Prevention of abuse of older adults in Norway (PAOAN)

According to WHO (2021), between 2015 and 2050, the share of the world's population over the age of 60 will almost double from 12% to 22%. The Norwegian population is also getting older, and the oldest age groups are growing more and faster than the regular population (Leknes et al. 2018). Ageing in the population challenges public health in general and raises questions about needs, health-promoting and preventive measures regarding how older adults feel in Norwegian society (Meld. St. 15 2017–2018; Care 2020). At the same time, political governance documents (WHO, 2021) and research have underlined the importance of health promotion for older adults (Arsenijevic et al. 2016) and prevention of abuse (Aas, 2017; Yon et al. 2017; OECD, 2017; UN, 2017). Norway signed in 2002 the World Health Organization Toronto Convention concerning the prevention of elder abuse, the country, 20 years later, did not emplace any national specific legislation aiming at the prevention of abuse against older adults and the promotion of health of this group. As it is stated clearly in the report “Violence and Abuse against Elderly People in Norway: a national prevalence study”, published in 2017 by the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies A/S, the country urges measures concerning elder abuse prevention and better notification of this type of violence to be able to offer to the public health agents more opportunities to address properly this public health matter. 

This project aims to shed light on the following research question: What options does Norway have to implement specific national laws and guidelines to address the prevention of older adult abuse as recommended in the Toronto Declaration? This application has as goals: (1) To build a database and apply, at the end of 2023, for funding a research fellow / PhD applicant within Kristiania’s PhD Programs in partnership with NTNU (2) To apply for strategic research external funding to enlarge the cooperation with other countries and contribute to the development of the scientifical field.

The project is financed by Kristiania University College