Topic: Violence and abuse

How is elder abuse included in Norwegian municipalities’ action plans on violence in close relationships?

Several Municipalities in Norway have intensified their work on action plans concerning elder abuse after repeated incitements from the government. In the government’s white paper and consequential action plans, elderly- and other marginalized individuals are mentioned, yet no specific recommendations as how to deal with elder abuse is provided. If one briefly browses through only a few Municipalities’ action plans it is apparent that elderly abuse is not their main focus.

 
2015 This project has been completed 2016

Project Manager

Main objective

The main goal is to gather information concerning prevalence, content and “user-friendliness” in Municipalities’ action plans concerning elderly victims of violence in close relationships.
The project wishes to illuminate the following areas:

  • In what way are those aged 65 years and older included in Municipalities’ action plans and if so how are they presented?
  • What types of appropriate assistance and help are recommended for elder victims and others involved?
  • In what way does the action plan assist those who work in health and care services that deal with both elderly abuse victims and perpetrators?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses found in the already established action plans regarding elderly abuse?

Subsidiary objectives

Secondary objectives is to gain knowledge that can be utilized by politicians and other central figures who can influence both the development of new action plans but also revise established action plans.

Method

Documents from 10 randomly selected Municipalities in each of the five regional centers on violence, traumatic stress and suicide prevention (RVTS) will be reviewed; meaning that in total 50 action plans will be reviewed by using Municipalities homepages. RVTS contact persons will provide a list of Municipalities that have developed an action plan concerning violence in close relationships. These documents will serve as the foundation for the analysis, where a qualitative content analysis will be applied.

Further information

Project members include; Astrid Sandmoe (Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, NKVTS), and Aud-Mari Sohini Fjelltun (The Regional center on violence, traumatic stress and suicide prevention, Region North-Norway). The data will be gathered separately by the two project members. The data analysis and distribution and mediation of the findings will be a collaborate endeavor. The results will be presented as a NKVTS-report and an article in a Norwegian research journal- or periodical that is related to this subject.

Publications

Sandmoe, A. (2016). Kommunale handlingsplaner mot vold i nære relasjoner – også for eldre utsatte? [Does municipal action plans against violence in close relationships include elderly victims?] Norwegian only. Oslo: Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter om vold og traumatisk stress. (Rapport 9/2016).