Developing a peer educator program to raise awareness about elder abuse

There continues to be lack of public awareness about elder abuse. To help address this issue, we developed and piloted an elder abuse peer educator training program from an educational gerontology and health empowerment perspective. We describe the process employed to train older adults as peer educators. We present evaluation results from data collected from trained peer educators and those who attended educational sessions led by the trained peer educators. The results of the evaluation are useful in the continued development of our peer educator program and in identifying topics for further research

Informing the Development of Educational Programs to Support Older Adults in Retiring From Driving

It is clear that while transition from being a driver to being a non-driver is an important, and often negative, event in the life of older adults, there is little support available to help older adults through this transition. This study focuses on increasing our understanding of issues about driving cessation and to inform the development of educational programs to assist older adults in positively adapting to retirement from driving. A total of 201 adults over age 70 with a valid driving license completed a mailed survey containing both open and closed-ended questions. Of the 96% of participants who were current drivers, 73.4% had never considered retiring from driving. While 70.6% of participants indicated that an educational program could help people plan to retire from driving, 55.8% indicated the possibility that they would participate in such a program. Participants provided insights into the format and content of educational programs to help older adults retire from driving including coping after retirement from driving, alternative forms of transportation and how to access them, and helping to decide when to retire from driving. It is imperative for practitioners to identify ways to help older adults who are resistant to planning for retirement from driving