The emergence of legal prevention in old age: findings from an Israeli exploratory study.

The aging of the world has led the field of law to the realization that it must respond and change in order to deal with this phenomenon. One way in which law has responded to societal aging was by adopting preventive measures in the field of elder law. The Israeli legal system is only in its initial stages of establishing and implementing preventive tools for old age. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was twofold: First, it looked into the knowledge about, understanding of, and actual usage of preventive legal tools in old age in Israel. Second, it compared the Israeli findings to those of a similar American study. The findings of this exploratory study indicate that overall in Israel, the actual usage of preventive legal tools in old age is low both in absolute terms and compared to the American rates. Another important finding is the significant gap between the knowledge about preventive legal tools and their actual use by older adults. The findings suggest that Israel and other countries that are in their initial stages of developing preventive laws for older persons should consider broader socio-legal issues than the mere enactment of preventive legislation.