Program Highlights
KEYNOTE LECTURE:
Treatment or Mistreatment? Medication as an agent of elder abuse
- Susan Kurrle, M.D.
Overuse, underuse and misuse of medication are often not recognised as part of the spectrum of elder abuse. Withholding of medication for Parkinsons Disease leading to immobility, use of sleeping tablets during the day to achieve constant sedation, and use of coumadin to induce life threatening hemorrhage are some examples of this form of abuse. This presentation describes the problem, using a number of cases to illustrate how and why it occurs, and suggests some guidelines for identification and management.
Medicolegal Investigation of Deaths in the Elderly
- Richard Harruff, M.D., Ph.D.
This presentation will focus on the medicolegal investigation of elder deaths, showing the administrative and scientific challenges of detecting, documenting and certifying deaths due to abuse and neglect. A major objective is to provide a coherent and reasonable approach to death investigation in older populations. After this presentation, the attendee will be able to explain why death certificates are often misleading and why it is essential to have close collaboration between medical examiners or coroners, health care providers, regulatory and law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Elder Mistreatment: Advances in Clinical Care - Carmel Dyer, M.D.
Over the past several years, it has become increasingly evident that solutions to elder abuse must involve an interdisciplinary approach. This is true at the levels of prevention, assessment, and intervention. Successful models of interdisciplinary collaborative efforts will be discussed.
The Clinical Management of Elder Abuse: Steps and Challenges from a Social Work/Adult Protective Services Perspective
- Georgia J. Anetzberger, Ph.D., A.C.S.W., L.I.S.W.
Adult protective services (APS) may have the lead role in addressing elder abuse in the United States, but its efforts are fraught with challenges at every juncture. This plenary session describes the role of APS, delineates steps in the APS process, and discusses various challenges uniquely faced by APS in investigating and intervening in situations of reported mistreatment and self-neglect. Case studies are used to illustrate these challenges and potential measures to overcome them.
Emerging from Obscurity: Elder Abuse's Slow Journey Toward the National Agenda
- Marie-Therese Connolly, JD
Elder abuse has eluded meaningful public attention for decades and has been the subject of insufficient resources, research, training, policy, infrastructure, enforcement and legislation. Why? What steps might nudge it into the public consciousness?