Elder Abuse Prevention and Quality Jobs Discussed at AiA Conference

At the 2016 Aging in America (AiA) Conference in Washington, DC, PHI experts held two sessions highlighting a pair of key issues in long-term care: preventing elder abuse and neglect, and assuring quality jobs for direct-care workers.

PHI’s Training to Prevent Adult Abuse and Neglect (TPAAN) was the focus of a 90-minute session on March 20, presented by PHI’s Cean Eppelheimer and Hollis Turnham as well as Clare Luz of Michigan State University.

The panel explained that PHI’s approach to combating elder abuse goes beyond the prevailing method, which focuses on recognizing abuse and reporting it after it happens.

PHI’s curriculum teaches skills that help learners recognize and deal with the stressful situations that can lead to abuse, thereby preventing abuse before it ever occurs.

The second PHI-led panel, on March 21, focused on the link between quality jobs for direct-care workers and quality care for consumers.

Eppelheimer joined PHI’s Abby Marquand, Carol Rodat, and Sara Joffe talked about the mostly female workforce of certified nursing assistants, home health aides, and other types of frontline caregivers who provide the majority of hands-on care for elder and people with disabilities.

The PHI panel argued that, with greater investments of time, money, and training in the direct-care workforce, the quality of elder and disability care in the U.S. can be greatly improved.

PHI Director of Federal Affairs Daniel Rutherford Wilson served as conference co-chair for the event.

The conference marked the beginning of Elder Justice Coalition national coordinator Bob Blancato‘s tenure as chair of the board of the American Society on Aging (ASA), the Washington, DC-based group that organizes the annual AiA conference.

The conference also gave PHI experts the chance to meet with leading figures in the field of long-term care, including Josefina Carbonell, former Administration on Aging Assistant Secretary for Aging, Karyne Jones, chair-elect for the ASA board of directors, and Dr. John Thompson, ASA Board Member.

— by Matthew Ozga