Strategies for dissemination of ED/hospital elder mistreatment response team model

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Dissemination
• elder abuse
• elder mistreatment
• emergency department
• multi-disciplinary team

Acknowledgments

Attendees at the September 28-29, 2022 meeting included authors of this manuscript and: Sarah Cox, Jason Hayes, and Avery Ornstein. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of their colleagues.

The Vulnerable Elder Protection Team wishes to thank the New York Office of Victim Services (OVS), and the Vulnerable Elder Services, Protection and Advocacy Team (VESPA) wishes to thank the State of Colorado Office for Victims Programs (OVP).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

There is no available data to share.

Notes

1. Please refer to the overview article introducing this special issue of the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, “ED/Hospital-Based Programs Responding to Elder Mistreatment: Developing Consensus about An Idea Whose Time has Come,” for more information about this meeting/consensus conference.

Additional information

Funding

VEPT is currently funded by the New York Office of Victim Services (#C11419GG) and supported by a Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging (K76 AG054866) from the National Institute on Aging. E-Shien “Iggy” Chang’s participation was supported by K01 AG081540 from the National Institute on Aging.