Detection and Treatment of Elderly Abuse and Neglect:

Abstract

This paper describes a protocol for an integrated response by health care professionals to the problem of elder abuse. Standard training, reporting, and response procedures have been emphasized in order to assess and treat elderly abuse/neglect. The protocol consists of guidelines for interviewing the elderly patient and caregiver separately; and suggests interventions which are both direct and indirect, for use in the home, in a hospital emergency room, in an outpatient clinic or on an inpatient floor. Physical and occupational therapists can provide valuable information for detection and can treat the patient and caregiver educationally to reduce incidences of elderly abuse/neglect.