Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
the elder mistreatment cases estimated to be occurring in this county are known to <br />outside sources. The other 93% of mistreated elders are hidden. The first step in <br />mitigating their suffering must be their identification. <br />ACTION PLAN: <br />The overall aim of this proposal is to increase public and professional awareness <br />and knowledge about elder abuse (including exploitation) and neglect (including self- <br />neglect) in Orange County, North Carolina in an effort to prevent its occurrence, and to <br />detect and assist the hidden cases that exist. The goals include to: <br />1. increase community awareness and the public's, including community <br />informants, knowledge of elder mistreatment; <br />2. educate health care, human services and other professionals and their <br />students, especially first responders, community sentinels and long-term <br />care facility staff, about elder mistreatment; <br />3. implement the use of a multidisciplinary eider mistreatment emergency <br />response team in the assessment and management of selected cases. <br />Community awareness and public education will be addressed in several ways. <br />Recently two area newspapers have begun a series of articles on aging and the elderly. <br />They will be asked to include articles on elder mistreatment including its risk factors, <br />signs and symptoms, effects on the participants, how to report it, where to go for help, <br />and relevant community resources. Also attractive, eye-catching signs and brochures <br />will be placed in grocery stores, drug stores, schools, doctors' offices, utility bills, the <br />hospital, the senior centers, the nutrition sites for older adults, the department on aging <br />offices, the department of social services, etc_ These signs and brochures will include <br />an APS "hot line" number and the Department of Aging information and help line <br />number. The latter number is answered by a person rather than by a voice mail <br />message. We will also ask Bill Friday, President Emeritus at the University of North