With statistics showing that one in 10 older adults in the United States is a victim of elder abuse, Delaware is joining a growing network committed to sheltering those victims and helping them on the road to autonomy.
And the Kutz Senior Living Campus in Wilmington, DE, opened the state’s first elder abuse sanctuary on June 15, which happened to be World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The sanctuary is modeled after the first center for elder justice at The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Justice at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale in New York and the Shalom Sanctuary Center for Elder Abuse at Hooverwood Living in Indianapolis.
Kutz CEO Felisha Alderson, MSN, RN, NE-BC, LNHA, said that she was approached more than two years ago at the annual conference for the Association of Jewish Aging Services about setting up an elder abuse sanctuary in The First State.
“As our mission and vision at KSLC aligned with the shelter, we immediately jumped on the bandwagon,” Alderson told McKnight’s Senior Living, adding that the shelter will work with victims needing assisted living, memory care or skilled nursing.
The Delaware shelter is partnering with Adult Protective Services and other elder abuse agencies in the sate to provide services to older adults who are victims of physical, emotional, financial and/or sexual abuse, as well as those who have been neglected by their caregivers. All referrals will come from APS or other agencies.
“Trauma-informed care of the elderly is not the sole mission of the sanctuary,” Alderson said. “We will also be providing community outreach and education on trauma-informed care, the signs and symptoms of elder abuse, how to prevent elder abuse, and what to do if you suspect or know that an elderly person is a victim of elder abuse.”
Kutz has contacted other service agencies to participate in the network and is working with several agencies, law enforcement entities, hospitals and home care agencies to form a task force that meets quarterly to review the program and its ongoing work.
“Although we would like to think elder abuse does not occur in Delaware, we know that is not the case, as statistics show that one in 10 of our elders nationally is a victim of elder abuse,” Alderson said. “We also know that only 2% of our elders live in a nursing facility; therefore, a preponderance of the abuse is happening in the community.”
Building a network
According to a March report from the New York Academy of Medicine, the elder justice shelter was pioneered by the Weinberg Center for Elder Justice to meet the temporary housing needs of those experiencing abuse or exploitation. In addition to safe housing, the shelters use a trauma-informed approach to provide holistic case management and counseling, as well as medical, legal and social services, with a goal of enabling older adults to find safety and autonomy.
Since 2005, the Weinberg Center has provided more than 220,000 days of shelter to older adults.
In 2012, the Weinberg Center launched the SPRiNG Alliance (Shelter Partners Regional, National, Global), which brings together a network of elder justice shelters across the nation to share resources, experiences and strategies to expand access to elder justice shelters. The alliance has 60 members from 28 communities in 17 states, as well as two members from Canada.
The New York Academy of Medicine report stated that shelter programs have the potential to ease the burden on Adult Protective Service departments and hospitals by streamlining access to resources and reducing the intensity of services required. But their effect remains limited due to the small size and multiple barriers to entry.
Common barriers to shelter use include strict eligibility criteria, difficult intake processes, limited program capacity, and hesitancy by older adults to leave their homes, according to the report.
The authors noted that with increased funding, stakeholders recommended expansion of elder justice shelters to increase capacity, provide placement in a wider range of settings and communities, and offer varying levels of care to enable programs to better meet the diverse needs of clients.
