UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 18, Page 3
February 2, 1995
National center; Office provides information on elderly abuse
As the number of Americans reaching old age increases and the
abuses committed against them continue to rise, the University of
Delaware is involved in a leading effort that offers important
information to those involved in the fight against abuse of the
elderly.
CANE (Clearinghouse on Abuse and Neglect of the Elderly) is part
of a project of the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), a
consortium of four organizations that includes the University of
Delaware, the American Public Welfare Association (APWA), the National
Association of State Units on Aging (NASUA) and the National Committee
for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA).
"We serve the information needs of professionals who work with
neglected and abused elderly," Karen Stein, chairperson of the
Department of Textiles, Design and Consumer Economics and director of
CANE, said. "Adult Protective Services, located in every state, is
responsible for investigating allegations of elder maltreatment and
offering services to elderly victims of abuse and neglect. They are
our prime clients."
CANE also serves physicians, attorneys, law enforcement officials
and agencies who may be trying to design a new prevention program or
initiate a public education campaign on elder abuse, she explained.
Stein said the University became involved in 1986, when she and
Suzanne Steinmetz, then a faculty member in the Department of
Individual and Family Studies, applied for and received a grant from
the U.S. Administration on Aging, dealing with elder abuse prevention
programs.
One of the many activities performed under the grant was the
establishment of a clearinghouse on elder abuse.
"We established a computerized data base consisting of a vast
array of related materials on elder abuse," Stein said. "The materials
included academic journal articles, training materials and curriculum
guides."
Abstracts were taken from these materials and categorized into
about 100 key words-there currently are 147. By contacting CANE,
professionals could learn the latest information about research,
practices and events occurring in their field at both the national and
local level.
The same year, as a result of the original grant, the nation's
only newsletter on elder abuse, the CANE Exchange, was developed.
Funding for the program ran out in 1988, but that same year,
there was another federal call for proposals to establish a national
aging resource center on elder abuse.
"Because of what we had established at the University through
CANE, we wanted to turn our small project into a national center on
elder abuse," Stein said.
Recognizing that a stronger proposal could be prepared by
combining expertise and resources with other organizations directly
tied to aging agencies at the state level, CANE joined forces with
APWA and NASUA and secured the grant. The newsletter then became the
NARCEA Exchange, reflecting its new organization, the National Aging
Resource Center on Elder Abuse (NARCEA).
Steinmetz left the University in 1988 and Stein continued to
direct the clearinghouse, edit the newsletter and perform a number of
research studies for NARCEA. When funding for NARCEA ran out in 1991,
CANE was continued on a self-supporting basis, but efforts were
limited without the federal money.
"NARCEA's services, especially CANE and the newsletter, were so
valuable to state agencies and professionals that work with the abused
elderly, that there was continual support for our refunding at the
federal level," Stein said.
In 1993, a federal proposal came out to establish a national
center on elder abuse as authorized in the 1992 amendments to the
Older Americans Act of 1965.
The original consortium expanded to include the National
Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA), and won a four-
year contract, and the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), became a
reality.
Currently, the center keeps its clients up to date on latest
developments through its newsletter, now called the NCEA Exchange,
which is sent to about 3,000 professionals active in the field of
elder abuse.
Drawing upon its 3,000-plus holdings, the clearinghouse fills
about 1,000 requests for information annually.
CANE is currently the nation's largest and most utilized
computerized collection of elder abuse resources and materials.
Assisting in the operation of CANE is Eileen Castle, a staff member of
the textiles, design and consumer economics. She identifies and
abstracts new holdings, and serves as liaison between CANE and its
national and international users.
"Information is a very scarce commodity," Stein said. "We
translate research into practice, and being familiar with the practice
allows us to do better research."
In the 20 or so years that research has been conducted, knowledge
about elder abuse has increased from zero to the point where the
existence of elder abuse and neglect within the family setting is well-
documented, and researchers are aware of a range of abusive behaviors
that exist, Stein said. However, the extent of abusive behaviors
against the elderly is not well documented. Estimates of elder abuse
range from 735,000 to 1.5 million elderly victims.
Stein said a new federally-funded elder abuse national incidence
study, conducted by NCEA, will provide reliable data on the extent of
elder abuse in America.
There is continuing debate over what causes people to become
elder abusers. Stress-dependence theories held that the stress on the
caregiver would cause normal people to do things that they would not
do under ordinary, less stressful circumstances. Newer research
studies are finding that abusers are prone to pathological behaviors.
While the majority of abusers are adult children, a shift may be
occurring. "There is great growth in cases where abusers are the
grandchildren," Stein said. "It also is found that substance abuse on
the part of the caregiver can lead to physical or financial abuse of
the elderly." Recognizing this tie between substance abuse and elder
abuse may lead to more effective prevention programs and interagency
collaboration, she said
"It's not just data and static information that we are involved
with here," Stein said. "The work that we do has real implications for
improving the lives of a very vulnerable segment of society."
-Jerry Rhodes