Risk on Elder Abuse and Mistreatment - Instrument: Development, psychometric properties and qualitative user-evaluation

ABSTRACT

Prevalence data of elder abuse from social and health services only present a tip of the iceberg. A large amount of situations of abuse is left undetected. Professionals often lack knowledge and skills on the topic of abuse. Consequently, this paper focuses on supporting professionals to prevent and assess elder abuse by developing and testing the Risk on Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Instrument (REAMI), using a mixed method design. Quantitative data from a widespread screening among 1920 older clients of home care are analysed with exploratory and confirmatory analysis. In addition, 24 professionals who have used the REAMI have been qualitatively interviewed about their practical experience and critical reflection on the instrument and its use. These interviews were transcribed and content analysed. Findings provide evidence of good internal reliability and internal validity of the REAMI and its three dimensions: 1) risk factors of the older person, 2) risk factors of the environment, 3) signals of abuse and mistreatment. Users report an increase of knowledge and awareness among staff, satisfaction with the possibilities for prevention and the user-friendliness and brevity of the REAMI. However, some users are missing a follow-up protocol: what to do when risks are assessed? In the discussion, the argument is developed that the REAMI can be used to examine risk at elder abuse, although an overarching protocol to support prevention and intervention which embeds the detection instrument is needed.

KEYWORDS:

• elder abuse
• mistreatment
• screening
• detection
• prevention

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liesbeth De Donder

There are no conflicts of interest and the views expressed here are those of the researchers. Special thanks are given to the health care professionals who participated in the study, for sharing their views and reporting their experiences. In particular we would like to express our gratitude to VLOCO, Familiehulp and Frea De Muyter who collected the data.

Statement

The authors of this paper titled “Risk on Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Instrument (REAMI): Development, psychometric properties and qualitative user-evaluation” that is being submitted to Educational Gerontology state that this paper is not published elsewhere neither is it being submitted for publication simultaneously to any other journal.