Senior Power: End Elder Abuse (USA)

by Helen Rippier Wheeler

 August 04, 2010

“If you want peace, work for justice.” 

Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) 

Thanks to my colleague and friend, California Senior Legislator 

Joanna Kim-Selby, for checking the following Elder justice update.  

In July 2010, the United States Department of Health and Human Services announced the establishment of the Advisory Board on Elder Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation. Creation of this Board was part of the Elder Justice Act passed earlier in 2010. The Advisory Board will be creating both short and long-term multidisciplinary strategic plans for the development of the field of elder justice in the U.S. It will examine relevant research and identify best practices and make recommendations to the Elder Justice Coordinating Council and to Congress regarding improving and enhancing federal, state, and local elder justice programs, research, training and coordination.  

The Congressional Report on the Feasibility of Establishing a Uniform National Database on Elder Abuse was recently released, the result of the passage by Congress of a small portion of the Elder Justice Act in 2006.

The study was to develop a system of elder abuse data collection that produces accurate and easily accessible data and therefore ensure an appropriate systematic legislative response to the overall problem. The major points include: 

• Current research indicates that the problem of elder abuse is largely unreported.  

• Little progress has been made and data continue to be collected via numerous agencies using inconsistent definitions for the data.  

• The two primary options for the study are 1) a national prevalence study to determine how many older adults are abused, and 2) a nationally coordinated administrative dataset to examine the outcomes of services and interventions after abuse is reported.  

• Some technical considerations for establishing a national data collection effort are: 1) there must be a uniform national or benchmark definition for elder abuse, 2) whether reporting should be mandatory or voluntary, 3) what data elements to include, 4) how to ensure confidentiality, and 5) data systems issues.  

• This data collection effort will likely require some level of federal funding.  

Key recommendations and conclusions include: 

• Addressing systematic weaknesses in existing elder abuse data collection systems  

• Compiling a national database of state APS (adult protective services) data  

• Planning to build a comprehensive cross-disciplinary national database of administrative data on elder abuse by combining sources incrementally  

• Investing in a national data collection effort could build upon the existing systems. 

The California Elder Economic Security Standard Index (The Elder Index) is a new tool that quantifies how much income is needed for a senior with a given living arrangement and geographic location in order adequately to meet his or her basic needs living in the community. It is the only elder-specific financial measure of its kind, based on credible, publicly-available sources and has been calculated for all 58 California Counties. Using it makes it is possible to identify, as of 2007, each California County’s Annual Comparisons and Basic Monthly Expenses for Selected Household Types.  

SOURCE:     Berkeley Daily Planet 
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