Combating Elder and Dependent Adult Mistreatment: The Role of the Clinical Psychologist

ABSTRACT

Among the many different professionals who work to address elder and dependent adult mistreatment, the clinical psychologist performs a function that is not well documented. The experiences of a clinical psychologist attached to a medical response team and an elder abuse forensic center provide insight into this complex and multifaceted role. Case examples from an elder abuse forensic center illustrate the breadth of referral questions that a clinical psychologist addresses. This information may be of use to those who would argue that these services be made widely available to elder abuse professionals such as social workers, public guardians, and those in the criminal justice system. The case studies also may be useful for training purposes.     

Searching for Elder Abuse: A Systematic Review of Database Citations

ABSTRACT

The aim of this review was to describe trends and patterns in elder abuse literature and research. All citations in PUB MED, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases located using the search term “elder abuse” were retrieved (3,059 citations) and 2,418 unique references were identified. Using manifest content analysis, non-research material (1,986 references) was sorted by type and research references (34 dissertations and 398 research articles) were categorized. Research article references most commonly: (1) investigated prevalence, typology, and definitions of elder abuse; (2) utilized quantitative methodology; (3) had first author affiliations to medicine, nursing, and social sciences; and (4) sampled populations of professionals, personnel, cases, or charts. The USA was most frequently listed of 24 identified countries of origin. Elder abuse research shows lack of diversity, slow increase of qualitative research, limited involvement of older persons and family members as participants, and minimal research from developing countries. This review contributes to knowledge valuable for researchers and experts planning future studies or elder abuse projects.     

Making Strategic Communications Work to Prevent Elder Abuse

ABSTRACT

With more and more noise hitting the public, more tasks to accomplish, and limited resources, elder abuse prevention organizations must speak with one voice and act in solid partnership. This article touches on processes, systems, procedures, and resources necessary to develop strategic communications plans that are single in strategy and consistent in objectives and image. While the problem of elder abuse has been primarily covered in the academic and health professional press, this article focuses on the usage of mainstream marketing and communications principles to offer suggestions on how to achieve broad national awareness of the issues.     

Letter From the Editors

ABSTRACT

In this article we explore older persons’ definitions of and explanations for elder abuse in the Netherlands by means of interviews with older persons. A qualitative study was conducted based on semistructured interviews with 35 older persons who had no experience with abuse. Our findings show that older persons participating in our study define elder abuse foremost as physical violence that is performed intentionally. The study participants explain elder abuse as a result of the dependency and vulnerability of older persons, of changing norms and values, and of changes in the position of older persons in society, which result in disrespect toward older persons and a lack of social control and responsibility. The older persons’ explanations for the occurrence of abuse mainly focus on societal changes; older persons seem to regard elder abuse primarily as a societal problem. This understanding of, and explanation for, elder abuse may influence their detection and reporting behavior, as they may tend to acknowledge only severe cases of intentional physical violence that leave clear and therefore physically detectable evidence.     

Protecting Older Americans: A History of Federal Action on Elder Abuse,Neglect, and Exploitation

ABSTRACT

Congressional hearings on elder abuse began over a quarter century ago. However, federal legislative and departmental activity for addressing the problem has been slow and lacks coordination and comprehensiveness. In addition, federal funding to combat elder abuse represents only a small percentage of that spent on such other abused populations as children and women. The barriers and challenges to addressing elder abuse are identified along with existing programs at the federal level. The article concludes with a discussion of state and local initiatives which show promise for effectively preventing or treating this problem.     

2015 Rosalie Wolf Memorial Award Lecture: Past,present, and future of elder abuse

ABSTRACT

This article aims to advance the global issue of elder abuse through exploring how the current body of elder abuse literature can collectively pave the way for present and future directions for research, practice, and policy.     

Trauma-informed care and elder abuse: a synergistic alliance

ABSTRACT

Elder abuse is a global systemic problem in which one or more traumatic or stressful life experiences directly affect older adults, their families, and communities. Despite its devastating impact, the understanding of—and response to—elder abuse has rarely been explored through a trauma-informed lens. Despite the prevalence of traumatic and stressful life experiences, research and practice are just beginning to target the intersection of elder abuse and life course trauma. This article demonstrates how knowledge about the causes, consequences, and responses to elder abuse can be integrated with the principles of trauma-informed care to improve agency and community responses to preventing or intervening with elder abuse and neglect. In order to address the ongoing problems with detection and treatment of elder abuse, we assert that instilling trauma and elder abuse informed care in organizational services and policies forms a synergistic alliance and would address many of these concerns.     

An Ecological Framework for Contextual Risk Factors in Elder Abuse by Adult Children

ABSTRACT

Future trends suggest both a continued growth of the elderly population, as well as the likelihood of increased demand for family caregiving which may, in turn, be associated with increasing rates of elder abuse. It is important to consider issues related to such caregiving, including potential abuse from an ecological perspective which, in turn, provides a fruitful basis for framing the problem of abuse as a set of contextually-based risk factors. This paper focuses on the contextual risk factors using an applied ecological model, a useful framework for understanding the intergenerational character of elder abuse in families, for developing recommendations for empirically-based action research, and for the development of community-based prevention and intervention strategies.     

Adult Protection Service Laws: A Comparison of State Statutes from Definition to Case Closure

ABSTRACT

While legislative efforts at the federal and state levels have represented a dramatic change in the last three decades, there is a great range and variations in the laws addressing elder abuse, leading to difficulty in generating comparison data, and coordinating program creation and implementation across state lines. This article examines the legislative variations on the topics of definitional issues, reporting statutes, investigative methods, temporary and permanent court interventions, and protective services provided under the laws of all fifty of the United States and the District of Columbia. Further, it examines the current elder abuse literature and makes suggestions toward legislation compatible with it. The bulk of the statutory data include those available in 1998 but many statutes which became effective in 1999 are also included. All jurisdictions are referred to as “states,” including the District of Columbia which is technically a federal district.     

Elder Abuse in a Land of Tradition: The Case of Israel's Arabs

ABSTRACT

This study attempted to assess the scope and nature of elder abuse and neglect in one traditional group currently undergoing change: the Arabs in Israel. One hundred and twenty-eight human service and health professionals in northern Israel were asked to report about all cases of elder abuse and neglect they had encountered for a period of 18 months prior to the study. Findings showed that overall Arab elders in Israel have a 2.5% rate of abuse and neglect (excluding self neglect). This figure is somewhat lower than that reported in the literature for either developed or developing societies. Rates were higher in urban areas, somewhat lower in suburban areas, and lowest in isolated villages. These results lend some support to modernization theories of aging and elder abuse. The profile of the abused elder is not significantly different from that of his Western counterpart. Among alleged perpetrators, however, sons and daughters-in-law rank highest, reflecting cultural patterns in some traditional societies. The article makes some early recommendations in the area of worker training and service enhancement.     

Elder Abuse in Europe: An Overview of Recent Developments

ABSTRACT

Elder abuse is a global phenomenon. Despite recognition and action several decades ago in a number of countries, in many others the phenomena of abuse and neglect have been much more recently identified as in need of attention. This brief will discuss the situation relating to responses to and interventions in elder abuse that have been evolving in a number of countries in the European region, which are at different stages of development. The examples provided will assist in meeting the worldwide challenge that elder abuse presents.     

Experience of elder abuse among older Korean immigrants

ABSTRACT

Studies on the scope and nature of Asian American elder abuse conducted with older immigrants are extremely limited. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the extent and type of elder abuse among older Korean immigrants, and to investigate critical predictors of elder abuse in this population. The sample consisted of 200 older Korean immigrants aged 60 to 90 years who resided in Los Angeles County in 2008. One of the key findings indicated that 58.3% of respondents experienced one or more types of elder abuse. Logistic regression indicated that the victims’ health status and educational level were statistically significant predictors of the likelihood of experiencing abuse. The present study, although limited in sample size, measures, sampling methods, and population representation, has contributed to this important area of knowledge. It is recommended that future studies conduct research on elder abuse with more representative national samples that can measure the extent of abuse and neglect more accurately.     

Multiple approaches to understanding and preventing elder abuse: Introduction to the cross-disciplinary National Institutes of Health workshop

ABSTRACT

On October 30, 2015, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a workshop, “Multiple Approaches to Understanding and Preventing Elder Abuse,” in Bethesda, Maryland. The workshop brought together experts from across disciplines to discuss research challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned from other fields. Participants included experts in elder abuse, child abuse, intimate partner violence (IPV), emergency medicine, and neuroscience. In this special issue of the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, participants address topics explored before, during, and after the day-long workshop.     

Addressing the measurement challenge in elder abuse interventions: need for a severity framework

ABSTRACT

The field of elder abuse is evolving toward an emphasis on intervention research. However, researchers currently rely on binary approaches to measure elder abuse phenomena, which fail to capture changes in problem status over the course of intervention. This commentary develops a case for severity as a framework to operationalize and measure elder abuse in intervention research and practice. A severity framework provides enhanced elder abuse measurement responsiveness and aligns with the dominant client-centered, harm-reduction clinical approach to intervening with elder abuse cases.     

The Vulnerability for Elder Abuse Among a Sample of Custodial Grandfathers: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

Older adults have been known to make sacrifices in their caregiving roles. Gerontology literature on custodial grandparents has primarily focused on grandmothers and the challenges they face when they assume primary care for grandchildren. Little is known about the risks that older men face when they become custodial grandparents. This article highlights types and warning signs of abuse, exploitation and neglect. Exploratory study was undertaken with a racially diverse group of custodial grandfathers to fill a gap in the literature about the vulnerability for elder abuse, exploitation and neglect as expressed by older Black, Latino and White custodial grandfathers. To provide a more inclusive understanding of elder abuse, areas of vulnerability were identified for consideration by practitioners, educators and researchers. The implications of this research point to the need to rethink elder abuse assessment, prevention and intervention strategies with older men.     

Enhancing the Justice System's Response to Elder Abuse: Discussions and Recommendations of the “Improving Prosecution” Working Group of The National Policy Summit on Elder Abuse

ABSTRACT

Original analysis of data from the British national disability surveys is undertaken to throw light on the problem of elder abuse. The prevalence of behavioral problems among individuals living in private households in Great Britain in 1985 is described, and the ages and living arrangements of those with potentially aggressive behavior is examined. The data suggest that the potential for abuse arises in a variety of living arrangements. Tentative estimates are provided for the numbers of older people potentially at risk because they themselves have, or are living with someone who has, a disability that involves violent or aggressive behavior.     

Investigating British General Practitioners' Knowledge and Experience of Elder Abuse: Report of a Research Study in an Inner London Borough

ABSTRACT

Despite the involvement of the medical profession in drawing attention to elder abuse, no research has been conducted in Britain about their experience with the problem. This article is based on a study undertaken in 1996 in the inner London borough of Tower Hamlets. All general medical practitioners (GPs) working in the community were asked about their knowledge and experience of elder abuse; 73 GPs responded, a 68% response rate. One particular aspect of the study is described, both for its methodological interest and for its findings. It involved asking respondents about twenty situations of suspected elder abuse; 84% (61 GPs) had an older patient in at least one of these situations.     

Understanding and Combating Elder Abuse in Hispanic Communities

ABSTRACT

A knowledge of the conditions associated with elder abuse and the manner in which certain cultural factors influence the response to abuse can provide the foundation for developing prevention and treatment strategies. This article describes elder abuse and domestic violence in the context of Hispanic culture. Important aspects are examined: individual personalismo, lafamilia, commu-nidad, and The Church as they apply to the older generations and to current cohorts that have not been exposed to the majority culture for long periods. Combating abuse involves recognizing and incorporating the cultural strengths of the Hispanic community and empowering the community to create a society where all peoples can live con dignidad.     

Awareness of Elder Abuse Among Community Health and Social Care Staff in Northern Ireland: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

This article reports on one of the first surveys of multi-disciplinary staff awareness of elder abuse in this region of the United Kingdom (UK). Forty staff from eight professional groups in the Southern Health and Services Board area were surveyed about their knowledge of elder abuse, the types of help they thought they could offer the abused and the abuser, and the level of abuse in their current caseload. Thirty-five per cent of respondents had cases of physical, psychological, financial, and sexual abuse as well as care-giver neglect of people aged 65 and over in their caseloads. The findings suggest that while staff had differing levels of awareness of elder abuse, further training is necessary.