk for EM and educating public health practitioners about ageism
- Incorporating EM education into public health curricula and provider licensure to ensure healthcare professionals are prepared to identify and address EM, leading to earlier intervention and prevention, and
- Developing or participating in multidisciplinary teams to prevent EM and support survivors and their families.
The public health sector is crucial to the health of our communities and EM prevention should be an important issue in the public health vision of ensuring everyone across the life course has the opportunity to live healthful and productive lives.
This Toolkit connects the sector with strategies and programs to achieve that vision in older adulthood.
