Mobilizing Social Networks to Prevent Elderly Abuse

Abstract

This article presents a model for the mobilization of informal social networks as one means to prevent elderly abuse. The emotional, financial, and physical stresses for adult children caring for an older person have been well documented. Such research suggests that familial abuse of the elderly can be conceptualized as an outcome of the lack of congruence between the elderly's needs and the family's resources for providing care. Social network interventions can aim to decrease the elderly's needs or to increase the family's resourccs for providing care. Thus, an underlying preventive approach is to either improve the supportive quality of existing network contacts or to bring the elderly and their families into contact with similar peers who can become part of their network. This article advocates a partnership between professionals and the natural helping network that draws upon each system's strengths without weakening either familial or public responsibility.