Combating Elder and Dependent Adult Mistreatment: The Role of the Clinical Psychologist

ABSTRACT

Among the many different professionals who work to address elder and dependent adult mistreatment, the clinical psychologist performs a function that is not well documented. The experiences of a clinical psychologist attached to a medical response team and an elder abuse forensic center provide insight into this complex and multifaceted role. Case examples from an elder abuse forensic center illustrate the breadth of referral questions that a clinical psychologist addresses. This information may be of use to those who would argue that these services be made widely available to elder abuse professionals such as social workers, public guardians, and those in the criminal justice system. The case studies also may be useful for training purposes.     

Assessing Knowledge of Elder Financial Abuse: A First Step in Enhancing Prosecutions

Financial exploitation by a family member is the most common form of elder mistreatment; yet, it is a difficult crime to detect and prosecute. Psychologists have traditionally assisted prosecutors by assessing decisional capacity and opining in court whether an alleged victim was able to consent to the contested transactions. This article proposes and evaluates a novel form of psychological expertise in financial abuse trials—social framework testimony to reeducate jurors who are misinformed about aspects of this largely hidden crime. Findings suggest that, as in cases of child and spousal abuse, social framework testimony on the general dispositional and situational factors inherent in elder financial abuse may enhance prosecutions.     

PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION,EMINENT DOMAIN,AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF NEO-LIBERALISM

Abstract

This essay addresses the institutional conditions of cultural studies, especially those bearing on cultural studies teaching. It does so by reviewing the history of the Open University Popular Culture course from an insider's perspective. Whereas most published accounts of this course have related it closely to the concerns of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, this essay suggests that the two projects — while overlapping in certain respects — are more usefully thought of as distinct. Having disentangled the history of the Open University course from that of the Birmingham Centre, the author goes on to advance a more general argument concerning the politics and practice of cultural studies pedagogy. The essay's main contention in this regard is that a conception of cultural studies teaching which connects it to the cultivation of resistive practices in the classroom is incoherent. It is suggested that this now influential current of thought is best assessed as a negative outcome of the encounter between the projects of cultural studies and US liberationist philosophy.     

Accommodating strangers: British hospitality and the asylum hotel debate

This article examines the accommodation of asylum seekers through Jacques Derrida's ethical writings on hospitality, generosity and parasitism. The differing hospitable spaces of the asylum and the hotel, and of the strange figures of the asylum seeker and the tourist, are discussed with reference to these discourses of “giving” and “taking”, paralleling Derrida's opposition between unconditional hospitality and hospitality‐as‐economy. This “new racism” towards asylum seekers is thus located within the economic sphere, as asylum control is linked to the welfare state and to fears of strangers' parasiting the host nation. However, I argue that it is the nation‐state that parasites asylum seekers both through their defining difference and their contribution to service economies. Ultimately then the asylum hotel does exist, as Stephen Frears' film, Dirty Pretty Things (2002), illustrates.     

Enough is enough: Grandmother caregivers' strategies for mitigating out-of-school suspensions for African–American youth

This qualitative study explores the strategies used by grandmothers caring for African–American grandchildren with out-of-school suspensions drawing from a larger study of caregivers. In-depth, semi-structured, individual interviews with 10 grandmothers who were caring for a total of 13 grandchildren with a range of 1 to 14 out-of-school suspensions (OSS) revealed that these grandmother caregivers took action with both their grandchildren and the grandchildren' s educators. Grandmothers became intensely involved with school and in-home educational activities. They structured their relationship with their grandchildren to attend to affection, provide incentives and respond with appropriate consequences. Additionally, grandmothers identified services and programs received and needed to enhance the grandchildren' s engagement with the learning process. Furthermore, based on strong opinions about changes needed in the schools, they provided concrete recommendations to educators. These recommendations call for professionals to support grandmothers' actions to reduce OSS and advocate to educators to revise policies and procedures that would promote a better understanding of grandchildren in the care of their grandmothers and the efforts that these grandmothers make to mitigate OSS.     

Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) Residents Have a False Sense of Security That Could Jeopardize Their Safety in a Disaster

High-rise apartments bring unique challenges in emergency situations. To better understand the needs of apartment-dwelling seniors in emergency situations and potential sources of support available, a novel collaborative community development approach was used with seniors living in a naturally occurring retirement community (NORC) in London, Ontario, Canada (N = 2500; mean ± SD age = 79 ± 9.53 years). A surprising finding was a false sense of security, with seniors expecting that management would take care of all needs. This finding reinforces the critical need for better public messaging for seniors, as well as targeted emergency management plans for frailer older individuals living in the community.