Stop Elderly Abuse

Hello AARP,

 As part of my MSW graduate program at Cal State University of Bakersfield, my team, and I are advocating for a new legislation to help prevent elderly abuse by family members and in-home caregivers. This new legislation will require caregivers to submit to a criminal backgroud check before working in the home of the elderly.  As part of this project, we would like to receive some feed back from the AARP community. Please take sometime and answer some of the following questions. This information will only be used for our class project. Thank you for your consideration.

1. Do you know of any incidents of elder abuse you can share with us?

2. Research suggest that caregivers/family members are more than likely to abuse the elderly. How can we help prevent elder abuse from happening in the family?

3. When elder abuse happens, how do you think it affects the family, the community and the the elder being abuse?

4. Do you support passing this new legislation that requires family members to undergo a criminal background check before they can work as caregivers?

Thank you for your comments and your quick response to this issue.

Richard Montemayor