Estimating Incidence of Elder Abuse from Social Services Data UC Irvine Academic Geriatric Research

1
Estimating Incidence of Elder Abuse from Social
Services DataUC Irvine Academic Geriatric
Research Center

• Systems Analysis and Change
• Laura Mosqueda
• Aileen Wiglesworth
• Richard KeslerWest

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Successes and Accomplishments

• Productive relationship with Protective Services
  Operations Committee meetings, presentations,
  support for study
• Enthusiastic and forthcoming participation by
  Adult Protective Services management and staff
• Comprehensive review of problems with elder and
  dependent adult abuse reporting by APS, with
  specific recommendations for improvement.
  (60page report with 120pages of data in
  appendices)

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Participation in Research
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Get Smart

• Our smartest move has been to approach the study
  as a collaboration with Adult Protective Services
  agencies They admit there are problems and want
  changes in abuse reporting, and we need their
  buy-in to make any improvements work.

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Lessons Learned

• There has been a lack of central leadership for
  APS in how to report abuse. California Department
  of Social Services has begun to take some steps
  in this direction, and we hope to work with them
  productively.
• The issues are varied in nature and scope.
  Priorities, focus and diplomacy are needed in
  Phase II.

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Challenges

• Broad and diffuse scope of the problem why is
  elder abuse data in California so inconsistent?
  Response focus on the SOC 242 form and use it to
  organize the study.
• Integrating our goal of accurate incidence
  reporting with workload reporting that APS
  agencies need. Response continue our
  collaboration with APS leaders.

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Surprise!

• The degree of difference between counties in
  practices related to reporting elder and
  dependent adult abuse
• For example, incidence data is affected by
• how Intake is organized,
• the degree and nature of automation of case
  management,
• the range of philosophies regarding confirmed
  inconclusive unfounded
• biases about categories of abuse and neglect

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Phase II Goals

• Share our information and suggestions with state
  officials and stakeholders and continue our
  collaboration with APS leaders in order to
  implement our recommendations to improve the
  abuse reporting system

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The Big Picture

• Credible, disseminated incidence data will
  attract attention and resources to address elder
  mistreatment.

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Value Added

• Collaborative Relationships
• Collaborative Solutions
• Follow-on projects
• Nationwide implications

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Dream Big

• We hope that our work will significantly help
  California APS build a system for reporting elder
  and dependent adult abuse that will be
• An effective tool for policy-makers to address
  the problem
• A basis for standard reporting by other agencies
• A model for other states
• A model for a national system