Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect最新文献

Lack of feedback about reports made to Adult Protective Services (APS) is an important barrier to elder mistreatment reporting. To better understand barriers and facilitators to APS-reporter communication, we conducted an environmental scan of state policies and practices. We gathered publicly available information from 52 states and territories on APS administrative structure, reporting, intake, investigation, and feedback processes; performed a secondary analysis of focus groups with Emergency Medical Services providers and APS staff; and interviewed 44 APS leaders in 24 states/territories. Results revealed variation in information-sharing with reporters. Qualitative analyses revealed three overarching themes related to whether, when, and how information is shared. Results were used to develop a model illustrating factors influencing APS decisions on sharing information. This model incorporates the type of reporter (professional or nonprofessional), their relationship with the APS client (brief or ongoing), and the potential risks and benefits of sharing information with the reporter.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the association between neighborly relations and self-neglect.

Methods: We used the Scale of the Elderly Self-neglect to measure elder self-neglect. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between neighborly relations and self-neglect and its' phenotypes.

Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, the risk of overall self-neglect among individuals with harmonious neighbor relationships significantly decreased by 79.2%. In comparison to elderly individuals living alone with poor neighbor relationships, those with harmonious connections experienced a 77.6% reduction in the risk of medical self-neglect, an 89.9% decrease in the risk of hygiene self-neglect, a 65.1% decline in the risk of emotional self-neglect, a 77.9% drop in the risk of safety self-neglect, and a 56.8% lower risk of social self-neglect.

Conclusion: This study highlights harmonious neighborly relations are an independent protector factor for self-neglect. Fostering neighborly relations might be a practical approach to mitigating self-neglect.

The emergency department and hospital provide a unique and important opportunity to identify elder mistreatment and offer intervention. To help manage these complex cases, multi-disciplinary response teams have been launched. In developing these teams, it quickly became clear that social workers play a critical role in responding to elder mistreatment. Their unique skillset allows them to establish close connections with community resources, collaborate with various hospital stakeholders, support patients/families/caregivers through challenging situations, navigate the legal and protective systems, and balance patient safety and quality of life in disposition decision-making. The role of the social worker on these multi-faceted teams includes conducting a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment, helping to develop a safe discharge plan, and making appropriate referrals, among other responsibilities. Any institution considering developing a multi-disciplinary program should recognize the critical importance of social work.

Elder mistreatment (EM) is a complex problem, with response and prevention requiring contributions from professionals from many disciplines. Community-based multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) that conduct meetings to discuss challenging cases and coordinate services are a common strategy to ensure effective collaboration. Though they play an important role in EM identification, intervention, and prevention, hospitals and hospital-based healthcare professionals have been particularly difficult to engage in MDTs. Two hospitals in different communities recently launched Emergency Department (ED)/hospital-based response teams to consult in cases of potential EM, and both participate in MDTs. We explored similarities and differences between the MDTs in these communities including in the role of the ED/hospital-based response team. The comparison demonstrates both core common features as well as large variations. These differences reflect different circumstances in the models on which they were based, on MDT development in these communities, available resources and infrastructure, and the ED/hospital program's role.

Elder mistreatment is common, serious, and under-recognized, with Emergency Department and hospital clinical encounters offering a potential but currently unrealized opportunity to identify and help older adults experiencing mistreatment. Interdisciplinary emergency department and hospital-based response teams represent a promising care model to address this. This manuscript describes two such teams and introduces a special issue dedicated to this work.

Interdisciplinary Emergency Department/hospital-based teams represent a promising care model to improve identification of and intervention for elder mistreatment. Two institutions, Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have launched such programs and are exploring multiple strategies for effective dissemination. These strategies include: (1) program evaluation research, (2) framing as a new model of geriatric care, (3) understanding the existing incentives of health systems, EDs, and hospitals to align with them, (4) connecting to ongoing ED/hospital initiatives, (5) identifying and collaborating with communities with strong elder mistreatment response that want to integrate the ED/hospital, (6) developing and making easily accessible high-quality, comprehensive protocols and training materials, (7) offering technical assistance and support, (8) communications outreach to raise awareness, and (9) using an existing framework to inform implementation in new hospitals and health systems.

Clinicians in the emergency department and hospital who treat patients experiencing elder mistreatment (EM) can expect to encounter challenging ethical dilemmas. Collaboration with ethics and EM consultation services offers teams an important opportunity to improve patient-centered outcomes and address value-based concerns when treating these patients. This article describes the role of a hospital clinical ethics consultation service and best practices for collaboration between ethics and EM consultation services. Illuminated via four case studies, the article presents several core ethical frameworks, including allowing patients the dignity of risk, considerations around a harm reduced discharge, involving abusers in surrogate decision making, and providers' experience of moral distress when dealing with patients experiencing EM. Increasing collaboration with ethics and elder mistreatment services can help teams more effectively respond to EM.

Death anxiety arousal, provoked by anticipating self-nonexistence, may be used as a fraud tactic by scammers on older adults; however, little is known about how it affects older adults' decision making when confronted with a scam and the mechanisms underlying these effects. This study used a questionnaire survey and experimental design to examine them. In Study 1, 307 older adults in China completed questionnaires. The results showed a positive link between death anxiety and vulnerability to fraud, partially mediated by materialism. In Study 2, 82 older adults in China were randomly assigned to the mortality salience group and control group to examine whether death anxiety arousal can increase older adults' vulnerability to fraud and the mediating role of materialism. The results indicated that death anxiety and materialism increase the risk of consumer products and services fraud; therefore, targeting these risk factors might protect older adults from fraud.