Join us on Thursday, June 19th for the webinar Strengthening Community Responses to Elder Mistreatment: Innovations, Interventions, and Lessons Learned, hosted by the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women and Children. This webinar is presented by Kathleen Allen, David Burnes, Lori Weeks, and Mélanie Couture.
Thursday, June 19th, 2025
1 – 2:30pm ET
11:00 am – 12:30 pm MST
Abuse of older people is a widespread yet often overlooked issue, with serious consequences for individuals and communities. This webinar will explore innovative initiatives aimed at addressing this critical issue, including 3 interventions currently being delivered in Canada.
About the Speakers
Kathleen Allen is the Research Coordinator for the AIM Study and is employed at the Muriel McQueen Fergussen Centre for Family Violence Research at the University of New Brunswick. She has a master’s degree in Equity Studies and is passionate about improving the quality of life of women and other vulnerable populations through community-based research. Kathleen has experience conducting qualitative research from the vantage point of individuals who are marginalized within dominant social institutions (e.g., birthing women in hospitals). More recently, she has gained experience coordinating randomized controlled trials taking place within the Maritime provinces.
Dr. David Burnes is a Professor at the University of Toronto and holds the Canada Research in Older Adult Mistreatment Prevention. His research focuses on the mistreatment of older adults, including its prevalence, risk factors, and effective prevention and response strategies. Dr. Burnes has published extensively in leading gerontology, public health, and medical journals. He advises international entities like the World Health Organization and U.S. National Institutes of Health on the issue of elder mistreatment. Dr. Burnes also collaborates with government and non-profit organizations, such state-level adult protective services programs, on the development, implementation, and evaluation of elder mistreatment programs.
Mélanie Couture is the Research Chair on Mistreatment of Older Adults and an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the Université de Sherbrooke. With over a decade of experience in social gerontology, her research focuses on the co-construction and integration of clinical and organizational innovations to prevent and manage mistreatment in family caregiving contexts, shared living environments, and through home support technologies.
Lori E. Weeks, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Nursing at Dalhousie University and holds a cross-appointment in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies. She has expertise in aging and family studies and uses multiple methods to examine care and support services for older adults and their caregivers and factors affecting the health of seniors. Her research often focuses on the needs of vulnerable older adults both in the community and in residential care homes. One stream in Dr. Weeks’ program of research focuses on the abuse of older adults with a particular focus on supports for older women experiencing intimate partner violence. She has served on the Board of the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and currently serves on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Aging Advisory Board.