Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day #WEAAD2020 #WEAAD. We can all help in raising awareness of this violation of human rights. I have devoted the past few years of PhD to researching #ElderAbuse and I can tell you some things I have learnt: 1/14 
Elder abuse is the abuse of older people by those in a position of trust, frequently family members, but also friends, carers, etc. It can be financial, physical, psychological, sexual, or neglect, and frequently older adults experience several of these types. #WEAAD2020 2/14
Elder abuse is not a minor problem. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2017 estimated a pooled prevalence rate of 15.7% for adults aged 60 or older living in the community. #WEAAD2020 bit.ly/37r4B6M 3/14
For those living in residential facilities, data are more limited, but a systematic review found that, based on older adult reports, rates in studies ranged from 1.9% for sexual abuse to 33.4% for psychological abuse. #WEAAD2020 bit.ly/2UFfJYj 4/14
A systematic review also found that the impact for older adults can be quite substantial: ranging from psychological and physical symptoms to increased health-care use and premature mortality. #WEAAD2020 bit.ly/2B3IgAa 5/14
Why does it happen? Overall, #ageism and the position of older adults in society can be considered a risk factor. There is also a recent systematic review that identified individual risk and vulnerability factors for perpetration and victimisation. bit.ly/2C16w6d 6/14
Why is it sometimes hidden? I have focused my PhD on under-reporting by victims. In a systematic review looking at victims’ help-seeking behaviours, we found that there were many barriers to help-seeking in many different areas. #WEAAD2020 bit.ly/37u2cIo 7/14
For example, older adults may be afraid of consequences for themselves, may experience feelings such as shame or self-blame, may have had negative experiences with or negative expectations from formal services, or barriers within their informal network. #WEAAD2020 8/14
In many cases, there are other people involved in supporting an older victim of abuse. This may be essential in cases where the older adult may have more difficulties expressing their views (e.g., due to cognitive limitations, a risk factor for elder abuse). #WEAAD2020 9/14
U.S. research suggests that helping “hurts” and that those that got involved in helping an older adult with their situation were more distressed than those that knew about the abuse but did not get involved. #WEAAD2020 bit.ly/3e2RPxE 10/14
I am currently researching the experiences of these informal helpers in the UK & abroad via a survey. I look forward to reporting my findings. #WEAAD2020 supportexperiences.weebly.com 11/14
Finally, I can tell you elder abuse does not receive as much attention as abuse or victimisation towards other age groups (partly due to conscious and unconscious #ageism, but also less research funding, lack of awareness in the population, etc.). #WEAAD2020 12/14
We can all work on changing that. If you don’t know much about elder abuse, read about it! And tell other people you know. If you’re already working to research, prevent or intervene in elder abuse cases, keep up the good work! #WEAAD2020 13/14
And finally, let’s all listen more to the voices of older people and respect their wishes. We can only truly help if we listen and respect older adults’ wishes while doing so. #WEAAD2020 END 14/14
TL;DR Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day #WEAAD2020. Elder abuse is a violation of human rights that affects many older adults; however, it can remain hidden for many reasons. Elder abuse receives limited attention, but we can all do something to spread the word. TL:DR
