Indigenised approaches to addressing elder abuse in Uganda

Abstract

Summary: The social gerontological field has long called for a culturally appropriate
framework to understand, prevent, and respond to elder abuse in the Global South.
This emphasis is, in part, based on the notion that elder abuse is a cultural and structural
concern that cannot be effectively addressed using mainstream social work approaches.
Therefore, indigenised approaches are preferred while tackling cultural and structural
forms of elder abuse. However, despite several attempts, there is limited research on
indigenised approaches and practices within the gerontological social work field.
Therefore, we investigated how social work could promote indigenised approaches to
better address elder abuse. We explored this through in-depth semi-structured interviews
with a purposive sample of 21 social workers.
• Findings: Elder abuse is a cultural and structural social problem that requires familyand
community-centred approaches premised on the Indigenous values of togetherness,
reciprocity, solidarity, responsibility and love for humanity. These approaches must be
embedded in people’s cultures and knowledge to address the social structural changes
that have contributed to elder abuse in the Global South.
• Applications: Social workers should strengthen family and community support to
achieve social capital and inclusion for older people. This will not only enable families
and communities to safeguard their older members, but also enhance communitybased
solutions to address elder abuse. Social work educators should engage in robust
and rigorous research and curriculum change for social work education to enable the
integration of post-colonial theories and approaches into social work training.