An Ecological Model of Elder Justice

​In the thirty-something years I’ve worked in the field of elder abuse prevention, I’ve seen abuse framed and re-framed as a medical syndrome, a caregiving issue, domestic violence, and a public health epidemic. The Elder Justice Act (EJA), enacted in 2010, enshrined abuse as a matter of social justice and individual rights. Although the new frame has been widely embraced, the EJA is narrowly focused and fails to address the myriad other threats (besides abuse) to older Americans’ rights. I wrote Elder Justice, Ageism, and Elder Abuse (Springer, 2019) to explore these threats and what our field can do about them.

1. ... the ecological model of elder justice addresses threats to individual rights, including such fundamental rights as privacy and due process, as well as rights pertaining to special groups. Users of long-term services and supports, for example, have rights as consumers, and those with disabilities have rights protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Other groups with special rights include crime victims, immigrants, workers, nursing home residents, and jail and prison inmates. 

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