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Interventions to Prevent Elder Mistreatment

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Handbook of Injury and Violence Prevention

Over the past two decades, increasing attention has been paid to mistreatment of older persons by researchers, policy makers, and the general public. In this chapter, we review issues related to the prevention of elder abuse and neglect. We begin by discussing the state of existing research and estimates of the extent of the problem. We provide a discussion of risk factors, because prevention programs necessarily need to take probable risk factors into account. We then review types of interventions that have been used to prevent elder abuse. As will be discussed, there is a paucity of reliable research on elder abuse in general and almost no scientifically acceptable research on the effectiveness of various prevention strategies for elder mistreatment. For this reason, we focus on identifying promising program examples and on suggestions for future research. Further, several preventive options are controversial in the field of elder abuse and, therefore, require rigorous evaluation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853

    Karl A. Pillemer PhD (Professor) & Katrin U. Mueller-Johnson PhD

  2. Lighthouse International, New York, NY, 10022

    Steven E. Mock PhD (Project Director)

  3. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907

    J. Jill Suitor PhD (Sociology Professor)

  4. Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Cornell University, New York, NY, 10021

    Mark S. Lachs MD, MPH (Professor of Medicine, Co-Chief)

Authors
  1. Karl A. Pillemer PhD
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  2. Katrin U. Mueller-Johnson PhD
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  3. Steven E. Mock PhD
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  4. J. Jill Suitor PhD
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  5. Mark S. Lachs MD, MPH
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Karl A. Pillemer PhD , Katrin U. Mueller-Johnson PhD , Steven E. Mock PhD , J. Jill Suitor PhD or Mark S. Lachs MD, MPH .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, GA, 30341, USA

    Lynda S. Doll , Sandra E. Bonzo , David A. Sleet  & James A. Mercy , ,  & 

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Pillemer, K.A., Mueller-Johnson, K.U., Mock, S.E., Suitor, J.J., Lachs, M.S. (2008). Interventions to Prevent Elder Mistreatment. In: Doll, L.S., Bonzo, S.E., Sleet, D.A., Mercy, J.A. (eds) Handbook of Injury and Violence Prevention. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29457-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29457-5_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-85769-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-29457-5

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