Intervention experts provide essential guidance

How can we stop bullying of elderly and/or disabled persons living in subsidized housing? I see the work of Duffy and Sperry {1} as a guide and springboard for developing solutions for a broad range of institutions, including subsidized housing for elderly and disabled. The findings and conclusions presented by Maureen Duffy and Len Sperry in their book on mobbing (an extreme form of social bullying) are essential reading for anyone seeking to understand, prevent, and remedy bullying. They analyze mobbing in schools and the workplace in a systemic way, examining the individual, the group, and the institutional context.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress... —W.B.Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium

Talking points to support S604, a bill to stop bullying

THE PURPOSES OF S604 are to protect elderly and/or disabled citizens living in subsidized housing from bullying; to hold landlords and management responsible and accountable for having evidence-based policies on bullying; and for the Commonwealth to support ongoing research and demonstration programs and to distribute guidelines that protect disabled and senior residents from bullying.

Your voice can make a difference, work together with us

Bullying in subsidized housing affects all residents, including people living with a disability as well as people living with age. The Stop Bullying Coalition is proud and lucky to be working with The Cross Disability Advocacy Coalition and with Jonathan Gale, coordinator of the CDAC. Please join with us and advocate for change now.

Help save our homes

As bad as bullying is, being homeless is far worse. Much of the housing stock for subsidized housing in the nation, including here in the Bay State, is now vulnerable to conversion to private, market rate use, thus threatening to displace elderly and disabled persons, and low income families. Please help advocate to save our homes, tell Beacon Hill to act now.

It was a great day for a parade.

Our group, the Stop Bullying Coalition, has great people with resources and ideas. Here are the ideas and experiences reported by two women who have chosen different responses to bullying. Eileen presents an analysis of bullying across the life cycle; Marian tells how her gift of music protects her. Thank you for sharing!

The Stop Bullying Coalition started as an effort to gather support for a new legal framework to protect people living with age and/or disability. Many people are not even aware of the terrible impact of bullying in these groups.We have few resources, we are few but not yet connected to a broad constituency, so how can we win? I am reaching out to all of you to seek your ideas and collaboration. And I have been looking for examples of how leadership, organization, and strategy have achieved success. Others have gone from weakness to strength and to victory.

The federal sequester is a cruel weapon: a raw deal that is part of an effort to undo the heritage of the New Deal and the safety net. It is striking home and eliminating programs that are essential to the needs and rights of the elderly, the poor, children, and the disabled. Today I learned about the end of an excellent advocacy program for the disabled.

The front page story, by Rick Foster, is headlined: Bullying at any age: Experts say aggression by seniors against other seniors is a growing problem—and it's being felt in Attleboro Foster details specific instances of bullying in Attleboro senior housing.