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Cultivate aging, bereavement, and end-of-life care

CTIPP recognizes that trauma exposure can occur and manifest at any point during one’s lifespan. It also is established that trauma exposure among older adults is more common than the absence thereof.

 

Exposure to trauma impacting aging and older adults can be experienced at any point in their lives, from childhood to more specific issues related to older adulthood and the aging process itself, such as grief and loss, changing roles of identity and place, shifting experiences with physical, cognitive, and mental health-related factors and capacities, increased dependence on caregivers, increased vulnerability to neglect, abuse, or exploitation, and other challenges.

 

CTIPP believes in human potential for healing across the lifespan and supports the advancement of evidence-based, evidence-informed, and promising emerging approaches to trauma with aging, bereavement, and end-of-life care.

​CTIPP SUPPORTS:

  • Expand support and increase funding to establish resources/programming that facilitates social activity and community connection among aging and older adults

  • Provide a framework to enhance care collaboration with families of older adults who are living in care facilities of any kind

  • Enhance trauma-informed support for those experiencing grief and loss

  • Fund resources, services, and support groups, such as:

  • Groups intended to provide support for and buffering direct/secondary traumatic stress among caretakers of older adults

  • Grief groups for older adults processing increased loss

  • Community-based engagement and meaning-making volunteer opportunities targeted to older adults

  • In-home visitation programs to thwart the isolation that can exacerbate the impact of trauma

  • Ongoing opportunities for older adults to connect

  • Bolster support and resources for older populations that have endured trauma

  • Promote cross-sector collaboration to provide sufficient wraparound services (e.g., affordable and accessible housing, specialized health and mental health supports, robust choice for affordable and accessible long-term care options, and supportive in-home services like house cleaning, hygiene management, and food preparation)

  • Implement programs to provide trauma-informed physical, spiritual, emotional, and logistical aid related to end-of-life planning and preparation (E.G., death doulas, legal aid for last will, etc.)

  • Analyze existing policies and accountability mechanisms related to neglect, abuse, and exploitation through a trauma-informed lens and enhance as needed

  • Fund and provide additional federal oversight to ensure that adult protective systems function through a trauma-informed lens

  • Engage the Interagency Task Force on Trauma-Informed Care to make recommendations in creating coordinated, collaborative, and accessible trauma-responsive systems of care to address challenges

  • Engage the workforce that interfaces with older adults in mandatory training regarding the presence and impact of trauma on the older adult population

  • Increase resources and fund programming to support adults aging in place

  • Support efforts to educate the general public to establish a universal recognition that trauma can underlie, perpetuate, and/or exacerbate many serious physical, cognitive, and psychosocial challenges commonly experienced among the older adult population, especially among groups with intersecting vulnerability factors

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