2025 Theme: Addressing Abuse of Older Adults in Long Term Care Facilities: Through Data and Action
Despite increased awareness, many countries still lack reliable, disaggregated data, and staff shortages or lack of adequate training, continue to create high-risk conditions for abuse and neglect. A World Health Organization (WHO)-supported study revealed that nearly 64% of institutional staff admitted to abusive behavior in the previous year, highlighting the urgent need for systemic change.
This year’s World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) will focus on the abuse of older adults in longterm care facilities. Whereas most older people live in the community, institutional care is a reality for many. As the need for institutional care grows with global aging, so do concerns about safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity of residents is of outmost importance.
With a global ageing population and increasing reliance on institutional care, ensuring residents’ safety and dignity is more urgent than ever.
#WEAAD2025
2025 International WEAAD Commemoration
Location: Virtual
By emphasizing both good practices and existing shortcomings, the conference will contribute to stronger, evidence-based efforts to protect the rights and dignity of older people in institutional care. Join leading experts as they share evidence, good practices, and solutions to strengthen protections and drive systemic change.
Addressing Elder Abuse
Between 2019 and 2030, the number of persons aged 60 years or over is projected to grow by 38%, from 1 billion to 1.4 billion, globally outnumbering youth, and this increase will be the greatest and the most rapid in the developing world, and recognizing that greater attention needs to be paid to the specific challenges affecting older persons, including in the field of human rights.
Elder abuse is a problem that exists in both developing and developed countries yet is typically underreported globally. Prevalence rates or estimates exist only in selected developed countries — ranging from 1% to 10%. Although the extent of elder mistreatment is unknown, its social and moral significance is obvious. As such, it demands a global multifaceted response, one which focuses on protecting the rights of older persons.
Approaches to define, detect and address elder abuse need to be placed within a cultural context and considered along side culturally specific risk factors. For example, in some traditional societies, older widows are subjected to forced marriages while in others, isolated older women are accused of witchcraft. From a health and social perspectives, unless both primary health care and social service sectors are well equipped to identify and deal with the problem, elder abuse will continue to be underdiagnosed and overlooked.
Did you know?
- By 2050, it is estimated that 1 in every 6 people will be aged 65 or over, increasing the vulnerability experienced by older persons to violence.
- Around 1 in 6 people 60 years and older experienced some form of abuse in community settings during the past year.
- Elder abuse can lead to serious physical injuries and long-term psychological consequences.
- Elder abuse is predicted to increase as many countries are experiencing rapidly ageing populations.
- Globally, 82% of the estimated deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in people aged 60 years or older
Photo: ?UNFPA Vietnam Office
Ageism affects how we think, feel and act towards others and ourselves based on age. It imposes powerful barriers to the development of good policies and programmes for older and younger people, and has profound negative consequences on older adults’ health and well-being. Launched by World Health Organization, the aims to change the narrative around age and ageing and help create a world for all ages.
