Carl Pillemer to Give Gerontology Series Talk
	The Ithaca College Gerontology Institute's Distinguished Speaker Series will continue on Thursday, November 6, with a talk by Carl Pillemer, a Cornell University professor and co-directer of the Cornell Applied Gerontology Research Institute. Pillemer's talk, "Elder Abuse: Myths and Realities," is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow. For more than a decade, Pillemer has conducted a program of research devoted to understanding the causes and consequences of elder abuse and neglect. He carried out a pioneering study that provided the first estimates of the prevalence of elder abuse. This random-sample survey interviewed 2000 elderly people in the greater Boston area regarding experiences of verbal aggression, physical abuse, and neglect. He later conducted the first large-scale survey of abuse of residents by nursing home staff. His work now focuses on health and medical aspects of elder abuse, which led to a major article in the New England Journal of Medicine. He has published two books on the topic: Elder Abuse: Conflict in the Family and Helping Elderly Victims: The Reality of Elder Abuse. In the past several years, Pillemer has worked extensively on the issue of frontline workers in long-term care. He is cofounder and editor of Nursing Assistant Monthly, a continuing education program for frontline long-term care workers. He has spoken and conducted trainings across the country on the topic. In addition to publishing more than 60 journal articles and chapters, Pillemer is coauthor of Social Integration in the Second Half of Life (forthcoming) and coeditor of Parent-Child Relations in Later Life. In his Ithaca College presentation, Pillemer will review the state of current knowledge about elder abuse, focusing on ways in which research data contradict a number of popular views of maltreatment of the aged. He will review findings on the prevalence of elder abuse and on factors that place elderly people at risk of being victims. He will also critique policy and practice options for preventing and treating elder abuse.