Preventing and Responding to Domestic & Sexual Violence in Later Life

These videos offer a discussion of the relationship between abuse and caregiver stress, including a case example.

Originally a series of handouts produced in collaboration with partners, this toolkit was expanded and updated by the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life in 2020.

This resource examines the unique dynamics and barriers that older survivors of domestic abuse experience and offers recommendations for tailored service and systems responses to better support older survivors.

Older adults can be harmed in many different ways by spouses, partners, adult children or other family members or others, including strangers. This page from the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life features resources for older adults experiencing abuse, as well as their loved ones.

This video provides an overview of mandatory reporting of elder abuse or vulnerable adult abuse.

These fact sheets were adapted from a longer article. They discuss what advocates need to know about mandatory reporting of elder abuse.

This interactive online course is designed to increase advocates’ and other victim service professionals’ capacity for serving victims of sexual violence in later life.

This resource is designed to help an older survivor increase their safety and prepare in advance for the possibility of violence.

Document provides rural domestic and sexual abuse service providers with a variety of tools, strategies, and resources to effectively respond to the unique challenges of abuse in later life cases.

This resource provides tips for an older survivor to consider when planning for their safety.

Sexual violence in later life is a form of elder abuse. This guide thoroughly investigates the complexity of the topic and includes information on signs and symptoms, special issues facing older victims, and primary prevention techniques.

Sexual violence against people in later life involves a broad range of offenses perpetrated against people age 60 and beyond. This four page document outlines specific information on this topic including how advocates can respond to the special needs of older sexual violence victims.

The report contains recommendations from symposium experts who charted a course for advancing responses to elder abuse that are informed by the manifestations and consequences of trauma and promising strategies for healing.

This toolkit will help community based domestic violence and/or sexual abuse programs assess existing services and provides guidance to enhance program and advocates response to older survivors of abuse.

This safety card provides guidance to health and community professionals on how to talk to patients about any concerning behavior of those around them and encourages early education about emotional, physical, and financial harassment, abuse and neglect.

Sexual violence in later life is a form of elder abuse. This guide thoroughly investigates the complexity of the topic and includes information on signs and symptoms, special issues facing older victims, and primary prevention techniques.

This research brief discusses elder and vulnerable/dependent adult abuse in long term care settings such as nursing homes and board and care homes/assisted living facilities.

Heath care professionals, such as nurses and mental health service providers, are in a unique position to identify and address the needs of older victims of abuse. This article focuses on three main topics: the dynamics of abuse in later life, a victim-centered response, and working collaboratively with other disciplines to offer a comprehensive response to these complex cases.

This fact sheet notes elder abuse in Indian Country, emphasizes prevention by health care professionals, presents links to elder abuse assessment instrument, and offers guidance on understanding abuse in the contexts of the culture of older persons.

This article notes the difficulty in recognizing elder abuse in health care settings, provides information about several studies on identifying bruising and other markers of abuse by health care practitioners.

This article emphasizes the important role of family physician in identifying and addressing elder mistreatment. The article also highlights the need for more research to identify signs of mistreatment and increasing awareness and reporting of elder mistreatment.

This research brief identifies facilitators and barriers for screening and management of elder abuse by tribal health care providers working in the outpatient setting. 

This webinar was created for multidisciplinary professionals that serve older adults. Viewers will be able to explain the role of forensic nurses in the response to violence across the life span, and how to engage forensic nurses in an inter-agency coordinated response to abuse in later life.

This video provides an overview of Adult Protective Services and how their investigations differ from a law enforcement investigation.

This report describes a comprehensive, state-level survey of Adult Protective Service operations across the U.S. and its territories. The report includes data analysis and feedback in many APS operational areas.

This is a manual for aging services workers that helps to ensure an appropriate response to an older victim of sexual abuse.

Aging service providers should be aware that the effects of a lifetime of stigma, discrimination, rejection and ridicule puts LGBT older adults at greater risk for physical and mental illnesses. This publication highlights the importance of cultural sensitivity when working with LGBT older adults and describes the barriers faced by older persons in seeking help for abuse, working with law enforcement, and seeking court protections.

This booklet is designed as a reference for organizations when responding to inquiries about elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

This document emphasizes community collaboration and the role of aging network in responding to domestic and sexual abuse in later life.

This article describes a case that occurred in King County, Washington. “After multiple missed opportunities for intervention, a community finally responds - and an offender is held accountable.”

This report is the product of two-year research. The study examined elder abuse cases and specialized response to elder abuse by courts. Included in this report are innovative and promising practices in addressing elder abuse and elder needs.

This article describes two studies that use scientific criteria to distinguish accidental bruising from abusive bruising. The article also discusses barriers to intervening in or responding to abuse and emphasizes collaboration between prosecutors and victim-witness advocates.

This document offers an overview of performance measures, offers strategies for “flagging” elder abuse cases, and provides logistics and tools required to collect, analyze and interpret each measure.

This report identifies and prioritizes actions that direct service providers, educators, and researchers can take to benefit older adults facing abuse, neglect or financial exploitation.

This article describes a study that examined the effectiveness of an elder abuse forensic center compared with usual handlings to increase prosecution of of elder financial exploitation cases.

This benchcard outlines the problem of elder abuse and offers strategies the court can take to improve responses. It can be modified to reflect state statutes, court remediation and management tools, and local resources.

This 2011 American Bar Association Study demonstrates that court-focused elder abuse initiatives enhance access to justice for victims and offer benefits to courts and other agencies.

This booklet explores obstacles to prosecution of elder sexual abuse cases and offers practical solutions for professionals involved in these cases.

This article describes the challenges in prosecuting for elder abuse, laws that specifically protect elders, and offers suggestion for improving the handling of elder abuse cases. A collaborative and multidisciplinary approach is emphasized.

This toolkit is an overview of elder abuse intended to give prosecutors information about how to identify issues that commonly arise in these cases, suggest practice approaches, and provide a starting point for building effective cases.

This guide provides an overview of the prosecutor’s use of multidisciplinary collaboration to more effectively identify, prosecute and prevent elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.

This document provides information about the dynamics of elder abuse to clergy and other members of religious congregations and about reporting as well as preventing elder abuse.

This online toolkit is designed to help domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse service providers reach out to and collaborate with local faith leaders.

This guide provides ideas, best practices and strategies for domestic and sexual violence service providers and faith leaders to build partnerships that support older victims and survivors.

This 3-part podcast series supports the NSVRC's work to address sexual violence across the lifespan, addressing the importance of building community collaborations to serve victims of sexual violence in later life.

This article describes a case that occurred in King County, Washington. “After multiple missed opportunities for intervention, a community finally responds - and an offender is held accountable.”

This toolkit outlines how to strengthen partnerships between the community and law enforcement, further the community's role as a partner in crime reduction efforts, identify and address social issues that diminish the quality of life and threaten public safety in communities, and link those in need to services and resources that currently exist in the community.

This guide provides an overview of court participation in multidisciplinary collaboration to more effectively address elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. It suggests ways that multidisciplinary partnerships can assist courts in effectively respond to individual cases and in improving systemic community responses to elder abuse.

This document presents information about the national aging network and offers guidelines for collaboration between aging and domestic violence networks to address the problem of abuse in later life.

This manual emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team (EA-FRT), discusses various issues and challenges that EA-FRT may face, and presents suggestions for addressing these challenges.

This guide provides an overview of the prosecutor’s use of multidisciplinary collaboration to more effectively identify, prosecute and prevent elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.

The National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life has designed this set of self-assessment tools to assist communities in evaluating practices within and across key intervening agencies and in building a coordinated response to elder abuse. The tools include a series of workbooks for five key interveners—(1) domestic violence and sexual assault victim services, (2) adult protective services, (3) law enforcement, (4) prosecution, and (5) courts—and one that addresses coordinated community response.

This recorded webinar describes how legal services lawyers and social workers work together in elder abuse cases.