2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo (Oct. 31 - Nov. 4, 2015): Symposium: Elder Mistreatment and the Public's Health
Symposium: Elder Mistreatment and the Public's Health
Pamela Teaster, PhD, Center for Gerontology (0555), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Elder mistreatment stands as the last of the abuses to come to public attention. That it is late arriving in the public conscience is emblematic of the problem itself—it is a complex, wicked problem with issues running the gamut from micro to macro levels of society, all of which demand a committed, interdisciplinary approach engaging the brightest public health minds possible. The Symposium, Elder Mistreatment and the Public’s Health 1) frames elder mistreatment as a public health problem stressing that primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of the problem is well within the scope of work performed by public health professionals; 2) address major public policy/public health initiatives as they relate to elder mistreatment (e.g., Healthy People 2020, 2015 White House Conference on Aging, Elder Justice Act, Affordable Care Act, ADA); 3) frames elder mistreatment as a global and human rights issue.
Discuss why the issue of elder mistreatment should be recognized as a public health problem.
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have published on elder mistreatment issues for 15 years and been funded to conduct national representative studies on the topic. I have published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, and reports on the topic.