Preventing Harm to Vulnerable Older Adults: A Social Justice Perspective

Abstract

This article presents the results from a qualitative study that explored how legislation in British Columbia, intended to protect vulnerable adults from harm, is implemented in practice. The legislation contains guiding principles that require the least restrictive and minimally intrusive form of support or intervention be used and that the adult’s wishes be respected. Sixteen professionals who work as elder abuse responders in British Columba participated in this study through interviews and a focus group. Fifteen of the study participants were social workers. Grounded theory method was used, and themes were identified. The first theme reveals that responders prefer to obtain older adult consent to service provider involvement, rather than forcing compliance by using statutory authority. The second theme reveals that responders may not be able to intervene in a minimally intrusive manner because of resource shortages and organizational structural issues. These findings have human rights and social justice implications.

Co-Word Analysis of First-Authored Publications Written by Top Cited Scholars of Social Work

“…However, publishing articles in journals of a different discipline is not unusual for scholars. For example, social work scholars often publish articles in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (Al-Krenawi et al, 2007; Benbenishty et al, 2018), Journal of Behavioral Medicine (Ai et al, 2009; Ai et al, 2011; Levy et al, 2010), and Journal of Nursing Care Quality (Galambos et al, 2021), whereas scholars of nursing (Chen et al, 2020; Julion et al, 2021), law (Braun, 2021) and education (Chacón-Cuberos et al, 2021) publish articles in Research Social Work Practice . Therefore, merely focusing on papers published in discipline-restricted journals (Ho, 2013; Holden et al, 2005; Holden et al, 2009; Holosko et al, 2017; Lacasse et al, 2011; Martínez et al, 2014) or non-discipline-restricted journals (Klein & Bloom, 1992; Lacasse et al, 2011) can only paint half the picture of the major research activities and the dynamic nature of social work.…”