Abuse of Older People: Bridging Research and Practice for Change

This lecture will be held in English.

Abuse of Older People Intervention Accelerator (AOP-IA)

Each year, around one in six people aged 60 and over experience some form of abuse. Despite its scale and serious consequences, previous research has highlighted a lack of effective, evidence-based interventions to prevent and respond to abuse of older people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

In response to this gap, the World Health Organization launched the Abuse of Older People Intervention Accelerator (AOP-IA) as part of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030). This global initiative aims to accelerate the development, testing and scaling up of effective, evidence-based and affordable interventions to prevent and respond to abuse of older people.

The AOP-IA follows a four-phase process. The first two phases have now been completed: 89 unique interventions developed worldwide were identified and a publicly available database containing detailed information on these interventions was created. An international network of intervention developers, implementers and researchers was also established. The next phases will focus on refining, adapting and testing the most promising intervention approaches, followed by the development of a portfolio of effective and scalable interventions to prevent and respond to abuse of older people.

APPEAL (A Path to Prevention of Elder Abuse in Long-term care) is a national research programme funded by Forte for the period 2023–2029. The aim of the programme is to gain deeper knowledge of the circumstances surrounding abuse of older people who receive home care services or live in nursing homes in Sweden. The long-term goal of the programme is to develop an intervention to prevent abuse of older adults living in nursing homes.

REAGERA (Responding to Elder Abuse in GeriAtric care) is a research project funded by the Swedish Crime Victim Authority, the Kamprad Family Foundation, and the FORSS Region. Its long-term goal is to improve healthcare professionals’ identification of, and response to, older adults who have been exposed to abuse. Within the project, screening instruments have been developed that can be used to facilitate asking older adults about abusive experiences. Furthermore, the REAGERA educational intervention examined the effects of training healthcare professionals about abuse of older people, while REAGERA Dementia explored abuse of people living with dementia.

From Concern to Action: Experiences from the TryggEst Model and Working with Adults at Risk

She is currently completing a PhD on interactions between suspects with cognitive impairment and the police. Dahl has authored professional textbooks on abuse against adults at risk, which are used across a range of health and social care education programs. She also teaches in these programs and at the Norwegian Police University College.

TryggEst is a Norwegian model designed to help municipalities prevent, identify, and respond to violence and abuse against adults at risk. This keynote shares experiences from the development, piloting, and ongoing implementation of TryggEst, with particular attention to what is needed to move from concern to action. How can organizational structures, professional competence, and collaboration help ensure that concerns are handled? Drawing on examples from municipalities using TryggEst, the presentation illustrates how the model has been used to address specific concerns in an appropriate and professionally sound manner.

The presentation also highlights how an inadequate or insufficient response can affect the legal rights and protections of older adults who experience abuse. It draws on experiences across multiple levels of work with adults at risk, ranging from receiving and following up on specific concerns at the municipal level to the development and administration of TryggEst at the directorate level.