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Death, as we know, can happen at any age and ordinarily, is not necessarily something that we would choose, if we did indeed have a choice. Or is it? In this article, we move to an unexplored issue for WwOP and possibly an uncomfortable one for some, namely euthanasia. Here, Claudine McCreadie speaks quite frankly about the issue and compares her conclusions with those of the rest of society.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/14717794200600010. When citing the article, please cite: Claudine McCreadie, Fay Wright, Anthea Tinker, (2006), “Improving the provision of information about assistive technology for older people”, Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, Vol. 7 Iss: 2, pp. 13 - 22.

Launched in the spring, No Secrets, the government's latest adult protection guidance is expected to have a major impact on all agencies involved and interested in adult abuse. Here, using a novel approach, Claudine McCreadie, one of the country's leading elder abuse researchers, looks at what No Secrets will involve for those charged with its implementation in local areas, while providing a range of useful insights and hints.

The importance of assistive technology (AT) in helping older people maintain independence is increasingly recognised in policy. The article reports on a modest piece of research, funded by the Helen Hamlyn Foundation, that looked at an important corollary of this development — the provision of relevant and appropriate information about AT. The research involved mapping both AT and information sources, focus groups with 28 users aged 75 and over and 12 carers, interviews with 40 professionals and information providers and a postal questionnaire to 131 care home managers (response rate of 45%). The findings point to the large volume of available information, but suggest that there are problems in identifying needs and in accessing all necessary information. Professionals share these problems and organisational issues impact on professional capacity to provide satisfactory information. The situation in care homes appears ambiguous in terms of responsibility for AT provision for residents and hence for information. The researchers concluded that there is considerable scope for improving both access to information and the design of that information. They also concluded that there are terminology issues that need addressing in further research.

This paper provides a commentary on research outcomes in the field of elder abuse and challenges assumptions about older people, carers, vulnerability and risk.

The article outlines the background to the recently commissioned UK national study of the prevalence of elder abuse and explains the methodology adopted in Stages 1 and 2 of the research. This is being funded by Comic Relief with co‐funding from the Department of Health and carried out by a team of researchers at King's College London and the National Centre for Social Research. Stage 1, the development work, was completed in autumn 2005. Stage 2, which began in March 2006, is a national survey of the private residential population of the United Kingdom.

The findings of the UK prevalence study of abuse and neglect among older people provide unique opportunities for adult protection systems to consider possible changes to their priorities, activities, services and publicity. This article reports first on the contribution of adult protection coordinators to the design and execution of the research. It then sets out potential uses for the evidence provided by the study by the adult protection community in the UK. The article outlines some of the media reactions to the study that adult protection workers will also have to understand and navigate. It concludes with some suggestions for future research and service development in the UK context.