Raising awareness of elder abuse in the community practice setting.

In 2000 the Department of Health published No Secrets: Guidance on developing and implementing multi-agency policies and procedures to protect vulnerable adults from abuse. This has laid the foundation for multi-agency policy development for the prevention of abuse of vulnerable adults at the national and local level. Recognition and appropriate action by community practitioners is essential to safeguard the welfare of older people. This paper aims to provide an overview of the key policy and research initiatives surrounding elder abuse, and to provide clear guidance in terms of identifying and reporting possible cases of abuse.