Elder mistreatment is vastly under-explored, despite its great importance to the rapidly expanding older population. Little is known about the prevalence/incidence of elder mistreatment in any U.S. population, let alone American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs).The few available studies on elder mistreatment among this group suggest that the phenomenon is likely common, but rigorous studies on its prevalence/incidence are sorely needed. Further, there is a dearth of knowledge about cultural understandings of elder mistreatment in AI/AN communities. Since what constitutes mistreatment is culturally defined, this lack of knowledge likely hinders researchers' ability to detect mistreatment. To address these gaps, we propose to assemble a community and research network to conduct developmental work on a prevalence/incidence study of the mistreatment of older AI/ANs. The meetings will involve a collaboration between two groups: 1) an interdisciplinary team of researchers with vast expertise in AI/AN communities and an established track record of conducting epidemiological studies with this population, and 2) a culturally and geographically diverse panel of Community Experts with backgrounds in Native elder advocacy and abuse prevention, adult protection, and a variety of elder services. The meetings will lay the groundwork for a pilot study of the phenomenon in two communities, one rural and one urban. Our experience with the pilot study will then inform a set of recommendations for maximally identifying the phenomenology and extent of elder mistreatment among AI/ANs. The 3 specific aims of this project are: 1) to explore the feasibility of conducting a study of the prevalence/incidence of mistreatment among rural and urban Native elders, and to identify measurement approaches that can be employed in a pilot study; 2)to conduct a pilot study of the prevalence/incidence of mistreatment among Native elders in order to evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of several methods of measuring mistreatment in this population; and 3)to use the information generated by the project to develop recommendations for future research that estimates the prevalence/incidence of elder mistreatment in AI/AN communities. The collaboration between researchers and Community Experts will ensure that scientific approaches to conducting a prevalence/incidence study of Native elder mistreatment will be grounded in local realities. This project is a unique opportunity to explore the prevalence/incidence and cultural phenomenology (i.e., ways of understanding and describing) of elder mistreatment in a minority population in which this phenomenon has rarely been examined. Jervis, Lori L. Project Narrative. ? This project provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore the mistreatment of American Indian and Alaska Native elders, a topic about which almost nothing is known. It will utilize methods that combine the practical experience of a Community Expert Panel(comprised of Native elder advocates, elder protection, and abuse prevention experts) with the scientific expertise of researchers with established histories working with this population. At its culmination, the project will produce aseries of recommendations for future research on the prevalence/incidence of American Indian and Alaska Native elder mistreatment that are informative, useable, and grounded in real-life experience. ? ? ?
| Jervis PhD, Lori L; Sconzert-Hall Ma, William; The Shielding American Indian Elders Project Team (2017) The conceptualization of mistreatment by older American Indians. J Elder Abuse Negl 29:43-58 |
| Jervis, Lori L; Fickenscher, Alexandra; Beals, Janette et al. (2014) Assessment of elder mistreatment in two American Indian samples: psychometric characteristics of the HS-EAST and the Native Elder Life-Financial Exploitation and -Neglect measures. J Appl Gerontol 33:336-56 |
