Literature Review & Needs Assessment

Literature Review 

Methodology 

• Databases: PubMed Central, CINAHL, and EBSCOhost Nursing, Health, and Medical Resources

• Search Terms: (healthcare practitioners or healthcare professionals or healthcare workers or occupational therap*) AND (elder abuse or elder neglect) AND (report* OR document* OR train* OR intervention OR education)

• Total Articles Located: n=209  After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 15 of the articles met the criteria and were included in the review. These articles included 3 level I, 4 level II, 3 level III, and 5 level IV studies.

Findings

Reporting amongst healthcare professionals:

• It is estimated that only 1 in 24 cases of elder abuse is reported by healthcare professionals (Lachs & Pillemer, 2015)

• Perceived barriers to reporting include:

  • Lack of knowledge about elder abuse

  • Lack of protocol (or knowledge of protocol)

  • Concern over loss of rapport

  • Fear of liability

Educational Programs for Healthcare Practitioners:

• Characteristics of successful programs

  • Online interventions

  • Case studies

  • Flexibility 

Strengths and Limitations

• Detailed information regarding educational programs on elder abuse

• Ample research on the efficacy of educational programs on elder abuse for healthcare practitioners

• Limited research on studies assessing occupational therapy practitioners' rates of reporting elder abuse

• Limited research on the impact of cultural norms and cultural expectations surrounding the perceptions, social determinants, and effects of elder abuse in a variety of racial and ethnic communities