Raising Awareness of Abuse of Older Persons: An Issue for Faith Communities?

Protecting Our Elders: An Interfaith Coalition to Address Elder Abuse

“…The Institute on Aging in San Francisco partnered with the city's Inter-Faith Council to educate clergy about the new mandated reporting law. In addition, they worked collaboratively with the Department of Public Health's violence prevention project to reach African-American clergy and provide training to individual congregations when invited (Podnieks & Wilson, 2005).…”

“…As part of a larger research project, Podnieks and Wilson (2005) examined what information and materials clergy need to be more effective responders to elder abuse. All participating clergy admitted that their formal training was extremely limited in dealing with elder abuse; they also conceded that though the need is great to further educate clergy on elder abuse, it is unlikely that clergy will establish this as a priority worthy of further exploration.…”

“…For example, clergy are busy, and their time is extremely limited (McKenna & Miller, 2003;Podnieks & Wilson, 2005;. They tend to be overextended with their regular faith-related duties, and there is intense competition for their time and personal commitment (Jones et al, 2005).…”