Highlighted Websites:
Unusual Federal Sources of
Elder Abuse Information

What’s the federal government doing about elder abuse? The answers sometimes show up in unusual places, such as the following:

www.drugs.indiana.edu/publications/ncadi/radar/rguides/MS719.html

That’s where you’ll find an online copy of the Substance Abuse Resource Guide “Violence Against the Elderly,” published by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This document (MS719), published in November 2000, is “currently out of stock” at the SAMHSA clearinghouse website at http://store.health.org/catalog/results.aspx?h=publications&topic=95/.

This guide notes that “elder abusers are twice as likely as non-abusers to drink heavily.” After that introduction, the Resource Guide consists of an annotated list of publications (categorized by books; booklets, brochures, fact sheets and reports; magazines and newsletters; videos, posters, and other items; and studies and articles), and an unannotated list of organizations and Internet sites.

The listings are an eclectic mix of standard and not-so-standard elder abuse references on the one hand and substance abuse materials on the other. Many of the elder abuse items do not explicitly address substance abuse, and one or two of the substance abuse resources do not appear to address elder issues. Nevertheless, if you’re looking at the intersection of substance abuse and elder abuse, this is a place to start.

The second website,

www.pavnet.org

contains the Partnerships Against Violence Network’s “virtual library” of “information about violence and youth-at-risk, representing data from seven (unspecified) different Federal agencies. The website is divided into what’s new, research database, programs, funding, PAVnet mailing list, other resources, and conference calendar. The latter links to the NCJRS’s “Calendar of Events” (see “Locating Training and Networking Opportunities” article elsewhere in this issue). Of the former, potentially the most useful for AAR readers are the research database and funding.

PAVnet says of its research database, “Research on violence-related issues - causes, prevention, treatment, and enforcement - cuts across agencies and disciplines. The PAVNET Research Database is designed to promote cross agency collaboration, reduce duplication of efforts, and provide a mechanism for sharing ideas and shaping research agendas. The PAVNET Research Database contains information about Federally-funded violence-related research culled from RaDiUS (Research and Development in the United States). RaDiUS was developed by RAND for the White House Office of Science and Technology as a one-stop source of information about all Federally-funded research and development. The PAVNET Research Database culls from this overall database only research related to violence.”

Searching for “elder abuse” in this database produces eleven projects funded by the federal government between 1995 and 2002. None of these include the National Center on Elder Abuse or, it appears, other Administration on Aging funded projects. Instead, these were mostly funded through the National Institute on Aging, the Veterans Administration, and the National Institute on Justice. Unfortunately, none of the listings gives information on how to find the products or results of these projects, although the existence of a contact person might make it possible to track them down.

The funding section of the website includes a couple of eclectic lists of foundations and other agencies that may be willing to fund violence-related projects. It wouldn’t be my first source of leads, but it’s interesting to see who’s here -- and not here.