WORLD ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY, 2024
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- - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Older Americans are the heart and soul of our families, our
communities, and our Nation.

But every year, up to five million

older Americans face some form of abuse.

Around the world, too

many are denied the opportunity to age with dignity and
security.

During World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, we recommit

to standing with elder abuse survivors, shedding light on this
important issue, and creating a world in which no older person
has to live in fear of violence, abuse, or neglect.
Elder abuse comes in many forms.

It can include physical

or emotional abuse and neglect, sexual violence, or financial
exploitation.

These and other abuses can leave older Americans

with scars, both visible and invisible, that impact them for the
rest of their lives.

They can happen anywhere -- at home, at a

care facility, at work, or online.
Elder abuse goes against everything we stand for as a
Nation -- and my Administration is working relentlessly to stop
it.

To date, my Administration has dedicated over $430 million

to Adult Protective Services, making it easier to investigate
reports of elder abuse and give survivors the resources they
need to heal -- from emergency resources like food, shelter, and
law enforcement protection to medical and mental health
treatment, legal services, and financial assistance.

My new

Budget proposes a $30 million investment to sustain and
strengthen these resources.

Furthermore, I reauthorized the

Violence Against Women Act and increased its funding to the
highest levels to date -- which includes funding for service

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providers, law enforcement, and prosecutors to respond to
domestic and sexual violence experienced by older adults.
Concurrently, we are working to protect the savings that
older Americans have worked their entire lives to build up.
Last year alone, Americans over 60 years old lost over
$3 billion to scams.

In response, the Federal Trade Commission,

the Federal Communications Commission, the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, and other regulatory agencies are taking
aggressive action to identify and crack down on loan scams,
mortgage scams, junk fees, and price gouging, which too often
prey on older Americans.
Meanwhile, my Administration is working to ensure that
older Americans have access to the quality care they deserve -whether they are at home or in another residential setting.

By

signing an Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality
Care and Supporting Caregivers, I took the most comprehensive
set of executive actions in history to support family caregivers
and care workers.

Additionally, we are helping home care

workers get a larger share of Medicaid payments.

We are

ensuring nursing homes have enough staff to guarantee every
resident a safe, quality environment.

My new Budget would also

significantly expand Medicaid home care services to reduce the
long waitlist, ensure nursing homes can be regularly audited for
safety and quality, and empower more older Americans to live
full lives in settings of their choice.
Globally, my Administration is ensuring that our
partnerships with nations abroad reflect the same care for older
people that we prioritize here at home.

Through the Department

of State, local law enforcement agencies are training their
foreign counterparts in best practices to investigate elder
abuse and support survivors.

We are also working to implement

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our Strategy on Global Women's Economic Security, which includes
a focus on expanding opportunities and protections for
caregivers around the world, including older women.

With our

Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence
Globally, we are tackling violence that affects older adults,
particularly older women and widows.
This World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, let us remember the
integral and irreplaceable role that older Americans have in our
families, our communities, and our society.

Let us recommit to

ensuring that they can live with the comfort, dignity, and
respect they earned and deserve.

Let us celebrate the blessings

of their wisdom, their contributions, and their love, which
nurture who we are as people and shape all that we are as a
Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in
me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do
hereby proclaim June 15, 2024, as World Elder Abuse Awareness
Day.

I encourage all Americans to be diligent; work together to

strengthen existing partnerships; and develop new opportunities
to improve our Nation's prevention of and response to elder
abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.
[FR Doc. 2024-13667 Filed: 6/18/2024 8:45 am; Publication Date: 6/20/2024]