Elder Abuse, Mistreatment, and Interventions

Abstract

Up to 1 in 10 Americans over age 60 are victims of elder abuse yearly. Elder abuse is significantly under-reported; for every known case, 24 go unreported. Reasons for under-detection include inadequate training of professionals to recognize abuse and reticence of older adults to report it. Thus, it’s critical to train Adult Protective Services (APS) workers to recognize elder abuse signs and engage suspected victims in a manner maximizing possibilities for abuse disclosure. A team of trainers, social workers and researchers presented a pilot training on engagement knowledge and skills developed with NYC APS workers at an elder abuse conference. Texas APS administrators attended and requested the New York team train the Texas trainers to deliver the 8-hour, interactive training state-wide. We describe the year-long collaboration between the Texas APS Training administrators, NYC academic gerontology center trainers, and a NYC School of Social Work professor of adapting the training to meet the realities and needs of the Texas APS landscape. This includes different laws and procedures; distinct training guidelines; work in rural and semi-rural, in addition to urban environments; use of electronic tablets, rather than paper forms, to collect client information, and varying issues around worker safety. This partnership culminated in a two-day train-the-trainer course in which final adjustments were made to prepare the training for state-wide implementation, which began in Spring 2018. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of such multi-institution, cross-state collaborations for addressing training and resource gaps and developing more effective programs and policies for affected elders.